Stephen Laurence ("Steve") Winwood (born May 12, 1948) in Birmingham England, was a part of the Birmingham Rhythm and blues scene from a young age, playing the Hammond organ and guitar, backing blues singers like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Eddie Boyd , Otis Spann, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley on their UK tours (the norm at that time being for US singers to travel solo and be backed by 'pick-up' bands).

He became a member of the Spencer Davis Group at 15 with his older brother 'Muff ' (who later had much success as a record producer) and had hit singles with "Keep On Runnin'", Steve wrote and recorded "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "I'm A Man" before leaving to form Traffic with Chris Wood, Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason. Steve recorded on 5 lps with Jimi Hendrix and was going to join his new band right before Jimi's death.

He formed Blind Faith in 1969 but the band was short-lived, breaking up in August after completing its US tour. Traffic re-formed when Winwood stalled while recording his "solo" album and enlisted the help of Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi again. The solo album became Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die.

Constant artistic differences and personnel changes led to the final break-up of Traffic and Winwood releasing his eponymous first solo album in 1977. This was followed by his 1980 hit Arc Of A Diver and Talking Back To The Night (1982) (both albums recorded at his home in Gloucestershire with Winwood playing all instruments). He enlisted the help of a coterie of stars to record Back In The High Life (1986) in the US and was rewarded with a hit album. All released on Island Records.

At the peak of his commercial success, he moved to Virgin Records and released Roll With It and Refugees Of The Heart. He recorded another album with Jim Capaldi released under the Traffic name, Far From Home, then resumed his solo career with his final Virgin album Junction Seven. In 2003 he released a new studio album About Time on his new record label, Wincraft Music.

2004 saw his 1982 song 'Valerie' sampled by DJ Eric Prydz, in a song called 'Call On Me'. It spent 5 weeks at Number 1 in the UK singles chart.

His session work includes:

• David Gilmour About Face

External link

• http://www.stevewinwood.com
• http://www.stevewinwood.info/ (for Japanese supporting pcs)