{"id":25617,"date":"2023-07-16T05:30:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-16T09:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25617"},"modified":"2023-07-11T09:04:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T13:04:08","slug":"take-5-steve-winwood-sessions-of-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/16\/take-5-steve-winwood-sessions-of-note\/","title":{"rendered":"Take 5: Steve Winwood Sessions of Note"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Birmingham, England-born multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood has had a long and acclaimed career: he was only 14 years old when he joined the Spencer Davis Group, scoring hit singles with \u201cKeep on Running\u201d and two songs he co-wrote, \u201cI\u2019m a Man\u201d and the classic \u201cGimme Some Lovin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After leaving that group, Winwood went on to a succession of high profile roles in Powerhouse (with Eric Clapton), Traffic, Blind Faith, Ginger Baker\u2019s Air Force, and a subsequent solo career that pays creative dividends to this day. And along the way, Winwood \u2013 who\u2019s talented on guitar, keyboards, percussion and of course vocals \u2013 has lent his skills to other artists\u2019 sessions, appearing on more than 50 outside projects. On the occasion of his landmark birthday and in recognition of his artistry, here are five superb yet oft-overlooked sessions featuring Steve Winwood.<\/p>\n<p><strong>McDonald and Giles \u2013 \u201cTurnham Green\u201d from <em>McDonald and Giles<\/em> (1971)<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter the stressful tour in support of King Crimson\u2019s debut album, two of its key members left the group. Drummer Michael Giles and multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald went on to team up and make an album, their only post-Crimson project together. The subtle, sweet and lovely record\u2019s best moments results rival <em>In the Court of the Crimson King<\/em>. The duo enlisted Winwood to play keyboards on \u201cTurnham Green,\u201d a section of the Suite in C, one of the album\u2019s centerpieces.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RCWZ6uRkejc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stomu Yamashta\u2019s Go \u2013 \u201cCrossing the Line\u201d from <em>Go<\/em> (1976)<\/strong><br \/>\nJapanese composer and multi-instrumentalist Stomu Yamashta has always been an innovator; his 1971 debut album was the first-ever commercial digital recording ever made. His subsequent efforts deftly combined progressive rock with Japanese percussion. In 1976 he assembled a rotating-cast supergroup he called Go. For the project\u2019s first album, he was joined by virtuoso guitarists Al Dimeola and Pat Thrall; former Santana percussionist Michael Shrieve; synthesizer innovator Klaus Schulze and others. On various keyboards and guitar was Steve Winwood, who also acted as Go\u2019s lead vocalist. \u201cCrossing the Line\u201d is among the disc\u2019s many thrilling and delectably melodramatic moments.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/T3lDZ9MPFLs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pierre Moerlen\u2019s Gong \u2013 \u201cDownwind\u201d from <em>Downwind<\/em> (1979)<\/strong><br \/>\nGong has \u2013 and continues to have \u2013 a knotty history. The progressive, jazz and improvisational collective with roots in Canterbury and France has seen myriad personnel changes. Among its most high-profile members have been Daevid Allen, Steve Hillage and Pierre Moerlen. At one point in the late \u201870s, Moerlen set off on his own, calling his offshoot group Pierre Moerlen\u2019s Gong. The resulting music was more jazz-rock in character, with percussion (marimba, vibraphone, etc.) at its core. On its third album, <em>Downwind<\/em>, the group was augmented by two more stars: Mike Oldfield (of <em>Tubular Bells<\/em> fame) and on the title track, Steve Winwood playing synthesizer.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QwNP53HxM_k\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>David Gilmour \u2013 \u201cLove on the Air\u201d from <em>About Face<\/em> (1984)<\/strong><br \/>\nGuitarist David Gilmour joined Pink Floyd in 1968 to provide backup and cover for the increasingly erratic Syd Barrett. Once Barrett departed after a few gigs, Gilmour took the reins as the group\u2019s guitarist, helping steer them into a bright future. But his creative impulses always extended beyond the band, and so by 1978 he released a self-titled solo album. It would be six more years before he returned with his second, <em>About Face<\/em>, a record that established a musical character quite apart from Pink Floyd. Gilmour put together a core band including bassist Pino Palladino (these days with The Who), Toto\/session drummer Jeff Porcaro and keyboardist Ian Kewley, but Winwood sat in on keys for two tracks, including this one.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H0UG7oNz8kM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paul Weller \u2013 \u201cPink on White Walls\u201d from <em>Stanley Road<\/em> (1995)<\/strong><br \/>\nPaul Weller first came to fame as the voice and guitar of mod\/punk trio The Jam. The peripatetic musician headed in a very different musical direction with his next project, the jazz-influenced Style Council. And by 1992 Weller had embarked upon a solo career; as of 2023 he has released more than 15 albums under his own name. Among his most admired is his third release, <em>Stanley Road<\/em>, noted for its bridging of classic and modern rock styles; it is is most commercially successful solo album to date. Steve Winwood lent his soulful, heartfelt keyboard work to four of the record\u2019s 12 songs, including this one.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QPaGAl9rHjk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Birmingham, England-born multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood has had a long and acclaimed career: he was only 14 years old when he joined the Spencer Davis Group, scoring hit singles with \u201cKeep [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[635,4940,919,5188,1669,2933,5187],"class_list":["post-25617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-david-gilmour","tag-go","tag-gong","tag-mcdonald-and-giles","tag-paul-weller","tag-steve-winwood","tag-stomu-yamashta","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25619,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25617\/revisions\/25619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}