Legendary Bands - Steve Winwood Posters

From his teenage days as lead singer and focal point of England's Spencer Davis Group, multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood (b. May 12, 1948, Birmingham, England) seemed an extraordinary figure. Most captivating was his astounding, R&B-charged voice, which most often resembled that of Ray Charles--no mean feat in itself, but even more impressive considering boy-wonder Winwood was barely 15 when he'd joined the band. Scoring his first U.K. No. 1 with the Davis Group's "Keep On Running" in 1965, the youthful singer had an early, filling taste of the "high life" he'd name an album after a full 21 years later.

Following two top 10 hits which brought him even more renown--1967's "Gimme Some Loving" and "I'm A Man," both penned by Winwood with band collaborators--the singer reacted by dropping out of the pop world to form Traffic. The latter, much-loved group, featured Winwood with drummer friend Jim Capaldi, guitarist Dave Mason, and reed player Chris Wood; together they wrote and played some of the finest pop music of the decade.

Merging rock, pop, psychedelia and R&B into a uniquely eclectic, high-spirited musical whole, Winwood and company were a near-perfect combination that ultimately proved too good to last. Divided into two musical camps at the start, Winwood, Capaldi and sometimes Wood typically collaborated on classic tracks such as "Paper Sun," "Coloured Rain," and "Heaven Is In Your Mind," while guitarist Mason generally preferred to work on his own. Following the U.K. top 5 success of Mason's poppy "Hole In My Shoe,"

Mason quit and rejoined the band numerous times; by the time the group's debut album Mr. Fantasy reached American shores, the group was depicted as a trio, and only two Mason-penned songs were included. Mason remained long enough to contribute some exceptional tracks to the band's second album, 1968's Traffic, before starting his own successful solo career; as far as America was concerned, however, Winwood was the band's dominant force from Day One.

With an occasional side-trip--such as Winwood's breaking up the band in 1969 while he co-led the ill-fated supergroup Blind Faith with Eric Clapton, only to reform it again in 1970--Traffic recorded a string of extremely well-received albums between 1967's Mr. Fantasy and 1974's When The Eagle Flies, eight of which made the top 40.

Mainly using drummer Capaldi as lyricist, Winwood found his songwriting style marked by two distinct phases while in Traffic: Prior to and including 1969's Last Exit, the singer wrote tightly-knit, shortish tracks that drew from standard pop, rock, and R&B (mostly Stax-inspired) forms.

Following the group's reformation with 1970's John Barleycorn Must Die, however, Traffic became more of a "jamming" band, working on a loose, repetitive groove over which Winwood's voice generally soared, alternately powerfully or dreamily. Tracks such as 1971's 11-minutes-plus "Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys" became the general norm, and while album sales remained strong, the group never had a top 40 American hit in its duration.

When Winwood finally disbanded the group in late '74 (though he would reform it, with Capaldi, briefly in the mid-'90s), he worked as a session musician with several artists before finally re-emerging with 1977's Steve Winwood--a debut solo album that, perhaps unexpectedly, sounded very much like Traffic had prior to their split. Still collaborating on songs with Capaldi--who had begun a successful solo career of his own as far back as 1972--Winwood had also continued his writing relationship with former Bonzo Dog Band member Vivian Stanshall, who'd penned the lyrics to "Dream Gerrard" on Traffic's 1974 finale When The Eagle Flies. Very much a solo album, Steve Winwood essentially featured the singer playing an assortment of instruments--mostly keyboards and guitars--over a hired rhythm section.

It's arguable that Winwood's "real" post-Traffic solo career in fact began with 1981's Arc Of A Diver. First, it marked the beginning of his very productive songwriting relationship with lyricist Will Jennings; although both Stanshall and George Fleming contributed lyrics, Jennings's predominated. He thereafter provided nearly all of Winwood's lyrics to come. Secondly, Winwood had returned to the simple pop songcraft that made early Traffic so appealing--most notably with Diver's opening track, "While You See A Chance," which in 1981 became his first top 10 American single since his days with the Spencer Davis Group. As a result, the album went top 5, and Winwood established himself a major solo star.

During much of the '80s, Winwood has consolidated that burst of success with a number of similarly successful albums, most of which have fruitfully provided regular top 20 hits. A major career surge ensued in 1986 via his top 5 Back In The High Life; the album was nominated for six Grammys, won three, and included Winwood's first-ever No. 1 single, "Higher Love." The high esteem in which Winwood was held became evident when it was announced that he'd been signed by Virgin Records--then launching in America--for an extremely lucrative sum. Their faith in the singer paid off: His 1988 Virgin debut Roll With It went double-platinum and became his first No. 1 album.

Winwood's music has become more R&B-based in the late '80s, and indeed there was some controversy that his "Roll With It" shared too many similarities with Jr. Walker & The Allstars' '66 hit "(I'm A) Road Runner." Regardless, the singer, who now lives in America, is generally perceived as one of the most creative voices to emerge from the U.K. in the '60s. Still in his 40s, he has escaped the "dinosaur" tag often bestowed by younger critics and listeners to his '60s contemporaries, and is generally accorded the respect usually reserved for performers 10 or 20 years his elder.