Early years Capaldi was born Nicola James Capaldi in
Evesham, Worcestershire, to English parents Marie (née Couchier) and Nicholas Capaldi. His father was born Nicola Capaldi in 1913 in Evesham to Italian parents. As a child, Capaldi studied piano and voice with his father, a music teacher, and by his teens he was playing drums with his friends. At age 14, he founded the band the Sapphires and served as their lead vocalist. At 16 he took an apprenticeship at a factory in
Worcester, where he met Keith Miller and
Dave Mason. Later that year
John "Poli" Palmer joined the band on drums and Capaldi became the lead vocalist. The Hellions moved back to Worcester in 1966 where they changed their name to the Revolution, releasing a fourth single that also failed to chart. Disillusioned, Dave Mason left the band. Capaldi replaced Mason with
Luther Grosvenor and renamed the band Deep Feeling. Early in 1967 they formalised this arrangement by forming
Traffic, and Deep Feeling disbanded. The new band was signed by
Island Records and rented a quiet
cottage in
Aston Tirrold, Berkshire, to write and rehearse new material. Despite his key role in writing the band's material, Capaldi rarely sang lead vocals with Traffic, and his lyrics were nearly always keyed towards Winwood's soulful voice rather than his own more hard-edged vocal style. Two more Traffic singles were released successfully in 1967, and in December the band released the album
Mr. Fantasy. After one further album,
Traffic, the group disbanded.
Final Traffic years, first solo years With Traffic on hiatus due to Steve Winwood's struggles with
peritonitis, Capaldi recorded a solo album
Oh How We Danced in 1972. This set contained a broad variety of musical styles and featured contributions from
Free guitarist
Paul Kossoff, the
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, and several members of Traffic. It was well received by critics and proved to be a modest success in the US, encouraging Capaldi to pursue a solo career alongside his work with Traffic. After two more albums with Traffic, the group took a short break, allowing Capaldi to record
Whale Meat Again, which was slightly less successful than his debut both in terms of reviews and sales. The title track was a thoroughly hard rocking and unapologetic environmentalist tirade; aggressive sociopolitical-themed songs became a recurring theme in Capaldi's work. He began work on his third solo album,
Short Cut Draw Blood, alongside recording
When the Eagle Flies with Traffic. As the band set off on the supporting tour, an early single from
Short Cut, "
It's All Up to You", made the UK Top 40. and charted worldwide. The album is considered by many to be his masterpiece, tackling issues such as the environment, government corruption, and drugs. He also embarked on a very brief acting career, appearing in the rarely seen 30-minute short film
Short Ends (1976), which was directed by
Esther Anderson and co-starred
Judy Geeson and Hilary Baker.
To disco and back However, events would conspire to prevent Capaldi from consolidating his solo stardom. He began working on his next album,
Play it by Ear, alongside serving as a major collaborator on
Steve Winwood's first solo album.
Play it by Ear took an unusually long time to record, and in the meantime, his long-standing relationship with
Island Records fell apart. The album was cancelled as a result, even though an advance single, "Goodbye My Love" (no connection to "Goodbye Love" from Capaldi's previous album), had already been released. Capaldi later described his leaving Island Records as "a leap into the wilderness." Due to these delays, it was over two years after
Short Cut Draw Blood that another Jim Capaldi album appeared. At this time Capaldi wrote the soundtrack to the award-winning film "The Contender", his last recording with the
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section as his backing band, and correspondingly put together a new backing band for himself called the Contenders. The group consisted of
Pete Bonas (guitar), Chris Parren (miscellaneous keyboards), Ray Allen (saxophone, backing vocals, percussion), and Phil Capaldi (backing vocals, percussion). Bonas was a particularly significant collaborator, and would co-write many of Capaldi's songs. The band chiefly supported him on tour; only one album,
Electric Nights, featured the Contenders on every track. At the encouragement of his new label,
RSO Records, Capaldi began venturing into
disco. His first album with the label,
The Contender, was released in the US with the title
Daughter of the Night and a partially different set of songs. However, the album's internationally released single, "Daughter of the Night", failed to make a major impact. The follow-up, 1979's
Electric Nights, was more successful. "Shoe Shine", which combined disco rhythms and melodies with an angry lead vocal and lyrics about poverty and destitution, reached number 11 in France and also entered Billboard's Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart. However, despite including both hard rockers such as "Elixir of Life" and "Hotel Blues" and laments such as "Short Ends" and "Wild Geese" alongside the disco-flavoured numbers, Capaldi retained no fondness for his two albums with RSO, later saying "frankly, they got buried under a pile of disco." there was nothing resembling a major hit, not even the folk arrangement of Traffic's "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys". The album
Let the Thunder Cry was released in Brazil by Young/RGE in early 1981 and spawned two big hits there: "Old Photographs", a cover version of "Casinha branca" originally recorded by Gilson in 1979; and "Favella Music". "Old Photographs" became a hit after it was included in the international soundtrack of the Rede Globo soap opera
Brilhante in late 1981. "Favella Music" was also a hit in late 1981.
Return to stardom Capaldi and Winwood had maintained a working partnership since
Traffic's dissolution, contributing to nearly all of each other's solo albums. With his eighth solo album, Capaldi enlisted his old partner as a major collaborator. For the first time, Capaldi played most of the drums himself, and he would continue to do so on future solo albums. However, most of the tracks on
Fierce Heart were mixed to place emphasis on the synthesizers, often muting Capaldi's vocals. This synth-heavy pop sound was exactly what 1980s audiences were looking for, and "
That's Love" became his biggest hit in the US, climbing to number 28 in the summer of 1983. Another single from the album, "Living on the Edge", made it to number 75, while the album made it to 91 in the
Billboard 200. while achieving two hit singles in the Netherlands. Though
Eric Clapton and
George Harrison appeared on "Oh Lord, Why Lord", it was "Something so Strong" which became his biggest hit in the Netherlands, breaking the top 40 and powering the album itself into the charts.
Some Come Running essentially marked the end of Capaldi's career as a solo artist. He would not record another solo album for well over a decade, though a greatest hits compilation,
Prince of Darkness, was released in 1995 and made the charts in the Netherlands. He was a five times winner of
BMI/Ascap Awards for the "most played compositions in America", and sales of songs written or co-written by him exceeded 25 million units. He numbered
Bob Marley among his friends, and they travelled together while Marley was writing the
Catch A Fire album. Capaldi wrote the lyrics to "This Is Reggae Music". Capaldi was noted for the extent of his collaborations with other musicians. In 1973, he played drums at
Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert and on some Clapton studio sessions. Capaldi collaborated with
Robert Calvert of
Hawkwind on his critically acclaimed 1974 solo album
Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters, contributing as a vocal actor on the concept album's theatrical sections between songs. In the 1980s, Capaldi collaborated with
Carlos Santana contributing songs and ideas to Santana's projects and in the 1990s he co-wrote (with
Paul Carrack) the song "
Love Will Keep Us Alive", which was eventually used on
the Eagles' successful
Hell Freezes Over album. In 1993, Traffic reformed and toured the US and UK. Capaldi and Winwood recorded a new album,
Far from Home, without the other members of the band. In 1998 he paired up again with Mason on an extensive American tour.
The final years In 2001, Capaldi's eleventh solo album
Living on the Outside featured
George Harrison,
Steve Winwood,
Paul Weller,
Gary Moore, and
Ian Paice.
George Harrison played guitar on the track "
Anna Julia", an English translation of a song by the Brazilian band
Los Hermanos. Both Capaldi brothers played at the
Concert for George in 2002. ==Personal life==