TRAFFIC — Mr. Fantasy (aka Coloured Rain aka Heaven Is In Your Mind aka Reaping aka Traffic Avec Stevie Winwood) (review)

TRAFFIC — Mr. Fantasy (aka Coloured Rain aka Heaven Is In Your Mind aka Reaping aka Traffic Avec Stevie Winwood) album cover Album · 1967 · Jazz Related Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
seyo
TRAFFIC's debut is one of the more neglected gems of the British psychedelia, probably due to the fact it never scored a hit in America, at least in the format it was released in UK. But it is a masterpiece of songwriting and eclecticism in its own right.

Winwood, Capaldi, Mason and Wood created an amazing album of seemingly different influences and approach. Psychedelic keyboards, hard guitar solo a la CREAM, British folk and music-hall, jazz paranoia and Indian raga with overall Winwood's soulful voice make an album that can be enjoyed over and over. Mason gives important musical component with his guitar, bass and sitar, offering one of the best raga moments in rock music, "Utterly Simple", which beats the Fab Four's "Within You, Without You" by and large IMO.

Each song has its place on this surprisingly mature record, but the title track - allegedly drug-influenced imagination - "Dear Mr. Fantasy" (which was to be honored by such giants as THE GRATEFUL DEAD on their last official live set "Without a Net" in 1989), beautiful flute ballad "No Face, No Name, No Number", and "Coloured Rain" with distinguished Wood's saxophone are the highlights. One can notice that the peculiar sound of TRAFFIC, with dominating organ, piano and woodwinds (sax and flute) and with ever diminishing presence of lead guitar and bass guitar, makes it a sort of precursor of the acts like VAN DER GRAFF GENERATOR, albeit coming from different attitude: VDGG were always more avant-garde and "classically" influenced than TRAFFIC, who sticked with R'n'B, folk and jazz scheme. However, Wood's saxophone at certain moments sounds almost as crazy as Dave Jaxon's!

This is a wonderful album, keeping in mind that this review refers to the original UK version, that is one of true "proto-progressive" rock albums of the great period 1967- 69, worth investigating by any serious music collector.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Meet The Graingers Pop/Art Song/Folk
NATE NAJAR
Buy this album from MMA partners
Full Throttle RnB
GERALD ALBRIGHT
Buy this album from MMA partners
Ancestral Numbers I 21st Century Modern
JASON ROBINSON
Buy this album from MMA partners
Modern Standards Fusion
BILL EVANS (SAX)
Buy this album from MMA partners
Echoes of Time Eclectic Fusion
CHRISTOPHE MARGUET
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Jean-Pierre (feat. Darryl Jones)
BILL EVANS (SAX)
snobb· 3 hours ago
Magic Box
CHRISTOPHE MARGUET
snobb· 3 hours ago
The Peacocks
ANTOINE DRYE
js· 8 hours ago
??·??·?·???·?·????
SADAO WATANABE
snobb· 1 day ago
"Miles Between" // by Shawn Schlogel & Nancy Erickson Lamont
NANCY ERICKSON LAMONT
js· 1 day ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed