![]() Steve’s guitar playing in the 60s and 70s bordered on annoying but he’d obviously been practicing because he delivers a damn decent R&B-flavored ride on this track. “Put On Your Dancing Shoes” has an irrepressible rhythmic current running through it that delights and the synthesized brass blasts hone a sharp edge as it carries you right out of your obstinate mood. Positive messages like that still mean the world to me. “Now my life has changed/and now my eyes can see/now I’m living on the morning side/now I’m letting all the sunlight into me/now I’m free,” he cries. Just let me say that I love recording artists who aren’t afraid of pushing the drum fader up to the max in the mix. ![]() You can’t put your finger on the source but there’s a mysterious tension that builds up till John Robinson’s huge (and I mean HUGE) drums make their dramatic entrance on the choruses. “The Morning Side” is next, a jazzy ballad with a silky keyboard-generated backdrop that effectively supports Winwood’s emotional voice. “People soul-searching all night long/for a reason to help them live/and I do hope they hear this song/get through take/and you get to give,” he sings and, believe me, I was listening. The tight arrangement of the brass by the Memphis Horns is punchy yet non-intrusive, the tune’s dynamics are electrifying and Steve’s light guitar lines are tasty. Another smash, “Holding On,” follows and, like several songs on the album, it owns an unstoppable groove that implores you to jump to your feet and get your blood flowing in the right direction. When you chance to hear this number again pay keen attention to Winwood’s subtle B3 solo and incidental riffing toward the end. At the time this came out I was in the initial phases of the dissolution of my first marriage and I can’t tell you how encouraging Steve’s soulful delivery of simple lines such as “Hard times knocking on your door/I’ll tell them you ain’t there no more/get on through it/roll with it, baby” were to my fragile psyche. He begins with the album’s namesake #1 hit single tune and it’s a wonderfully uplifting track wherein Winwood’s piano, drums and Hammond organ (as well as the aforementioned horn section) are so powerful they eliminate the need for a single guitar lick. The classy tint of big band jazz they bring to the party is the icing on the cake. At this point Steve was no longer relying solely on his own talents to assemble his songs, recruiting some of the most gifted musicians in the business to assist him, but his decision to include the Memphis horns this time around is what rockets “Roll With It” into the stratosphere. There are just some CDs I don’t hesitate to pull out of the stacks for any occasion and this is one of those special treasures that never fails to please. I consider it to be his best solo record ever and it qualifies as a masterpiece for one central reason: I’ve yet to tire of hearing any of its eight memorable cuts. ![]() Despite shooting straight up to #1 and selling over 3 million copies it didn’t nab multiple Grammys like its predecessor did but that’s never been a barometer of greatness for most jazz-minded people, anyway. In June of ‘88 he released “Roll With It” and, lo and behold, he’d outdone himself again. After wowing his admirers with his self-made “Arc of a Diver” in 1980 and then finally garnering world-wide recognition with his superb album-of-the-year, “Back in the High Life,” in ‘86 many of his fans, including me, figured he’d probably reached the apex of his career. For staying true to his calling while so many of his peers were succumbing to the dumb-it-down plague he’ll always be a hero in my eyes. He just kept on improving in his ability to play a wide array of instruments, in using his inimitable voice to express his thoughts and in writing exceptional tunes (with the likes of Will Jennings) that would have meaning for folks like me. That’s how I view those few of Steve Winwood’s stature when I look back on those dark times. The courageous jazz-influenced popular artists who refused to buckle under the pressure to be cable TV icons instead of serious musicians were a minority but, due to their perseverance, they stood as beacons of hope beaming light over an ocean of toxic waste. The jazz realm was left out by default but it still suffered from being ignored more than ever. If it would’ve been limited to pop that would’ve been horrible enough but it infected every genre. It fiendishly turned attention away from the quality of aural art and the craftsmanship involved in its creation and directed the public’s focus on how clever and/or alluring the video accompanying the 3 to 4 minute song was. The vicious MTV virus devastated everything in its path throughout that decade. If you’re young enough to not remember the pitiful state music was in during the 80s then consider yourself fortunate.
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