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Steve Winwood: Blind Faith
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For nearly four decades, Steve Winwood has remained a primary figure in rock'n'roll, a respected innovator who has helped to create some of the genre's most celebrated achievements. Beginning with his burst into prominence in 1963, Winwood's celebrated skills as a composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist have developed an impressive catalogue of popular music in career which saw him lay an integral part of The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith before setting off on a solo career which has earnt him two Grammys.
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After Traffic and Blind Faith split up, Winwood put out his first solo album in 1977. It was received respectfully, if not enthusiastically. Winwood wasn't very happy with it either. So, as he would do many times in his career, he all but disappeared from the music scene for several years, living the life of a country gentleman at his rural English farm. In 1980 he re-emerged with Arc of a Diver, an album of polished, well-crafted pop/rock that set the tone for the next phase of Winwood's solo career. Winwood played every note on the album.
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Winwood subsequently hooked up with old friend Eric Clapton, who'd recently parted ways with Cream. The two began jamming and found that they enjoyed working together, and rumors of their collaboration spread like wildfire; the enormous anticipation only grew when ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker signed on, despite Clapton's misgivings over the expectations that would create. Concert promoters rushed to book the band before any material had been completed (hence the band's eventual name, Blind Faith), and offered too much money for them to refuse, despite their lack of rehearsal time. Their self-titled debut, released in the summer of 1969, was a hit, but the extreme pressure on the group led to their breakup even before the end of the year. Winwood joined Baker in a large, eclectic new supergroup called Ginger Baker's Air Force, but Winwood still had contract obligations to Island, and he left not long after Air Force's debut performance at the Royal Albert Hall in early 1970.
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Stephen Lawrence Winwood was born May 12, 1948 in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, England. He as logged an esteemed career in the rock era, one that spans more than 40 years. He has sealed his place in history both as a solo artist and as a member of such celebrated bands as the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith. He has registered chart-topping, platinum-selling albums and singles, garnered acclaim of permanence on the U.S. and international music scenes, collected Grammy awards and has jammed and recorded with everyone from George Harrison and Jimi Hendrix to Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Joe Cocker, Toots and the Maytals, T-bone Walker, Sonny Boy Williamson and Memphis Slim.
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After The Spencer Davis Group, Winwood's career took off with the legendary band Traffic. He later joined forces with Rick Grech, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton to form what's been called rock's first "supergroup," Blind Faith. Since then, Winwood has been a solo act, and his career reached a high point in 1986 with the single "Higher Love."
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Winwood would take bassist Grech, from Blind Faith, to tour with a reformed, Dave Mason-less Traffic in 1970. Traffic would release one of their most successful albums, John Barleycorn Must Die, after their 1970 reunion. Without Mason, the album marked a new direction for Winwood, the group, and for popular music.
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