Traffic – The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys – new Dolby ATMOS mix Celebrating 50 years of this iconic album

To celebrate its original UK release just over five decades ago, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys is the first Traffic album to be issued in Dolby ATMOS. Created by Richard Whittaker with Steve Winwood and James Towler and supported by the Jim Capaldi & Chris Wood Estates, this spatial-audio soundscape will be released precisely one day shy of the actual Low Spark UK anniversary – on November 25. 

Produced by Steve Winwood, Low Spark was recorded at Island’s Basing Street studios in London during September and October 1971. The album showcases the core of Traffic – the group’s founders Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood – augmented by Ghanaian percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah, drummer Jim Gordon – recruited from Eric Clapton’s short-lived Derek & The Dominoes, Ric Grech formerly Blind Faith’s bass player as well as Spooky Tooth’s Mike Kellie who played the drums on the album’s final cut ‘Rainmaker’. 

On its release in 1971, Low Spark was celebrated as one of the most important releases of its era while, through the decade, it became an album which came to define the new breed of American FM Radio DJs, given to play-listing lengthy pieces of music, notably the albums near 12-minute title track. 

An acknowledged masterpiece, the song was written by Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi having been lyrically inspired by a phrase uttered by Michael J Pollard that Capaldi had written down in his notebook after they had met in a Tangiers hotel. Originally released in a genre-busting top-right, bottom-left corners-cut cover by the artist Tony Wright, the design was lauded at the NME Album Design Awards of 1972: the concept inspired by Jim Capaldi – ‘I wanted the album cover to reflect this very special and unusual piece of music.’ (Genesis Publications, 2012) 

Prior to the album’s release, Traffic embarked on their fifth – and largest yet – US tour. With Fairport Convention opening, they were playing at some of the biggest venues of the era. This east-west run began on October 1, 1971, at the Onondaga War Memorial Stadium in Syracuse, NY before closing at the end of the month at the Community Convention Hall in San Diego.

By Christmas, Low Spark had climbed to #25 on the Billboard chart and, with the Muscle Shoals rhythm twins of David Hood (bass) and Roger Hawkins (drums) replacing Grech and Gordon, Traffic was ready to resume the next leg of their North America tour. As the group debuted their new lineup on January 11, 1972, at the New Haven Arena in Connecticut, David Hood was quoted at the time saying he was ‘terrified, it was the biggest audience I’d played to in my life up to that point.’ 

Having been certified Gold, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys would go on to become Traffic’s second top ten LP in the US. It peaked at #7 on Billboard while it remained in the Canadian album chart from the week of release for over five months. Ultimately, it would be RIAA-certificated Platinum, denoting sales of over 1,000,000 copies. 

The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys is now recognised – worldwide – as not just an iconic release from the 70s but one of the most essential LPs issued in the last fifty+ years. 

Even though the original band ended in November 1974, Steve and Jim re-formed Traffic two decades later, releasing Far From Home in 1994. The album cover featured a flute-playing stick figure against a backdrop of their original Celtic Wheel of Fortune logo – a homage to their departed band-mate Chris Wood. In 2004, Traffic was inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall Of Fame.