March, 2007

The crowd-pleasing rock group Superior Olive plays a spectrum of music including danceable rock from the 1960’s to present day, concert rock, and progressive-jam music influenced by Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Frank Zappa.  Beyond their extensive list of cover songs, they have also released three CD’s of original music.  The band frequently tours the West Coast and has a strong sense of goodwill and charity, performing for worthwhile causes such as Toys for Tots and Valley Churches United Missions.  The members of Superior Olive are Tom Savell (vocals/guitar/violin), Joel Savell (vocals/bass), Keith Graves (drums), Chad Leachman (guitar), and Eric Sanford (keyboards), with management and production support from Jacob Savell.

Frontman/singer and violinist/guitarist Tom Savell started his music career as a ten year-old at the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, OH.   He quickly moved on to a 2-year stint with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra - Youth Division, eventually earning a Bachelors Degree in Music from UC San Diego, where he learned that Superior Olive’s are brain centers that process spatial and directional information from the ears.   Tom has numerous album and independent film recording credits, having recorded with Aynsley Dunbar (Frank Zappa, Journey), Jorge Bermudez (Crowded House, Santana), and was a featured soloist on Gregory Page’s "The Romantic Adventures of Harry" (Bizarre/Planet Records).

Multi-talented drummer Keith Graves is well known in the Bay Area as a sought after session musician and has logged hundreds of hours in the studio and on the road, both on drums and bass guitar.  Keith has recorded with the likes of Rico Reyes (Carlos Santana), David Lowery (Cracker), and Greg Camp (Smash Mouth), and has worked with many others including Jerry Miller (Moby Grape).

Bassist/vocalist Joel Savell received his first bass guitar at a young age as a gift from Jacob Savell, and began performing with the group very soon afterward.  In addition to his work with Superior Olive, Joel has released his own CD of surf music with his band Fetal Pigs in Brine.

Guitarist Chad Leachman started with Joel’s band and was tapped for work with Superior Olive after successful shows in San Francisco.

Keyboardist Eric Sanford has been playing since he was eight years old, and has provided piano lessons to children in the Santa Cruz area for several years.

July, 2001

Superior Olive blends pop rock with classical and world music influences using a traditional guitar-bass-keyboards-drums lineup. They also throw in an occasional violin or sitar. Bandleader Tom Savell sings vocals and plays guitar, violin, and keyboards. With producer Jacob Save, Tom has released three Superior Olive albums on the Still Fumin' Records label, It’s All In The Mind (1989), Farewell To The Illusion (1991), and Ziggurat (2001).

Tom began his music career playing violin in orchestras at an early age and was earning union-scale by the age of 13. He has recorded on numerous albums including Gregory Page’s Romantic Adventures of Harry (1994, Bizzare/Planet), and has recorded with drummer Aynsley Dunbar. Tom has “a powerful voice” according to radio personality Sleepy John of KPIG in Freedom, CA. He is also an audio chip architect, a published author in the field of digital audio, and holds patents in digital audio processing. His background led to the interesting origin of the band name, Superior Olive. Jacob asked Tom if he knew anything in the brain that had to do with music or sound. Tom recalled that Superior Olives are the complexes in the brain that decode stereo hearing – the parts of the brain that tell if sound is coming from the left or the right. Thus was born the name.

NEW SUPERIOR OLIVE CD RELEASED WITH DRUMMER AYNSLEY DUNBAR