Traffic left the pop machine at the height of the 1967 singles boom to work out what English rock might sound like if nobody was in a hurry. Flute and saxophone at the front, and songs allowed to run until they were finished.

The short version

Formed in Birmingham in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason, Traffic turned psychedelic pop into something looser: jazz reeds, English folk, soul and long-form improvisation. They split in 1969, reformed in 1970 for “John Barleycorn Must Die”, peaked commercially with “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” (1971), stopped recording after “When the Eagle Flies” (1974), and returned once more in 1994. The four founders entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2004.

Birmingham, and a cottage in Berkshire

Winwood had been the voice of the Spencer Davis Group since he was fourteen, and left it in April 1967. Within weeks he had a band of his own: Capaldi on drums, Wood on flute, saxophone and organ, Mason on guitar and sitar. They rented a cottage near Aston Tirrold in Berkshire to write and rehearse, an odd move for a chart act of the day. The singles came anyway: ‘Paper Sun’ in May, then ‘Hole in My Shoe’, the first song Mason wrote on his own, at number two in the UK. The other three disliked it, feeling it said nothing about the band they meant to be.

Reeds at the front, and room to move

What set Traffic apart was the shape of the group. Chris Wood played flute, saxophone and organ, so the front line was woodwind where most bands put a second guitar; Winwood moved between Hammond organ, piano, guitar and bass. Capaldi drummed and wrote the words, handing lyrics to Winwood to set to music. The records drift between soul, English folk and modal jazz, and grew longer as the band went on: the title piece of “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” runs past eleven minutes. They sit in the British progressive section here not because they wrote suites, but because so much of what prog soon assumed is already here.

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A solo album that turned back into a band

Early in 1970, once Blind Faith had run its course, Winwood entered the studio to make a solo record, provisionally titled “Mad Shadows”. He asked Wood and Capaldi to play on it, and by the time the London sessions wrapped in April it was a Traffic album again. Issued that July as “John Barleycorn Must Die”, it reached number 5 in the United States and 11 at home; title and centrepiece come from a traditional English folk song.

Seven years, several line-ups, and one return

Mason came and went three times: out at the end of 1967, back in May 1968 to write half the second album, out again that autumn, then back for a handful of shows in 1971. Winwood left in 1969 for Blind Faith with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Ric Grech; Island assembled “Last Exit” from studio and live tapes that May. The 1970 trio became a quartet when Grech joined on bass and violin; in 1971 Jim Gordon came in on drums and Rebop Kwaku Baah on percussion. From January 1972 the Muscle Shoals players Roger Hawkins and David Hood took over drums and bass for “Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory” (1973); Rosko Gee took the bass for “When the Eagle Flies” (1974), a US Top 10 album, after which the group stopped recording.

Album by album

Eight albums across three decades, from psychedelic singles to long-form band music. Tap any title for its guide.

The players

Winwood sang most of the leads and carried on afterwards as a solo artist. Capaldi, the band’s lyricist, rarely sang lead, and later co-wrote ‘Love Will Keep Us Alive’, a hit for the Eagles. Wood gave the band its flute and saxophone, and the woodwind colour that runs through every album. Mason also wrote ‘Feelin’ Alright?’, covered by Joe Cocker in 1969, and built a long career of his own in America.

Where to start

Begin with “John Barleycorn Must Die” (1970): the fullest statement of what this band could do, and their highest-charting record in America. Then “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” (1971) for the long-form playing, and “Mr. Fantasy” (1967) for the psychedelic version of the group, inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

Why they still matter

Traffic matter for the template more than the hit singles. A rock band that carried a wind player, a house in the country instead of a rehearsal room, records sequenced as records: working assumptions the British progressive bands would inherit within a couple of years. The music has worn unusually well, loose where the era was often stiff, played by musicians with nothing to prove. Decades on, they still sound like a band getting it together, which is what they set out to do.

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