About Time

Marking his 40th anniversary in the music business, veteran Steve Winwood returns from the six-year hiatus he undertook after 1997's disappointing Junction Seven with this debut release for his own Wincraft Music label. If it foregoes the slick chart fodder that elevated Winwood's career expectations to somewhere just south of the stratosphere for much of the '80s, it also returns him to the warm, more band-oriented musical setting he thrived in from his days as the Spencer Davis Group's teen wunderkind and subsequent rewarding stints in Blind Faith and Traffic. More concerned with human connections, texture, and potent rhythmic contexts than pop hooks, Winwood evokes much of the latter band's jazz and funk sensibilities to good effect, often working with a diverse group of songwriting collaborators to wrap his distinctive blue-eyed soul in the sort of rich Latin and Caribbean influences familiar to fans of Santana. Veteran jazz guitarist and current Winwood bandmate/songwriting collaborator Jose Neto lights an evocative gypsy fire beneath "Cigano," "Domingo Morning," and the slow-burning "Silvia," while previous Winwood sideman Anthony Crawford shares songwriting credits on the Marvin Gaye grooves of "Final Hour" and the ebullient "Walking On." Brit popster William Topley stirs his Stax-meets-Jamaican seasoning into Winwood's B-3-powered stew on "Phoenix Rising" while Winwood's wife Eugenia shares writing duties on "Now That You're Alive, "Bully," and the beautiful, wistful "Horizon." --Jerry McCulley