My group Pulse opened for the Lovin’ Spoonful at the Back Bay Theatre; I saw Michael Bloomfield’s Electric Flag at the Psychedelic Supermarket, where I had earlier first seen Cream; I caught The Paul Butterfield Band, first at Back Bay and later at the Supermarket with Elvin Bishop assuming the lead guitar role for the first time; I became a convert of sorts after seeing The Doors in concert at Back Bay; and I met Taj Mahal in the apartment I was staying in on Commonwealth Avenue, of all places.

Cream played at Back Bay as well, although I actually caught them near my hometown in New Haven at Yale’s Woolsey Hall. And in early May of that year, I got a chance to see another of my favorite artists and groups, Steve Winwood and Traffic at the original Boston Tea Party.

The Tea Party was formerly a synagogue on Berkeley Street at the corner of Appleton and I remember taking the subway near Bolyston and Mass Ave. to get there. I was by myself for this concert. At the time, I was enrolled at Berklee School of Music, majoring in performance on double basse and I had moved to a small apartment right around the corner from the school, where I lived on my own.

When in Boston during the week that spring it was a pretty solitude existence of going to classes and practicing and studying. On the weekends, I would come back to New Haven, Wallingford in particular, to rehearse at Syncron Studios or play one or two gigs with Pulse.

I knew the original Traffic foursome had been reduced to three as Dave Mason had left Winwood, drummer Jim Capaldi and flutist/sax player Chris Wood for what at the time were described as musical differences. There was probably some truth to that because Mason’s contributions to the English version of the first Traffic album, Mr. Fantasy, were largely pop confections, including a semi-British hit in Hole In My Shoe. Although there were apparently some personality conflicts as well.

A couple of Mason’s tunes survived on the American release, originally titled Heaven Is In Your Mind but quickly changed to Mr. Fantasy. But most of that first record, released in the U.S. earlier in the year, was a wonderful mix of blues, soul, rock, pop and what would later be called world music.

Traffic was a literal melting pot of contemporary music and the group had one of the great singer/keyboardists in Winwood, who sounded a little like Ray Charles, one of his influences, with a soulful voice well beyond his years.

Songs like Paper Sun, Dealer, Coloured Rain and Smiling Phases, written by Winwood and Capaldi, featured rock-based musical tracks, imbued with pop sensibilities, and blended with insightful and clever lyrics, courtesy mainly of Capaldi.

The pop aspect made them suitable for the singles charts, although the group never really attained success in the U.S. that way. But Paper Sun is one of the great singles from this era, much in the same way I Feel Free by Cream was. They weren’t hits, but they showed that you could combine blues-based rock with pop and not have it sound blatantly commercial.

I was really interested in seeing if they could pull off a live show with some of these songs as a trio. When you walked into the Tea Party it opened into a large room with no chairs, just a large dance floor, standing only. It was fairly well filled but not crowded, so it was pretty easy to get up close to the stage.

Winwood’s Hammond B-3 was on left side of stage, Capaldi was center, slightly back on drums, and Chris Wood stood on the right with an electric piano in back of him. Wood played sax, flute, piano, a little organ and even some bass. He wasn’t proficient on his secondary instruments but he made it work by helping carry songs that needed something besides his woodwinds.

Surprisingly, they opened with an instrumental with Winwood on guitar, a Gibson Reverse Firebird. I haven’t seen too many guitarists use that model Firebird, either then or recently. The tune was Something’s Got A Hold Of My Toe, which didn’t appear on an album until Last Exit, their finale for the first go-round of Traffic. Winwood startled me at how good a guitarist he was. I knew he played but had no idea how good a lead player.

I suppose if I lived in London at the time I would have known, as in later years I came across an article in the New Musical Express in which he was singled out among about seven guitarists, along with Beck, Page and Clapton as one of the British Isles best players. But his proficiency on guitar remains even today a mystery to many rock enthusiasts despite his loyal fan base being well aware of it. Just check out his recent versions of Dear Mr. Fantasy, which he played at Traffic’s Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame induction, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Later in the set he would put on the guitar again for Dear Mr. Fantasy, with Chris Wood on bass, and he pulled out an acoustic guitar for the exquisite ballad No Face, No Name, No Number, a song he reprised with Eric Clapton on some of their shows together in the past two years but one that he rarely plays. Wood played organ on that one.

Most of the night though Winwood was on Hammond B-3. The group played the signature Traffic tune Coloured Rain, along with Smiling Phases, Heaven Is In Your Mind, a slow R&B tune, Every Little Bit Hurts, and a rather unique version of Anthony Newley’s Feelin’ Good from the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint — the Smell of the Crowd. This appeared on Last Exit as well in a live version, unfortunately with a terrible balance in the mix of Winwood’s organ, but it is a fascinating arrangement that converts this show tune to a bluesy rock song.

Reaction from the crowd was very good. They went down just fine. Wood’s playing on sax and flute was commendable. I saw him a few others times afterward live or on video where he was pretty uncomfortable in a concert setting, usually appearing very unhappy with the sound of his sax, which was amplified. And Capaldi was ever solid on drums and harmony vocals.

Later in 1968, Mason returned and Traffic recorded arguably their best album, a self-titled outing with songs such as Feelin’ Alright, Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring, You Can All Join In and Pearly Queen, among others. It was the one time Mason’s songs seemed to blend in perfectly with the rest of the group. But he was gone again shortly after release of the album in the late summer.

In fact, Pulse was booked to open for Traffic on a September date at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, CT, but it was canceled, and I don’t believe Traffic played many more gigs for the rest of that year. They officially broke up for the first time shortly after and Winwood joined Clapton in Blind Faith by the end of the year.

Traffic, of course, would return in several incarnations, not the least of which was the album intended to be Winwood’s first solo effort after Blind Faith that morphed into John Barleycorn Must Die, another touchstone release from this highly influential, highly talented and somewhat overlooked group.

I would see Traffic once more near the end of the band’s run in the early ’70s in New Haven. The group had just released the album When The Eagle Flies and played much of the material from it along with ’70s staples such as Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys. Capaldi was back on drums after a stint as a frontman that saw Jim Gordon handle the traps, and Wood was having multiple sound problems with his various electronic devices. Still, they sounded fine and Winwood was in great shape vocally and as a keyboardist. The band also included Reebop Kwaku Baah on percussion and Roscoe Gee on bass.

They would have one more go-round in 1993 with just Winwood and Capaldi leading the way after producing an extraordinary duo Traffic album Far From Home. By this time, Wood had passed on and Mason was still alienated from Winwood. That band featured some excellent supporting musicians and sounded really special at the Charles Ives Center in Danbury, playing many of the classic Traffic tracks with a mix of the newer material.

Before and after that reunion of sorts, I saw Winwood solo concerts twice in the ’90s and five times in the 2000s. Those are for another post.