Colwell-Winfield Blues Band
In 1967, several Berklee students and Boston-area musicians joined forces as The Colwell-Winfield Blues Band: Billy Colwell (guitar), Mike Winfield (bass), Chuck Purro (drums), Jack Schroer (alto, tenor, soprano saxophone), Moose Sorrento (vocals) and Colin Tilton (tenor saxophone, flute). James Montgomery played his first gig in Boston sitting in with them, and Colwell later returned the favor as the first guitarist in The James Montgomery Band.
Psychedelic Supermarket owner George Papadopoulos became Colwell-Winfield’s manager and landed the group a deal with MGM Verve in 1968. Their lone studio offering, Cold Wind Blues, released that year, preceded a national tour that saw Bill Graham book the band to open for Led Zeppelin at the Fillmore and Winterland in San Francisco April 1969. The disc is widely considered to be an underrated psych-jazz-blues rock classic.
VAN MORRISON, LIVE BUST, DISBANDING, POST-SPLIT ACTIVITY
After the tour and now based in Woodstock, New York, the band returned to the studio to record a second LP, but vocalist Sorrento departed before they got much on tape. Shortly thereafter, Van Morrison asked Purro, Schroer and Tilton to play in his band, which they did in the early 1970s, Schroer appearing on seven of his albums from that period, including Moondance and Tupelo Honey. He also recorded with Paul Simon and New Riders of the Purple Sage. Colwell, Winfield and Purro reunited for their only other official release, 1971’s Live Bust, recorded at the Phoenix Coffee House in Boston; you can hear police shutting down the show at the end of the record. Both of their albums have been reissued by Italian label Akarma.
The last 40 years have seen the band member go in and out of music. Tilton went on to play with Eight to the Bar, Sorrento became a vocal teacher at Berklee and Purro joined the Montgomery’s band, playing on his first three albums. He’s also worked with Susan Tedeschi and Paul Rishell and Annie Raines and since 1981 he’s owned the Yankee Book & Art Gallery in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Winfield continued to live in Woodstock, working as a musician and carpenter, before he eventually moved to Seattle as a drug and alcohol counselor. Colwell returned to Boston, where he led various bands, and has since died, as has Jack Schroer.
(by Stephen Haag, with thanks to Chuck Purro)
