Remembering When Two Rock Legends Reunited To Bring Back a Beloved Band After Two Decades in 1994

One of the wonderful aspects of the classic rock era is how certain bands tended to carve out a niche completely their own. Traffic, with Steve Winwood at the heart of an ever-rotating lineup, was one of those acts.

On those classic Traffic albums, Jim Capaldi served a crucial role as percussionist and lyricist. In 1994, Winwood and Capaldi rejuvenated Traffic as a two-man band for an album that eased back right back into their adventurous sound of yore.

Traffic School

Steve Winwood was all of 18 years old when he assembled three fellow musicians to form Traffic in 1967. He was also already a star on the rock scene thanks to his brilliant singing and keyboard work with The Spencer Davis Group.

In their first incarnation, Traffic, which also included Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood, and Dave Mason, fell into line with other psychedelic pop acts of the era. After a brief hiatus when Winwood joined Blind Faith for an album, they reconvened in 1970 without Mason and started setting themselves apart from others on the rock scene.

The Traffic of classic albums like John Barleycorn Must Die and The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys combined some of the instrumental ambition of jam bands with an embrace of multiple different genres. Eventually, they ran their course. Winwood departed the band in 1974 in the middle of a tour. They realized they couldn’t continue the band without him.

A Two-Man Reunion

The fact that much of Winwood’s self-titled debut solo album in 1977 was co-written with Capaldi testified to the fact that Traffic hadn’t been completely blown to smithereens. Winwood and Capaldi often contributed to each other’s solo albums over the years.

In the late 80s, Winwood’s solo career hit its highest commercial peak on the albums Back In The High Life and Roll With It. But he still never quite shook the allure of making expansive music as he’d done with Traffic.

Eventually, he and Capaldi started talking about the possibility of doing another Traffic album. When they started writing together again, they decided that it was time. They’d be the only ones on the record. Chris Wood passed away in 1983. And Dave Mason wasn’t asked back for Far From Home, released in May 1994, nor were any of the members who floated through the band briefly in the early 70s.

‘Home’ Fires

Winwood and Capaldi co-wrote the ten tracks on Far From Home. With Capaldi tackling the percussion, Winwood handled everything else. That included flute and saxophone parts that would have been handled by Chris Wood back in the day.

Although the slickness of 90s-era recording techniques sneaks into the production occasionally, Far From Home does an excellent job of approximating the Traffic of their heyday. Capaldi, as he did back in the day, fed Winwood the kind of questing, insightful lyrics that sounded just right coming out of that spectacular voice. The two men wove in and out of different musical passages in inventive fashion.

After a tour in support of the record, the pair once again mothballed Traffic. A reunion with Dave Mason at the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame represented their last performance before Capaldi’s death in 2006. As such, Far From Home serves as a fitting swan song for this act that was very much one of a kind.

(Photo by Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)