This story I’m telling, it starts in the middle. But this is a story that loops and circles in on itself, like a cloverleaf roadway; you’ve got to start where you are, and go forward to the beginning.

Imagine you’re Steve Winwood. As the Sixties turn into the Seventies, you’ve already made your bones with the Spencer Davis Group, formed Traffic and broken it up (twice), and headlined the supergroups Blind Faith and Ginger Baker’s Air Force. Now you’re in the studio, laying down tracks for what is supposed to be your first solo album.

And you are twenty-two years old.

Faced with a head-on plunge into rock superstardom and its pressures, and with the druggy chaos of Blind Faith still a fresh memory, perhaps it’s not surprising that you shy away. You retreat back to old collaborations, and even older musics — absorbing the sounds of English folksong and ’50s cool jazz. Moving forward, you loop back to where you started; Steve Winwood’s solo career goes on hold, and Traffic is reborn once more.

You know what? Let’s skip ahead to the beginning.

Origins and Early Singles

It was American producer Jimmy Miller who brought the members of Traffic together — and who defined the sound to which they would hew even after his departure — in sessions for Winwood’s first band, the Spencer Davis Group. Miller remixed the SDG’s “Gimme Some Loving” for American radio, bringing in journeyman musicians Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood, and Dave Mason (who had been the SDG’s road manager) to add percussion and vocal overdubs. The remix cracked the US Billboard top ten, and Miller took the three into the studio with the Davis Group to record the follow-up, “I’m A Man” (download). The elements of Traffic’s sound are all in place; predominant keyboards, gang vocals, and kitchen-sink percussion bubbling through a deep, layered stereo mix.

Leaving Davis in 1967, at nineteen, Winwood threw his lot in with Capaldi, Wood, and Mason — turning the winning sound of late-period Spencer Davis Group towards more psychedelic rock-oriented material. Three lead singers, four songwriters, all proficient in multiple instruments — with an embarrassment of riches, the new group, dubbed Traffic, began a period of intense collaboration, decamping from London to an isolated cottage in Berkshire where they would live, write, and play together. (more…)

Eric Clapton - guitar, vocals
Steve Winwood - Hammond organ, guitar, vocals
Chris Stainton - keyboards
Willie Weeks - bass
Ian Thomas - drums

I’m convinced that any great concert experience requires an interesting precursor — the company around you, the trip to the venue, the small details that elevate something to do on a Tuesday night into a memory. I’m equally convinced that while it might make a great experience, it might not make a great story. More often than not, one person’s good time is another person’s drab tale, even if the center of the trip is the reunion if the nucleus of famed supergroup Blind Faith, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood. Then again, with such a draw, one might have to rethink all those presumptions, as there was nothing more dramatic on February 26th than the performances of two legendary players.

Opening with “Had To Cry Today,” Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton took the stage with guitars strapped on and loaded with confidence. The three-night MSG residency may have surprised fans when they heard it was going to happen, but the interplay between the two makes clear just what a natural fit they are. The other surprise is how the players were arranged: I originally expected Winwood to open the show, play some songs, then have Clapton come out for team-ups, then Clapton would hold forth for the rest. That all participants stayed onstage during the full show (excepting one solo turn each) was a treat. (more…)