Producer and founder Chris Blackwell later said of Winwood, "He was really the cornerstone of Island Records. In 1964, the Spencer Davis Group signed their first recording contract with Island Records. Winwood's distinctive high tenor singing voice and vocal style drew comparisons to Ray Charles. The Spencer Davis Group made their debut at the Eagle and subsequently had a Monday-night residency there. The Spencer Davis Group Īt age 14, Winwood (then known as "Stevie" Winwood) joined the Spencer Davis Group along with older brother Muff after Davis saw them performing as the Muffy Wood Jazz Band at the Golden Eagle in Birmingham. Winwood modelled his singing after Ray Charles. At this time, Winwood was living on Atlantic Road in Great Barr, close to the Birmingham music halls where he played. King, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley on their United Kingdom tours, the custom at that time being for US singers to travel solo and be backed by pick-up bands. While still a pupil at Great Barr School, Winwood was a part of the Birmingham blues rock scene, playing the Hammond C-3 organ and guitar, backing blues and rock legends such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. Career Early years Winwood on organ with Spencer Davis Group (Amsterdam, 1966) Muff Winwood later recalled that when Steve began playing regularly with him and his father in licensed pubs and clubs, the piano had to be turned with its back to the audience to try to hide him because he was so obviously underage. Īt eight years of age, Winwood first performed with his father and elder brother Muff in the Ron Atkinson Band. During this time, he befriended future Fleetwood Mac member Christine McVie. He also attended the Birmingham and Midland Institute of Music to develop his skills as a pianist, but did not complete his course. The family moved from Handsworth to Kingstanding (Atlantic Road) Birmingham, where Winwood attended the Great Barr School, one of the first comprehensive schools. Steve Winwood began playing piano at the age of four while interested in swing and Dixieland jazz, and soon started playing drums and guitar. His father Lawrence, a foundryman by trade, was a semi-professional musician, playing mainly the saxophone and clarinet. Winwood was born on in Handsworth, Birmingham. 33 on its list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked Winwood No. He has won two Grammy Awards and an Ivor Novello Award, and has been honored as BMI Icon. In 2004, Winwood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Traffic. While his hit singles ceased at the end of the 1980s, he continued to release new albums up to 2008, when Nine Lives, his latest album, was released. He found the top of the Hot 100 again with " Roll With It" (1988) from the album of the same name, with " Holding On" also charting highly the same year. His 1986 album Back in the High Life marked his career zenith, with hit singles including " Back in the High Life Again", " The Finer Things" and the US Billboard Hot 100 number one hit " Higher Love". Beginning in the 1980s, his solo career flourished and he had a number of hit singles, including " While You See a Chance" (1980) from the album Arc of a Diver and " Valerie" (1982) from Talking Back to the Night ("Valerie" became a hit when it was re-released with a remix from Winwood's 1987 compilation album Chronicles). Winwood was an integral member of three groups of the 1960s and 1970s: the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player and vocalist prominent for his distinctive, soulful high tenor voice, Winwood plays other instruments proficiently, including drums, mandolin, bass and saxophone. Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born ) is an English musician, singer and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock and pop rock.
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