Steve Winwood's foot

[corinpills]

I saw Steve Winwood the other night- I've always loved his voice, but never saw him because I feared he'd mostly be playing his synthy pop hits. My friends were abusing me: "What, you couldn't get Phil Collins tickets"?, but I had a great time. He was at the Berklee Performance Center and I thought it a rare opportunity to see him is such an intimate venue (and a great sounding one at that).

i got a seat right in front of his B-3. His 4 piece band was notably lacking a bassist. Steve Winwood played killer bass lines with his feet while playing B-3 and singing everything in the same key as when he was 18. Really something else, what kind of super human can do this for 2 1/2 hours? I've got a lot of Jimmy Smith albums, so I know how great pedal bass can be, but to do that while singing?

He was great- a little jazzy/jammy for my taste- but he did a rocking version of "I'm A Man", played great guitar solos, and played a big chunk of his new album without boring anybody one bit. He got at least 14 standing ovations from the oldest audience I've seen outside a nursing home. And he played a bunch of hits without playing "Roll With It", "While You See A Chance", "Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys", Valeri", "Higher Love", "The Finer Things" or even "Dear Mr. Fantasy". I guess you build up quite a repertoire after making records for 50 years.

[jerry]

I just read a interview with him where he said he feels like he finally got the Jimmy Smith/ Dr Lonnie Smith thing down, it's not just the feet, it's a combination of his feet and left hand. His Arc Of The Diver album has some of my favorite keyboard bass lines.

[Sneckumhaw]

Nothing wrong with Phil Collins either! I would be a little disappointed if he didn't do Mr. Fantasy or Low Spark, but it sounds great.

[stretchcat]

The Jimmy Smith-style of walking bass lines is almost completely left hand. The left foot plays the pedals as accents while the right foot handles the volume pedal. I stood behind Joey DeFrancesco once where he explained and demonstrated how this worked. He also did dead on "impersonations " of Larry Young and Charles Earland.

Not sure how Steve Winwood does it though.

[J.D.B.]

I hope I can even play at all after 50 years. Winwood is a classy and classic artist.
Josh

[jerry]

Originally Posted by stretchcat

The Jimmy Smith-style of walking bass lines is almost completely left hand. The left foot plays the pedals as accents while the right foot handles the volume pedal. I stood behind Joey DeFrancesco

He mentions DeFrancesco's left hand in the interview too.

[corinpills]

Interesting. I was really curious about the mix between left foot and left hand because there didn't seem to be any difference in tone or volume wen he switched. There were times when he was dancing on those pedals and then he would switch to left hand. Right foot was mostly the volume pedal. There were definitely moments when he was playing serious R&B bass lines with his feet - with syncopation- while singing something that went against that rhythm and comping with his right hand.

[Kurtmon]

I am really getting into his new CD,He is a great artist..

[fishtx]

I wanna see this tour so bad...

[nysbob]

There is no substitute for sheer talent - Winwood is just one of those guys blessed with a surfeit.

[ryco]

Originally Posted by corinpills

Steve Winwood played killer bass lines with his feet while playing B-3....

Guess he couldn't drag Muff from out behind his cozy desk!

Killer singer, killer player! Love "Gimme Some Lovin'" - written by Muff BTW.
Sounds as fresh and exciting as when it came out!