Clyde and The Blue Grooves

The origin of the blues is rooted in the rhythm and the groove – providing the pulse of the jook joints and dances from Mississippi to Chicago. Led by the guitar and vocals of Clyde Morris this great four-piece line picks up those grooves and explodes them into a joyous, soulful and funked up journey that traces those influences and their impact on musicians from those blues originators through Marvin Gaye and onto Prince and a whole lot more on the way! Don’t miss this superb night of grooves at Hideaway Jazz Club!
Featuring special guest Ashleigh Brown from Arlington, Virginia, USA.

CLYDE MORRIS
Clyde was born in Birmingham of Jamaican parents who came to England in the early 1950’s. From a very early age Clyde was exposed to the large and varied music collection of his parents and extended family. This music of the day included Ska, Bluebeat, & Rocksteady which was played at family celebrations. The music of The Skatalites, Prince Buster, & Dennis Alcapone were firm favourites.

According to Clyde, ‘Mum was forever singing along to songs on the radio by The Beatles, and The Stones, she was also a really big fan of Jimi Hendrix’. It was around this time (mid 1960’s) that the sound of the guitar took a hold in Clyde’s consciousness. However, it would be his late teens before he picked up a guitar.

In Birmingham, whilst still teenagers (early 1970’s), Clyde and his brother Garry would sometimes attend all night parties and dances to hear the sound systems of the day play hard core reggae. Initially interested in bass, at 17yrs of age, Clyde borrowed a cheap Woolworths six string guitar from a friend on which he picked out bass lines from reggae bands such as Bob Marley and the Wailers. When the family moved to Nottingham in 1975 Clyde was exposed to pop, soul, funk & blues, and began to pick out those bass lines too.

On going to University in 1977 Clyde made the change to rhythm & lead guitar, at first acoustic, then electric. It was at this time that he began his love affair with the blues and jammed with like minded students. Favourites included the three kings (BB, Freddie, and Albert), Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix.

After graduation in 1981 Clyde moved to London where he bought his first proper guitar, a 1979 Fender Stratocaster for £200. He was by now a huge Jimi Hendrix fan and had to have the same guitar as his hero. Over the ensuing years Clyde played guitar & sang backing vocals in a myriad of bands, in a variety of styles. These styles included soul, funk. Reggae, jazz and blues. One band ‘SAY WHAT’ shared a bill with soul legend Randy Crawford at The Theatre Royal Glasgow in 1987.

In 2010, tired of being a blues guitar side man and backing vocalist, Clyde decided to step out front and became a singer/guitarist, eventually forming his own band Clyde & The Blue Grooves in 2012. In 2010 Clyde made the switch from being a lifelong Fender strat player, to a Gibson Les Paul player & Gibson 335.