Chris Wood - Evening Blue (4 CD, 2017) [FLAC]

  

Perhaps best known for co-founding Traffic with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason, Chris Wood was self taught on Saxophone and Flute although he was also an accomplished keyboards player and bass guitarist too. And a fine artist as well; from Stourbridge College of Art, Chris was accepted by the Royal Academy in 1965 where he ultimately faced the choice – music or art.

The 4 CDs included music drawn from Chris’s entire career with his solo recordings taking centre-stage. We also featured alternate takes and mixes as well as previously unheard compositions and never-before-heard home demos and other sketches.

Naturally, there was music from Traffic as well as recordings by Gordon Jackson, John Martyn, Dave Mason, Jim Capaldi, Bobby Whitlock, Airforce, Martha Velez, Nick Drake, Shawn Phillips and others.

Evening Blue also featured Chris’s previously unheard collaborative work with The Wailers’ keyboard player, Tyrone Downie as well as Rebop Kwaku Baah, Remi Kabaka, The Sky, Dr John & Jeanette Jacobs. Tracks from the only known-to-survive recordings by the short-lived Mason, Capaldi, Wood & Frog line-up were also included as was a brand new 2015 collaboration – Maps with Chris Wood.