Albany Times Union, 2005-10-12

Watching him in concert in front of a sold-out crowd at The Egg on Tuesday night, it seemed impossible that multi-talented Steve Winwood has been in the spotlight for more than 40 years.

Looking fit and trim -- and sounding pretty darned spectacular, too -- the British singer/multi-instrumentalist must have a decaying portrait of himself locked away somewhere in his attic. That's the only way to explain how positively youthful the 57-year-old rocker looked and sounded.

Backed by a solid quartet, Winwood commanded the stage from his Hammond B-3 organ, stirring up a surprisingly spicy sound that included heaping helpings of soul, jazz, blues and especially Afro-Cuba rhythms. In fact, the Latin shadings were so prominent that at times Winwood and his crew sounded more like early Santana than Traffic.

Winwood was, of course, the bandleader of Traffic, and he peppered his set Tuesday night with such vintage nuggets as the groovalicious "Empty Pages" and a wild, winding medley that closed out the first set with the mighty instrumental "Glad" and the rousing "Freedom Rider."

Winwood also switched over to guitar as he reached back to his days with the first of the rock supergroups, Blind Faith, with a heart-rending rendition of the classic "Can't Find My Way Home."

Winwood's older solo material also drew cheers from the crowd, especially "Back in the High Life Again."

The material from his most recent solo albums didn't quite live up to his past musical glories, but the tunes weren't bad, and the crowd was at least respectful although not thoroughly entranced.

And Winwood tossed in some well-chosen covers along the way. He tore into the old Timmy Thomas jam, "Why Can't We Live Together?", and turned it into a slow simmering soul stew, thanks to some slinky rhythm guitar work by Jose Neto.

They took on the Meters' funk-fueled masterpiece, "Cissy Strut," as drummer Davide Giovannini and percussionist Karl Vanden Bossche burned through a stuttering New Orleans second-line strut. And even his version of the classic blues warhorse "Crossroads" -- featuring some solid harmonica playing by saxman Jay Davidson -- was splashed with a bit of a Caribbean lilt.

It seemed as though there was nothing that Winwood couldn't do.