From the opening double guitar lines of the Blind Faith classic Had To Cry Today, Steve Winwood’s and Eric Clapton’s performance on their recently released CD/DVD Live From Madison Square Garden is electrifying.

Not electrifying in a showy, glitzy, glamorous sense, but in a musical sense. The two giants whose careers started in the 1960s and have paralleled each other, intersecting once for an extended period in 1969, show they are still fully capable of producing inspring and creative performances on their own material and covers of some of their contemporaries.

It seems fitting that the duo begins their MSG show, which was recorded in February, 2008 over three nights, with the opening track from their only album together, Blind Faith.

It also shows off Winwood as an extraordinary and somewhat overlooked guitarist, who is Clapton’s perfect foil, particularly when they solo simultaneously at the end of the tune.

The track, always overshadowed by two others on that 1969 album, Cant’ Find My Way Home and Presence Of The Lord, also gets its due, as a riff-driven vehicle but with some very unconventional chord changes for a guitar-slinging number.

On the CD, J.J. Cale’s Lowdown follows with a duo vocal arrangement, but the DVD wisely skips to the third song of the show, a tribute to Buddy Miles who passed away a few days after they decided to play Them Changes, from Jimi Hendrix’s Band Of Gypsies. They pull off a ferocious version benefiting from Winwood’s vocal turn which, with all due respect to Miles, is better than the original. Clapton holds up his end in tribute to Hendrix as well.

The two evidently picked songs from each other’s catalogues and that seems to be the case with Clapton’s ’80s hit Forever Man and  Winwood’s co-write with Joe Walsh, Split Decision, from Back In The High Life. Both songs are played a bit heavier than the originals to good effect.

The concert takes a decided traditional turn with Sam Myers’ Sleeping In The Ground, which sees Winwood move to acoustic piano. This is an outtake from the Blind Faith album and one wonders why it was left off when the LP contained such filler as Ginger Baker’s Do What You Like.

One of the first huge crowd reactions comes after another Blind Faith tune, Presence Of The Lord, on which Clapton sings the first verse, Winwood the next two and then they share the final stanza. It’s complete with the uptempo wah-wah driven middle section solo by Clapton, which has become etched in most aspiring guitar players minds.

A relatively brief Glad, from Traffic’s John Barleycorn, is followed by the Buddy Holly classic Well All Right, which Blind Faith made its own with a unique arrangement that has middle eastern interludes in the intro and before the instrumental tag. Clapton then shows off in the genre he has always been best at, blues, with Otis Rush’s Double Trouble, an inspired selection that makes room for two stellar Clapton solos.

The concert reaches an early peak with a trio of songs, Traffic’s Pearly Queen, Tell The Truth from Derek And The Dominoes and another Traffic number, No Face, No Name No Number. With Winwood on Hammond organ on Pearly Queen, Clapton plays his solo in a tone that sounds distinctly like Winwood’s from the recorded version and even quotes Winwood on the opening measures and on the section leading back to the verse. The version played at the Crossroads Festival in Chicago in 2007, but unreleased on the DVD from that show, is a little better but this rendition is no slouch.

Tell The Truth is perfect for these two as they utilize their appealing vocal blend, trading verses again and singing harmony on the choruses. The tune’s funky, soulful yet still rocking groove also makes it a good fit. No Face is a delicately beautiful and atmospheric ballad, which Winwood rarely performs. Here he delivers a poignant vocal while playing acoustic piano, supported sparsely by the rest of the band, which includes Willie Weeks on bass, Chris Stainton, keyboards and the driving and powerful Ian Thomas, drums.

A rollicking version of Cale’s After Midnight, a gem from Clapton’s first solo album, gets a huge audience response, as do two solo turns, first Clapton playing acoustic guitar on Robert Johnson’s Rambling On My Mind and then Winwood on Georgia On My Mind on organ.

The tributes continue with a two-song Hendrix set, Little Wing, which Clapton made a mark with in Derek And The Dominoes and Voodoo Chile, on which Winwood played during the Electric Ladyland sessions.

Clapton does a wonderful job of invoking Hendrix on Voodoo Chile. He’s not imitating him but rather playing some signatures Hendrix lines as reference points and using a black Strat with which he gets a beefier, biting lead tone than the metallic grey Strat he uses for most of the show.

Despite the vast praise Clapton has received over the years, and sometimes the devastating criticism, in some areas he’s actually under appreciated. He’s an excellent rhythm guitar player, comes up with many intricate and appropriate parts in tunes as an accompaniest and is more flexible and plays with a good deal more variety than he is noted for. His biggest fans like him in the blues, in which he is rarely equalled. His harshest critics question his songwriting and choice of material at times. But there is no doubt, he’s a fully rounded player and one of the best the rock scene has ever had.

As for Winwood, this isn’t exactly a coming out party, since he has enjoyed spectacular popularity at different points in his career. But he has had his ups and downs, not artistically but  in widespread acceptance. This is more of a re-acquaintance. Can anyone match his unique talents as a master keyboard player, outstanding guitarist and on top of that one of the best rock ‘n roll voices of the past 50 years and the writer of a number of the genre’s anthems?

The DVD’s final two tunes are Can’t Find My Way Home, which has become the quintessential Blind Faith song, and one that Winwood has been performing for years, and a double guitar assault on another Traffic classic, Dear Mr. Fantasy.

Each player gives the other space and their solos complement one another. This is a tour de force from Winwood concerts, particularly in the past six years with his most recent unit. Clapton takes the first lead, Winwood the second, then they trade lines at the dramatic finish. The encore is a curious choice, Cocaine, an admitted Clapton staple with a nice easy rocking groove and with both on guitar again.

In fact, Cocaine wasn’t an encore at all. In the actual concerts, Crossroads was the first and third night encore, Cocaine was the second night closer with Dear Mr. Fantasy the encore.

The second DVD in the set includes a documentary, The Road To Madison Square Garden, and three bonus tracks that  include that missing version of Lowdown and two other Johnson songs to complete that tribute, Kind Hearted Woman, another acoustic solo by Clapton that replaced Rambling on night two, and the mid-tempo Crossroads, with Winwood on acoustic piano and which doesn’t seem to heat up until the second half of the song. There is also a soundcheck of Rambling, which is interesting but perhaps the weakest of the bonuses. Although it does contain some nice acoustic guitar variations on the tune.

The set is capably directed by Martyn Atkins, who makes great use of director of photography Jurg Walther’s work, though I would liked to have seen more closeups and focus on Winwood’s and Clapton’s hands while playing. Still, it’s a relaxed, intricate production that places the musicians and the music first. There are interview snippets cut into the concert on disc one as well, in which both musicians give insight into the original Blind Faith and why and when it did and didn’t work.

Winwood and Clapton release this combo, which has seen the CD open at No. 14 on the Billboard 100, on the brink of their 14-city tour this summer. It’s pleasing and very satisfying to see Clapton continue to return and explore his roots and various important phases of his career, some of which he denounced at some points, particularly Cream, which he reassembled in 2005. And it’s gratifying to see him do it with Winwood. I always felt these two belonged together at least periodically. Although they both like to be absorbed into the context of a group, they are actually each strong band leaders in their own right and their virtuosity always makes them stand out. It’s rare that two such powerful creative forces can exist on the stage together. But they pull it off.