Jim Capaldi was born as Nicola James in Evesham, Worchestershire on August 24, 1944. He is best known as drummer in the legendary rock band Traffic. The band, also featuring Steve Winwood and Dave Mason, called it quits in 1974. Jim Capaldi continued with a solo career. In 1993 and 1994 the band reunited and toured throughout the United States.



Biography:

At the turn of the century, Pasquale Capaldi left his native Italy and ventured into Scotland. Later, settling in Evesham, England, he planted a Capaldi tree that would spread its branches across the sea to the United States as far as Michigan and Pennsylvania.



Nick, the youngest of the Capaldi family and an accomplished accordionist, had a regular show broadcast on Radio Luxembourg in it's early days and his wife sang with a touring troupe and recorded early 78 rpm records.



They lived and breathed music and when Jim Capaldi was born on August 2, 1944, music was already in his blood.



At the vanguard of popular music now for three decades, Jim Capaldi has always been involved in music. He formed his first band at the age of fourteen and was soon recording for Pye records with the Hellions. Shortly thereafter, he was gathering rave reviews in a band called Deep Feeling which he shared with fellow Traffic founder Dave Mason & Family founding member Poli Palmer. The band played rock & blues and locally were in a league of their own.



In the mid 60’s, Jim became a regular face at the legendary Birmingham late nightclub "The Elbow Room". After following their shows, he would go and jam together with other Birmingham bands and it was here that the idea of Traffic was born.



Apart from the group's eleven album multi- platinum career fueled by Jim's writing partnership with Steve Winwood, Jim has enjoyed a solo career of note with eleven solo albums since the days of his first solo project, while still a member of Traffic. Love Hurts was a major hit worldwide in 1975. Jim has maintained his momentum with U.S. successes like "That's Love" from the Fierce Heart album with Atlantic Records in 1982, "Something So Strong" from the Some Come Running album in 1987 with Island Records and touring throughout this period in Europe leading his own band "The Contenders".



Jim was working on his twelfth solo album when Steve called to ask for his input on a forthcoming Winwood album which, in fact, was to become Traffic's return to the scene. Subsequent to the reformation of Traffic in 1993 and the release in 1994 of the album Far From Home", the band toured America for five months, headlining 75 shows to over 500,000 people. They appeared at Woodstock and played ten shows together with fellow rock legends "The Grateful Dead".







Jim has always been a gifted songwriter. A five time winner of either BMI or ASCAP awards, in respect of most played compositions in America, he has been sought after for many projects. His most recent was The Eagles return; having written their massive radio cut "Love Will Keep Us Alive".



Jim has always been a gifted songwriter. A five time winner of either BMI or ASCAP awards, in respect of most played compositions in America, he has been sought after for many projects. His most recent was The Eagles return; having written their massive radio cut "Love Will Keep Us Alive".



In 1998, Jim and fellow Traffic co-founder Dave Mason toured the U.S.



In August 2004 Traffic were forced to cancel their reunion tour because their Jim Capaldi was too ill to perform.



The group planned to rehearse in London in September 2004 for their first trek since 1994 - which was due to begin in October 2004 in San Francisco, California - but plans changed when the drummer was diagnosed with a severe gastric ulcer that needs urgent treatment.



The band's singer Steve Winwood and Capaldi reunited briefly in 1994 for America's Woodstock 25th Anniversary Concert and enjoyed it so much they vowed to get the entire band together for a tour in 2004.



On January 28, 2005, at age sixty, Jim Capaldi died of cancer.