SAVOY SHUFFLE

Kim Simmonds was 18 years old and living in London when he began a band. It was normal teenage stuff:

pick up a guitar, get with some mates, try to make it big. But there were a few differences in Simmonds’ situation. He was growing up in London in the 1960s, the era of the Beatles, the British Invasion and the British blues boom. He spent his most formative years in a city full of legendary groups like the Rolling Stones, Cream, Ten Years After and Fleetwood Mac, before they were legends.

But rather than sit idly with some of the biggest bands of the century surrounding him, Simmonds made his own mark.

His band, Savoy Brown, not only went on to achieve international success, but an updated version of the outfit is still performing, touring, writing, recording and living in and around Syracuse.

The current lineup, with Simmonds on lead guitar, Joe Whiting on vocals and saxophone, Pat DeSalvo on bass and Garnet Grimm on drums, combines a powerhouse of talent strong enough to uphold the Savoy Brown tradition worldwide. While the band has seen numerous personnel changes throughout 45 years of albums and touring, Simmonds isn’t shy to say that this Syracuse roster is one of the best yet.

Although it’s rare for the locally based, internationally bound band to play in their hometown, they’ll be making an exception for the CD release party of their newest locally written, recorded and produced album, Voodoo Moon (Ruf Records), on Saturday, Oct. 22, 8 p.m., at the Westcott Theater, 524 Westcott St. Tickets for the all-ages show are $20 and $30, available at www.thewestcotttheater.com or at Sound Garden, 310 W. Jefferson St.

Simmonds’ path to America wasn’t smooth. Originally from Wales, Simmonds moved to London as a child and recalls that his 7-years-older brother was a major influence on his musical tastes. “He was a big blues, rock and jazz fan and I just grew up as a kid listening to all the music he was listening to,” Simmonds says. “So from the time I was 13 years old I was pretty well-versed in music. I was one of those young guys you see, even now, that was precocious and played the guitar at a young age really because I was brought up by my older brother.”

Savoy Brown formed in 1965 with singer Bryce Portius, keyboardist Bob Hall, bassist Ray Chappell, drummer Leo Manning and harmonica player John O’Leary. Although the group was emerging in the same scene that saw the Beatles and the Rolling Stones explode, by the time Savoy Brown started making waves, it was as if they’d missed the blues boat.

“When I came along with Savoy Brown it went right against the grain,” Simmonds says. “People told me, ‘You’re crazy, you’ll never make any money. You’ll never make a career, don’t do it,’ because it had already been done by the Rolling Stones in ’63. So in ’66, it was a finished item. But I did it anyway.”

The band was successful although not at the same level of many of its contemporaries including Eric Clapton, John Mayall and Jethro Tull. “We were one of the trailblazers right behind them, along with them really,” Simmonds says. “And everybody who was playing the blues was able to capitalize on it better than I was and they had hits.”

Many of the bands that continued to move into the pages of music history books, like Fleetwood Mac and Jethro Tull, were opening for Savoy Brown at the legendary Marquee Club in London at the time. They were enjoying huge success in England while Simmonds was wondering how much longer his group could hang on.

“In ’69 I was talking to my singer at the time saying, ‘Ya know, we’ve probably got two years left and that’s the end of the line. I can’t see where we’re gonna go with this,’” Simmonds says. “But then all of a sudden America opened up and a new wave of English bands was going over there. You had of course the Beatles and the Stones earlier on and again in the late ‘60s all of a sudden you had a new wave of people going over: Cream, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull and Savoy Brown. So I was a part of that.”

Simmonds knew he needed to capitalize on their stateside success. Whereas in Europe music tended to get caught up in fashion and image, America provided a market where people weren’t so concerned with fashion as much as they were with musical preferences. Simmonds remembers wanting to move immediately. It wasn’t practical at the time, so the band started flying back and forth, relentlessly touring the country that welcomed them more than Britain did.

The band started gaining momentum with songs like “I’m Tired” and “Louisiana Blues” in 1968 with the help of lead singer Chris Youlden, who remained with the group until 1971. He was replaced by vocalist Dave Walker and soon after, Savoy Brown enjoyed their greatest chart success with “Street Corner Talking.” Other hits included “Tell Mama,” “All I Can Do is Cry” and their remake of “I Can’t Get Next to You,” which helped take the band to platinum status. Those songs placed them on the Billboard Hot 100 and in 1972 Hellbound Train (Dorset) made it to the Top 40 in the United States.

However, the group went through frequent changes over the years, rotating musicians in and out, perhaps hindering further success, with only Simmonds remaining constant. Still, he always worked to keep the Savoy Brown name going and in 1979 moved to Ohio, where his wife at the time was from, and lived there for about 10 years until several major changes in his life prompted him to move here.

“I knew musician friends in Ithaca and around this area and I moved,” he says. “My career was stalled, the band’s career was stalling, I had gone through a bad divorce. I pretty much lost everything so I was in that stage where I had to rebuild my life.”

Band of Brothers

Simmonds moved to Ithaca in 1988 and Oswego in 1991 after he married Debbie Lyons, who would later become his office manager. While in Ithaca, Simmonds started connecting with people active in the Central New York music scene, including Greg Spencer, president of Blue Wave Records in Baldwinsville. Spencer was directly plugged in with local musicians and had worked with Whiting on several occasions.

Whiting—a local success story in his own right with Jukin’ Bone; Joe Whiting and the Bandit Band, who toured with Van Halen; and Doyle & Whiting with guitar great Mark Doyle—got along well with Simmonds and the two began working together around 1989. They performed as the Kim Simmonds Blues Express, doing dates here and there, but it never materialized into anything as both musicians had their own projects, Simmonds with Savoy Brown and Whiting with Jumpin’ Joe Whiting’s Rockin’ Rhythm Review.

“It was a lot of fun and people liked it,” Whiting says. “But he was doing one thing, I was doing another. Still, we kept in touch and remained friends and I think perhaps in the back of our minds it was always maybe a thought of working in some fashion together.”

That opportunity came slowly. Around 2001, Simmonds decided he would take on the additional role of singing for Savoy Brown as well as playing guitar and writing songs. It worked for a few years, but eventually became exhausting for Simmonds. Then, in 2009, his bass player Gerry Sorrentino became ill and Simmonds needed a replacement. He called on another musician he had become familiar with by living in the area:

DeSalvo, who has played bass for 47 years with, according to DeSalvo, “everybody in town at this point.”

Although DeSalvo worked full time in information technology for Matrix Communications, he managed to free himself up to tour with Simmonds. “I had already recorded with Kim,” DeSalvo says. “I did a couple acoustic records and thought it was just going to be a month, maybe. I went to the West Coast with him. He asked if I could join the band.”

Simmonds also decided that enlisting local drummer Grimm, rather than the previous one, Mario Staiano, who lived in Long Island, meant they could rehearse more often. Grimm, who formerly hit the skins for Los Blancos, joined the group and the local powerhouse nearly took its final form.

“I was at Greg’s one day as I use him as a sounding board or even just to play music and hang out,” Simmonds says. “It was getting to the point I was doing too too much, like a lot of people. It’s the music business: You’re the bandleader, you’re the singer, you’re the songwriter, you’re the guitar player, blah, blah, blah. It’s like, what the heck are you doing? I was getting to the age where it was too much for me. Greg just happened to say, ‘Ya know, this might be a good time to give Joe a call.’ It was an off-hand remark like that, not a pointed remark and immediately it struck me. It was like, ‘Ya know.

That’s what I’ve got to do.’” Simmonds called Whiting and got a quick response. “Instantly, yes,” Whiting says. “The timing was right. My band at the time was going through a transition. I wanted to do something different.”

Bring it on Home

All of the members agree, it was as if everything aligned at the right moment. The musicians are experienced, with years of the business under their belts. Grimm is the youngest at 46, DeSalvo is 56, and both Whiting and Simmonds are 63. Whiting revels in reminding Simmonds that he has three months on him, as Whiting has been the oldest in all of his previous bands. The bandmates balance work and family, noting the importance of their children and wives; further, DeSalvo and Grimm have full-time jobs that they’ve kept for 24 years, in addition to playing in several bands.

“They’re all really nice guys. No egos. No ‘I don’t wanna do this,’” Whiting says. “When you’ve done it for as long as we’ve done it, the mistakes that you make at 20 or 25, if you’re still in it at this point, you don’t make those mistakes anymore. The reason, speaking for myself, that I do it is because of the music. Because of the people.”

The combination of personality, talent and drive helped provoke Simmonds to start composing for the dream team lineup about a year and a half ago. The band was close enough to rehearse often and, as Simmonds brought demos to rehearsals or along for long drives between tour dates, the creative juices started flowing.

“We rehearsed a real lot and reworked the songs,” DeSalvo says. “Different keys, different grooves. Kim’s the writer, envisions things and we just work with him on it. One of the best things about Kim is he really draws the most out of you. It’s a family, it’s important. You’re not suffocated at all. You can come up with parts and we work on a lot of things, a lot of things he doesn’t even question. I’ll do something and be like, ‘I wonder if that’s OK?’ and it’s like, it’s on the record.”

The group recorded at White Cottage Studio, Simmonds’ home studio, in 2010 and finished mastering and mixing Voodoo Moon at SubCat Studio in downtown Syracuse with the help of engineer Ron Keck, who also contributed percussion, and producer Spencer. It’s an album that will circle the globe and every bit of it came together right here.

The show at the Westcott promises a range of material, spanning the new album due out Nov. 1 to songs from when the band began more than 40 years ago. The depth of history Simmonds and the name Savoy Brown bring to the stage still affects the other members of the group, all of whom admit sometimes the whole experience is a bit surreal.

“When I was growing up there was Savoy Brown, Humble Pie, Ten Years After, The Yardbirds, those were the bands I would listen to, all that stuff,” DeSalvo says. “Sometimes I’m playing, I’m looking over and I’m like, I can’t believe I’m playing with the guy. Me, Garnet and Joe have been in the trenches with the Syracuse music scene. This is just a phenomenal opportunity for all of us to be able to be doing this. Sometimes people will come up to the show with like 30 albums for us to sign. This is what, his {Simmonds’} 50th release? It’s overwhelming.”

Likewise, Simmonds often looks around on stage and feels fortunate as well. “I’ve got a band all from Syracuse—a fantastic band,” he says. “We go around the country, the world, and everybody comes up to me and says what a great band it is. So these are musicians that everybody knows. There are great musicians here.”

Sometimes it just takes time, even as much as 45 years, for an aligning of the stars and perhaps a voodoo moon as well, but it’s worth it when everything comes together just right.