Steven Savage, the founder of Blue Bear School of Music. Original photo: Jay Blakesberg.

The world needs more music, of that there’s little doubt. But saying so and doing something about it are two very different concepts.

Steven Savage brings music to people in the simplest and most useful way possible. He doesn’t just make it and show them. The cofounder and executive director of Blue Bear School of Music teaches them to make it for themselves.

Now is a great time to expand the idea.

“I think, on some level, we’re suffering from mass psychosis right now,” said the 73-year drummer, producer, engineer, entrepreneur (and fledgling piano player). “The whole country, the whole world, is suffering considerably. You need joy in your life. Collaboration and communication are more important than ever, right now.

“The need for people to be healing through music is needed now.”

Blue Bear, a San Francisco institution and likely the original “school of rock,” is celebrating its 50th anniversary by enacting an ambitious plan to expand to the East Bay.

Years in the making–and delayed by the pandemic–work is scheduled to start on a new Blue Bear facility next month in Albany, where Savage lives.

The new, 2,100-square-foot facility on Solano Avenue will need six months of reconstructing, plus another three months of work from Blue Bear. The hope is to have it up and running for students by September.

“The pandemic has made this so problematic,” Savage said. “So many nonprofits are just trying to survive right now. But it’s exciting for us and it would be so exciting with so many people in the East Bay.”

Savage, who teaches musicology at San Francisco State, came up musically during 1960s-era San Francisco, a cultural hotbed he equates with 1920s Paris.

“It was an amazing time,” Savage said. “I saw Jimi Hendrix, with his original band, at the Fillmore, the Dead and the Airplane on New Year’s Eve … I’m really fortunate.”

Savage cofounded Blue Bear with former bandmate Steve Strauss in 1971 on Ocean Avenue as a rehearsal spot for them. They paid the rent by offering music lessons, and while the band faded, the concept of a centralized music hub grew. It moved to Fort Mason a few years later.

“The band wasn’t a great idea, but the school was a very good idea,” Savage said. “The thought that the school was going to last this long and become a cultural icon in the Bay Area wasn’t on anyone’s mind.”

Over the years, Savage has engineered or produced eight Grammy-winning records and has also been the president of the San Francisco chapter of The Recording Academy between 1997 and ’98.

The school, which has an ongoing enrollment of about 800 students, offers everything from private lessons to DJ lessons to 10-week garage band workshop during which people of all ages and skill levels literally learn how to be in a band. The sessions end with live performances at a local venue.

Steven Savage (l) with Elvin Bishop (c) and B.B. King in 2008. Courtesy.

“For a lot of people, it’s their first time playing a show, on a real stage,” said Savage, who has engineered, produced and managed a number of notable acts over the years, working with people like B.B. King, Albert Collins, Jack Bruce, Tower of Power, Elvin Bishop, Dr. John and others.

The new project will cost about $1 million, and Savage is looking for a name sponsor. As in, a company or person who will donate $500,000 and, in turn, get their name on the new campus.

“It has to be someone who cares about what you’re doing, and has the capacity to help,” Savage said.

To find out more about Blue Bear School of Music, visit its website, where you can donate to the school and support the music education of youths who would otherwise not be able to afford it.

Follow music critic Tony Hicks at Twitter.com/TonyBaloney1967.