Steve Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English keyboardist, vocalist and guitarist. From the early 1960s, he had taken part in the burgeoning Blues Rock scene in Birmingham, and had joined the Spencer Davis Group at the age of 14 before joining Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse a few years later. Though the latter project was short-lived, he managed to form the band Traffic in 1967 and had started acquiring some session work for Jimi Hendrix and Joe Cocker. He rejoined Clapton in 1969 for the supergroup Blind Faith, but only had one album with them and reformed Traffic after a brief stint in Ginger Baker's Air Force.
The stress of touring had gotten to Winwood, which led to him dissolving Traffic once again in 1974 and pausing his session work before reemerging with a solo career in 1977. Not only was the solo career a success throughout the 1980s, he had also provided reliable session work for musicians like Eric Clapton, Lou Reed, Marianne Faithfull, Billy Joel, Phil Collins, Talk Talk and former Traffic bandmates Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason. He was nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, and was inducted as part of Traffic a year later. While his solo albums stopped in 2008, he continued to perform alongside other acts to this day.
Solo Discography
- 1977 - Steve Winwood note
- 1980 - Arc of a Diver
- 1982 - Talking Back to the Night
- 1986 - Back in the High Life
- 1988 - Roll with It
- 1990 - Refugees of the Heart
- 1997 - Junction Seven
- 2003 - About Time
- 2008 - Nine Lives
Bring me a higher trope:
- One-Woman Song - "Valerie", about a lost love being reminisced about.
- Shout-Out - In "Valerie", the titular girl was described as:So cool, she was like
Jazz on a Summer's Day - Special Guest
- Back in the High Life featured many guest musicians, notably including the duet with "Queen of Funk" Chaka Khan in "Higher Love" and James Taylor's backing in the title track.
- Winwood also frequently served as a guest for other musicians. One notable example is his work on Fierce Heart, a 1983 solo album by his former Traffic bandmate Jim Capaldi. While Winwood worked on every track of that album, perhaps his most notable work was on its lead single "That's Love". Winwood sang backing vocals, played piano and organ, and also appeared along with Capaldi in several shots of its video.
