On Saturday I stopped at McKay Used Books and found a very clean copy of Steve Winwood's Back in the High Life CD. I think that I used to own this back in 1986 when it came out. I was first introduced to Steve Winwood's music by Steve Ott in 1981 or so. Steve O. was my college roommate for a year. He shared a lot of good music with me. One of the bands was Traffic. A young Steve W. was their vocalist.
Back in the High Life earned three Grammy awards. There are some catchy pop tunes. The arrangements are fantastic. Horn and acoustic instruments compliment the synth that is the root of the instruments. Reading the liner notes made me realize that there is no bass guitar on this album.
Lots of good players and vocalists. Bob Mintzer on sax. Randy Brecker on trumpet. Joe Walsh and Nile Rogers on guitar. James Taylor and Chaka Khan added vocals.
But nobody was playing bass guitar.
A fine album. But it was missing something. And it still is.
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