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.
Jim's Grandfather played the accordion. He and wife Angelina had six daughters and three sons. 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 Maria sang with a touring troupe and recorded early 78 rpm records.
They lived and breathed music and when Jim was born on August 2, 1944, music was already in his blood. At the vanguard of popular music for four decades, Jim Capaldi had 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 fuelled by Jim's writing partnership with Steve Winwood, Jim 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 maintained his momentum with U.S. successes like "That's Love" and “Living On The Edge†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 Jim toured 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 was always a gifted songwriter. A five time winner of either BMI or ASCAP awards, in respect of most played compositions in America, he was sought 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. and there was a resultant live CD from the tour. Living On The Outside was the first product delivered for a new European based world wide recording deal for Jim. It was recorded at Can studios. Can Studios, in Weilerswist near Koln, was set up and previously owned by German Techno act Can. A very innovative and historically important place the studio was recently bought by the German Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and London Bridge style has been taken apart brick by brick and wire by wire to be completely faithfully re-assembled in their museum as a working studio opening in 2007.
Living On The Outside was co-produced by Jim and with Can’s engineer producer Rene Tinner who by now owned the place himself, released in 2002, the album contained guest appearances from George Harrison, Steve Winwood, Paul Weller, Gary Moore and Ian Paice.
Jim was writing and recording for his final studio album Poor Boy Blue during 2003 when late in the year the call came though to say that Traffic were to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in March of 2004.
Following their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2004 plans were well advanced between Jim & Steve for a further Traffic tour that Autumn but sadly with Jim’s illness events overtook everyone and the tour never came to be...
Jim died in January 2005 leaving a rich legacy within the body of work he had created, a benchmark for aspiring musicians and songwriters.
On 21st January 2007 some of Rock’s elite performers gathered to pay tribute to Jim at the Roundhouse in London at an event called Dear Mr Fantasy.
A star studded house band was joined by some very special guests including Steve Winwood, Joe Walsh, Pete Townshend, Yusuf Islam, Paul Weller, Gary Moore, Jon Lord, Bill Wyman, Dennis Locorriere and many more.
The concert was a beautiful event with a special atmosphere. It was filmed and recorded and released on CD and DVD in Summer of 2007.
