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Re: Traffic/Steve Winwood
Jim Capaldi from Wikipedial ..
Career
Overview
Capaldi was born Nicola James Capaldi in Evesham, Worcestershire, England to Italian immigrant parents, Nick and Maria Capaldi. His younger brother Phil, born 1 February 1949, also plays the drums professionally as a full time member of "Joe Brown's Bruvvers". Jim Capaldi's musical career lasted more than four decades. He co-founded Traffic in Birmingham with Steve Winwood and the band's psychedelic rock was influential in Britain and the United States. Capaldi and Winwood wrote many of Traffic's major hits and most of the tracks on the band's ten albums.
Early days
As a child Capaldi studied the piano and singing with his father, a music teacher, and by his teens he was playing drums with his friends. In 1961 Capaldi played drums for the Worcester band The Sapphires and in 1963 he formed The Hellions with Dave Mason on guitar and Gordon Jackson on rhythm guitar. In August 1964, Tanya Day took The Hellions to the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany as her backing group. The Spencer Davis Group were staying at the same hotel as The Hellions and it was there that Steve Winwood befriended Capaldi and Mason.
Back in Worcester, The Hellions established themselves as busy professionals of sufficient repute to provide backing to visiting performers including Adam Faith and Dave Berry. By the end of 1964, they had a London residency at the Whisky a Go Go Club. In 1965 the band released three singles but none charted. Later that year John "Poli" Palmer joined the band on drums and Capaldi became the lead vocalist.
The Hellions moved back to Worcester in 1966 in an attempt to reduce their costs but local tastes had changed and the band relaunched themselves as The Revolution with a fourth single that also failed to chart. Disillusioned, Dave Mason left the band. Capaldi replaced Mason with Luther Grosvenor and renamed the band Deep Feeling. They played gigs in Birmingham and the surrounding Black Country area where they developed a significant fanbase. Capaldi, Jackson and Palmer wrote original songs for the band that were heavier than the Hellions repertoire. They recorded several studio tracks which remained unreleased until 2009.
First success
Capaldi and the band played frequently in London and Jimi Hendrix played guitar with them at the Knuckles Club as an unknown musician. Back in Birmingham Capaldi would occasionally join his friends Mason, Winwood and Chris Wood for impromptu performances at The Elbow Room club on Aston High Street. Early in 1967 they formalised this arrangement by forming Traffic and the other members of Deep Feeling disbanded. In 1968, Capaldi, Winwood and Mason contributed backing music to a solo album by Gordon Jackson.
The new band was signed by Island Records and rented a quiet cottage in Aston Tirrold, Berkshire in order to write and rehearse new material. The cottage did not remain quiet and had frequent visitors including Eric Burdon, Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend as well as Trevor Burton (of The Move) amongst many others. Capaldi wrote the lyrics for Traffic's first single "Paper Sun", which appeared in the UK singles chart at number 5 in summer 1967. Two more singles were released successfully in 1967 and in December the band released the album Mr. Fantasy, which demonstrated the individual talents of each member. Mason left the band soon after the album's release but returned the following May before finally leaving again in October. Winwood also left Traffic (to form Blind Faith) and the rest reluctantly concluded that the band was over.
Reformation and beyond
Capaldi now tried to form another band with Mason and Wood but the creative tensions that had caused Mason to leave Traffic remained and Wynder K. Frogg only lasted until March 1969. In January 1970 Capaldi and Wood joined Winwood in the studio to record Winwood's solo album. These sessions were so successful that the three of them reformed Traffic (without Mason) to release the album John Barleycorn Must Die. They then toured the UK and the U.S. with a band extended by several session musicians.
Although the next Traffic albums were successful, Capaldi began to develop his solo career and released his first solo album Oh How We Danced in 1972. This set featured contributions from Free guitarist Paul Kossoff, Barry Beckett and Rebop Kwaku Baah as well as several members of Traffic.
He followed this up with Whale Meat Again in 1974 before releasing what many consider to be his masterpiece, Short Cut Draw Blood, the following year. Full of tracks with lyrical bite, the album tackled issues such as the environment, government corruption and drugs. In October 1975 a single taken from the album, a cover version of The Everly Brothers' "Love Hurts", reached number four in the UK chart and charted worldwide.
Capaldi's first and only solo Top 40 hit in the United States was from his 1982 album Fierce Heart, yielding the hit single "That's Love", which climbed to Number 28 in Billboard's Top 40 in the summer of 1983. The track was a simple arrangement with synthesized drums, electric guitar, and keyboards. Steve Winwood supplied the keyboards with his then-wife Nicole Winwood on background vocals. The music video of the song involved a mini-love story aboard a subway. Eric Bogosian played the male.
Capaldi was noted for the extent of his collaborations with other musicians. In 1973, he played drums at Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert and on some Clapton studio sessions.
Collaborations
Jim Capaldi's success as a lyricist continued throughout his life. He was a five times winner of coveted BMI/Ascap Awards for the "most played compositions in America", and sales of songs written or co-written by him exceeded 25 million units. He numbered Bob Marley among his friends and they travelled together whilst Marley was writing the Catch A Fire album. Capaldi wrote the lyrics to "This Is Reggae Music".
In the 1980s, Capaldi collaborated with Carlos Santana contributing songs and ideas to Santana's projects and in the 1990s he wrote the song "Love Will Keep Us Alive" for the Eagles' successful Hell Freezes Over album. His own 1988 album Some Come Running included Eric Clapton and George Harrison on the track "Oh Lord, Why Lord".
In 1993, Traffic reformed (without Chris Wood, who died in 1983, and Dave Mason) and recorded a new album Far From Home and in 1994 Capaldi toured the U.S. and UK with the band. In 1998 he paired up again with Mason on an extensive American tour.
Jim Capaldi from Wikipedial ..
Career
Overview
Capaldi was born Nicola James Capaldi in Evesham, Worcestershire, England to Italian immigrant parents, Nick and Maria Capaldi. His younger brother Phil, born 1 February 1949, also plays the drums professionally as a full time member of "Joe Brown's Bruvvers". Jim Capaldi's musical career lasted more than four decades. He co-founded Traffic in Birmingham with Steve Winwood and the band's psychedelic rock was influential in Britain and the United States. Capaldi and Winwood wrote many of Traffic's major hits and most of the tracks on the band's ten albums.
Early days
As a child Capaldi studied the piano and singing with his father, a music teacher, and by his teens he was playing drums with his friends. In 1961 Capaldi played drums for the Worcester band The Sapphires and in 1963 he formed The Hellions with Dave Mason on guitar and Gordon Jackson on rhythm guitar. In August 1964, Tanya Day took The Hellions to the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany as her backing group. The Spencer Davis Group were staying at the same hotel as The Hellions and it was there that Steve Winwood befriended Capaldi and Mason.
Back in Worcester, The Hellions established themselves as busy professionals of sufficient repute to provide backing to visiting performers including Adam Faith and Dave Berry. By the end of 1964, they had a London residency at the Whisky a Go Go Club. In 1965 the band released three singles but none charted. Later that year John "Poli" Palmer joined the band on drums and Capaldi became the lead vocalist.
The Hellions moved back to Worcester in 1966 in an attempt to reduce their costs but local tastes had changed and the band relaunched themselves as The Revolution with a fourth single that also failed to chart. Disillusioned, Dave Mason left the band. Capaldi replaced Mason with Luther Grosvenor and renamed the band Deep Feeling. They played gigs in Birmingham and the surrounding Black Country area where they developed a significant fanbase. Capaldi, Jackson and Palmer wrote original songs for the band that were heavier than the Hellions repertoire. They recorded several studio tracks which remained unreleased until 2009.
First success
Capaldi and the band played frequently in London and Jimi Hendrix played guitar with them at the Knuckles Club as an unknown musician. Back in Birmingham Capaldi would occasionally join his friends Mason, Winwood and Chris Wood for impromptu performances at The Elbow Room club on Aston High Street. Early in 1967 they formalised this arrangement by forming Traffic and the other members of Deep Feeling disbanded. In 1968, Capaldi, Winwood and Mason contributed backing music to a solo album by Gordon Jackson.
The new band was signed by Island Records and rented a quiet cottage in Aston Tirrold, Berkshire in order to write and rehearse new material. The cottage did not remain quiet and had frequent visitors including Eric Burdon, Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend as well as Trevor Burton (of The Move) amongst many others. Capaldi wrote the lyrics for Traffic's first single "Paper Sun", which appeared in the UK singles chart at number 5 in summer 1967. Two more singles were released successfully in 1967 and in December the band released the album Mr. Fantasy, which demonstrated the individual talents of each member. Mason left the band soon after the album's release but returned the following May before finally leaving again in October. Winwood also left Traffic (to form Blind Faith) and the rest reluctantly concluded that the band was over.
Reformation and beyond
Capaldi now tried to form another band with Mason and Wood but the creative tensions that had caused Mason to leave Traffic remained and Wynder K. Frogg only lasted until March 1969. In January 1970 Capaldi and Wood joined Winwood in the studio to record Winwood's solo album. These sessions were so successful that the three of them reformed Traffic (without Mason) to release the album John Barleycorn Must Die. They then toured the UK and the U.S. with a band extended by several session musicians.
Although the next Traffic albums were successful, Capaldi began to develop his solo career and released his first solo album Oh How We Danced in 1972. This set featured contributions from Free guitarist Paul Kossoff, Barry Beckett and Rebop Kwaku Baah as well as several members of Traffic.
He followed this up with Whale Meat Again in 1974 before releasing what many consider to be his masterpiece, Short Cut Draw Blood, the following year. Full of tracks with lyrical bite, the album tackled issues such as the environment, government corruption and drugs. In October 1975 a single taken from the album, a cover version of The Everly Brothers' "Love Hurts", reached number four in the UK chart and charted worldwide.
Capaldi's first and only solo Top 40 hit in the United States was from his 1982 album Fierce Heart, yielding the hit single "That's Love", which climbed to Number 28 in Billboard's Top 40 in the summer of 1983. The track was a simple arrangement with synthesized drums, electric guitar, and keyboards. Steve Winwood supplied the keyboards with his then-wife Nicole Winwood on background vocals. The music video of the song involved a mini-love story aboard a subway. Eric Bogosian played the male.
Capaldi was noted for the extent of his collaborations with other musicians. In 1973, he played drums at Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert and on some Clapton studio sessions.
Collaborations
Jim Capaldi's success as a lyricist continued throughout his life. He was a five times winner of coveted BMI/Ascap Awards for the "most played compositions in America", and sales of songs written or co-written by him exceeded 25 million units. He numbered Bob Marley among his friends and they travelled together whilst Marley was writing the Catch A Fire album. Capaldi wrote the lyrics to "This Is Reggae Music".
In the 1980s, Capaldi collaborated with Carlos Santana contributing songs and ideas to Santana's projects and in the 1990s he wrote the song "Love Will Keep Us Alive" for the Eagles' successful Hell Freezes Over album. His own 1988 album Some Come Running included Eric Clapton and George Harrison on the track "Oh Lord, Why Lord".
In 1993, Traffic reformed (without Chris Wood, who died in 1983, and Dave Mason) and recorded a new album Far From Home and in 1994 Capaldi toured the U.S. and UK with the band. In 1998 he paired up again with Mason on an extensive American tour.
