Biography
Mick Weaver stands as an experienced keyboardist whose career has spanned British and global music scenes from the late 1960s forward, functioning both as a bandleader and a session contributor. Born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1944, he gravitated toward blues, jazz, and soul during his development and cultivated exceptional command of the Hammond B-3 organ, his preferred instrument; recordings later confirm his capacity to produce an outsized sonic presence from its keys, which created steady demand for his services as an accompanist and enabled him to launch his own group, Wynder K. Frog, in 1967, adopting that same pseudonym for the band’s releases.
He issued a first album, Sunshine Super Frog (1967), on Island Records under the Wynder K. Frog name, with backing from unnamed New York session players; an early live version of the band also opened one of Traffic’s earliest concerts. The strongest lineup emerged once Weaver gained guitarist Neil Hubbard, formerly of Bluesology, and Chris Mercer, who had played with John Mayall.
The group cultivated a loyal audience through its jazz-and-blues blend and completed two LPs. Audiences and reviewers responded favorably, and had the band formed earlier or persisted longer it might have secured the same breadth of session work achieved by the Mike Cotton Sound and Sounds Incorporated. That trajectory did not unfold: Wynder K. Frog merged with Herbie Goins’ band the Night Timers in 1969 and disbanded before the year ended.
Weaver stayed active, appearing on albums by Shawn Phillips and Fat Mattress, contributing to the original studio recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, and joining the reconfigured Traffic after Dave Mason’s final departure. Steve Winwood left Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood to join Blind Faith, placing Weaver on keyboards in the lineup first billed as Mason, Capaldi, Wood & Frog and later renamed Wooden Frog.
The ensemble dissolved soon after Winwood enlisted Capaldi and Wood for his solo project, the album John Barleycorn Must Die, which evolved into a re-formed Traffic (a year or so afterward, ex-Wynder K. Frog percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah also joined Traffic). By then Weaver’s stature as a keyboardist, especially on organ, was established, and he logged decades of session work with U.K.-based artists such as Juicy Lucy, Ralph McTell, Miller Anderson, and Keef Hartley, alongside international figures including blues legend Buddy Guy, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, soul singer Joe Cocker (who at one point employed half of Wynder K. Frog), Steve Marriott, Eric Burdon, and guitarist Gary Moore. In more recent years he has maintained a continuing role in Taj Mahal’s band and has been featured on collections devoted to Hammond organ sounds.
He issued a first album, Sunshine Super Frog (1967), on Island Records under the Wynder K. Frog name, with backing from unnamed New York session players; an early live version of the band also opened one of Traffic’s earliest concerts. The strongest lineup emerged once Weaver gained guitarist Neil Hubbard, formerly of Bluesology, and Chris Mercer, who had played with John Mayall.
The group cultivated a loyal audience through its jazz-and-blues blend and completed two LPs. Audiences and reviewers responded favorably, and had the band formed earlier or persisted longer it might have secured the same breadth of session work achieved by the Mike Cotton Sound and Sounds Incorporated. That trajectory did not unfold: Wynder K. Frog merged with Herbie Goins’ band the Night Timers in 1969 and disbanded before the year ended.
Weaver stayed active, appearing on albums by Shawn Phillips and Fat Mattress, contributing to the original studio recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, and joining the reconfigured Traffic after Dave Mason’s final departure. Steve Winwood left Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood to join Blind Faith, placing Weaver on keyboards in the lineup first billed as Mason, Capaldi, Wood & Frog and later renamed Wooden Frog.
The ensemble dissolved soon after Winwood enlisted Capaldi and Wood for his solo project, the album John Barleycorn Must Die, which evolved into a re-formed Traffic (a year or so afterward, ex-Wynder K. Frog percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah also joined Traffic). By then Weaver’s stature as a keyboardist, especially on organ, was established, and he logged decades of session work with U.K.-based artists such as Juicy Lucy, Ralph McTell, Miller Anderson, and Keef Hartley, alongside international figures including blues legend Buddy Guy, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, soul singer Joe Cocker (who at one point employed half of Wynder K. Frog), Steve Marriott, Eric Burdon, and guitarist Gary Moore. In more recent years he has maintained a continuing role in Taj Mahal’s band and has been featured on collections devoted to Hammond organ sounds.