Traffic

Traffic are an atypical British band, led by the multi-instrumental talent and supernatural voice of Steve Winwood and the elegant drumming of Jim Capaldi. Supporting these two undisputed band leaders are Dave Mason on guitar and Chris Wood on electric sax and flute; Ric Grech on bass and Jim Gordon as a second drummer also made intermittent appearances.

At the time, and even before the Traffic era, Steve Winwood had already played an important role through his time in the Spencer Davis Group, and more specifically in that tasteful, overwhelmingly rhythmic composition that is "Gimme Some Lovin'". Through Traffic, not yet twenty years old, Winwood completed his own personal project. Jim Capaldi was the older partner in the firm, highly charismatic though less reckless than the young Winwood, the reflective mind gifted with a great compositional and creative vein; usually the drummer is the "least" musical presence in a band, but Capaldi was very much the exception to that rule.

Over the course of their career, Traffic touched on various musical currents, drawing close to the then-emerging progressive rock, injecting jazz shadings into their background, and in other cases soul sounds; r&b was almost always present, and they never lost sight of the beat roots from which all the band's members had musically grown. Their atypical nature lies precisely in this varied way of understanding and making music: they rarely settled into any predefined genre, touching on many ports without ever docking at one; they always limited themselves to barely scratching the surface of a genre without ever going deep, and perhaps that's where their greatness lies. Had they been born today, in the new millennium, their music might have been labelled "global music" (to use a trendy term), or better still, World music.

Their debut, "Mr. Fantasy", is a triumph of psychedelia, from the cover art to the sounds, but it's three years later, with "John Barleycorn", that Winwood's band reaches its masterpiece. It opens with "Glad", an instrumental piece of almost seven minutes that never lets up for a single moment: a piano melody suggests a refrain at the start, and over that motif, one by one, all the other instruments climb aboard, each in turn drawing strength and inspiration from that interlocking of different sounds produced by a bass pumping out notes without a moment's respite, a cunning piano that appears and disappears here and there, and a psychedelic sax solo in the middle section that conjures the atmosphere of a studio jam session. Jazz, funk, psychedelia and r&b are the lifeblood of this classic, and of the Traffic sound, while the tolling bells in the closing section add a light, well-judged sprinkling of avant-garde noise. The following "Freedom Rider" opens with an unsettling piano and a wistful sax introducing Winwood's splendid "black" voice, which immediately launches into vocal runs that soar to the skies and skim the earth through ever-shifting tones. It's a song shot through with a constant dramatic vein, at times almost unbearable in its crescendo of desperate suffering. Between breaks, the rhythm section sets up a superb flute solo, adding yet another facet to the song's already rich moods: that touch of classical baroque flourish that Traffic occasionally indulged in. It closes in a full adrenaline-fuelled trip, with the instruments exploding in perfect harmony, building a granite wall of sound that renders the song itself almost unrecognisable from where it started.

In quick succession comes the album's third classic: "Empty Pages", opening emphatically before immediately breaking into soul flavours, with Winwood showing right away that he can move with mastery both on vocals and keyboards. The rhythm section is soft and fluid, yet tough and gritty in the breaks, the piano sketches a soloing pattern brimming with blues feeling in the middle section, and the organ in the background weaves a very effective web that keeps the overall sound tight. Last but not least is Winwood's vocal performance, never faltering on the high notes or the falsetto passages, yet equally capable of sounding achingly wounded in the lower registers.

Traffic transport us to the American continent with "Stranger To Himself", with that purely "southern" opening arpeggio; the atmosphere is pervaded by strong jazz overtones. But it's only a momentary shift: the scenery changes again straight away, with a dissonant solo from Mason that brings things back to typically British rock/blues territory. The six and a half minutes of "John Barleycorn" mark another of the album's high points: if it weren't for Winwood's voice, this song could easily belong to the catalogue of early Jethro Tull. It's a shimmering folk-song, echoing ancient British rural traditions, set to notes of romantic baroque flourish that wrap around a delightful, acoustic guitar arpeggio and a distant flute sketching fairy-tale shadows. Above it all, Winwood reigns supreme, with his understated, old-fashioned vocal cadence, telling old stories in a thrilling, fairy-tale atmosphere. Dazzling folklore at its very best.

The album's final gem is "Every Mother's Son", an anguished blues in which Winwood touches emotional nerves so deeply it almost feels cruel. An organ lingers in the background in perfect symbiosis with a pained, wailing electric guitar, which walks hand in hand with Winwood's vocals for much of the song, almost duelling with them, especially in the passages where the song climbs a few octaves. Right after such an emotional outpouring, the mood relaxes: interweaving organs blend different textures, while the rhythm section, and the drums above all, act as the engine that raises and lowers the song's emotional levels with perfectly judged timing. It's an anguished r&b marathon, from which the whole band emerges in splendid form.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

13/11/2006