 By age six he took up drums and accordion, then guitar at twelve and saxophone at seventeen.He lived in the United States during the 1960s but returned to England in 1969.In the early 1970s, his career grew as he founded the Gary Windo Quartet and worked with Carla Bley, Brotherhood of Breath, Centipede, Matching Mole, The Running Man, and Nick Mason

Sonny Stitt heard Windo play at the Berlin Jazz Festival and asked him to join the band, which he declined.