Steve Winwood has signed on with Columbia Records and returned back to the
high life with Nine Lives. Not that he ever left because his
previous album, 2003’s About Time, released through his
own independent Wincraft label, showed a renewed sense of purpose with a raw
and sparse format (Hammond organ, drums, guitar). For Nine Lives,
Winwood refines the songs with more accessible breathing room, while retaining
the musical muscle to give the record wings.
Touching on elements of jazz, world, country, blues and soul, the CD starts
off with the subtle acoustic jangle of “I’m Not Drowning.”
A major infusion of Traffic-like nuances (lots of percussions and woodwinds)
transports “Fly” to the heavens, as Winwood’s unique vocal
reminds us that “there is nothing but clouds in your way.” Meanwhile,
“Raging Sea” gets a funky jolt with its arresting turnaround, driven
by the assured guitar work of Jose Pires de Almeida Nieto.
Another guitarist of note, one Eric Clapton, gets in his licks on “Dirty
City,” a haunting ode that sounds like something Clapton himself might
have recorded. But even the legendary ax man, who played a couple of shows in
New York with Winwood this past February, would admit the singer’s graceful
voice and smooth Hammond fingerings enriches the tune with a brazen and sophisticated
sound.
One area where Winwood has found a home is with improvisational jam band music.
In 1994 when Traffic reunited for what will likely be the final time (Winwood’s
partner, founding member/percussionist Jim Capaldi, passed away in 2005), they
toured with the Grateful Dead. Winwood clearly soaked up the grooves during
this jaunt, which is why a song like “Hungry Man,” sustained by
Nieto’s tinkling lines, Karl Vanden Bossche’s galloping percussion
and Winwood’s dazzling Hammond, go have probably lasted well beyond its
seven minutes.
Winwood’s knack for experimentation is what made About Time
such an artistic achievement. That same spirit gives this CD a life of its own,
albeit one with more dimension and dynamics. Whether you favor the jazzy embellishments
of “Secrets” and “Other Shore,” or prefer the more straight-ahead
calculations of “At Times We Do Forget,” Nine Lives
offers a complete picture of Steve Winwood strolling through his fifth decade
of sweetening the soundscape with his idiosyncratic, but always welcoming flow
of melodious medicine for the soul.
~ Shawn Perry
