Sometimes, you just want to hear a good old-fashioned unadulterated blues. And sometimes—fairly often, actually—the members of Savoy Brown feel like playing one. Here they are in 2013 on the Clocktower stage at the Kitchener, Ontario, Blues Festival. Since it was founded in 1965 the band has gone through almost too many personnel changes to keep track of, although that is possible if you go to this web page and scroll down to Members. Today’s Savoy Brown is led by guitarist Kim Simmonds with Pat DeSalvo on bass and Garnet Grimm on drums. Here they play a piece entitled, with uncanny accuracy, “Slow Blues.â€Â They’re in B-flat. Feel free to play or sing along.
It may be that not all jazz listeners cotton to that uncomplicated approach to the blues, but those who do might consider looking up Savoy Brown’s album called Witchy Feelin’. It features the same musicians. Its eleven tracks include a gritty Kim Simmonds piece titled “Memphis Blues,†which is not the 1912 W.C. Handy composition that helped pave the way for popular acceptance of jazz. It feels good anyway.