British progressive rock outfit Jody Grind released two little-known albums that merged hard rock, jazz, blues, and classical elements through lineups built around Hammond organ, guitar, and drums. Their extended instrumental passages and somewhat weighty, austere original songs aligned them with other early organ-led U.K. progressive acts, although they lacked the inventiveness, songcraft, or vocal ability of better-known practitioners such as the various groups featuring organists Keith Emerson, Vincent Crane, and Brian Auger.
Hammond organist Tim Hinkley anchored Jody Grind, having already appeared in the Bo Street Runners (which for a spell also included drummer Mick Fleetwood) and the Chicago Line Blues Band. He next assembled musicians to accompany British singer Elkie Brooks, yet after that planned collaboration failed to occur, Hinkley, guitarist Ivan Zagni, and drummer Martin Harriman formed their own band late in 1968. Initially named Nova, they soon adopted Jody Grind, taken from a Horace Silver jazz composition. After signing with Transatlantic in April 1969, Barry Wilson replaced Harriman on drums. Renaissance bassist Louis Cennamo (an earlier Chicago Line Blues Band member who would later join Armageddon) never became an official member but contributed to the 1969 debut One Step On, which featured brass arrangements.
Personnel changed sharply after the record appeared when Zagni and Wilson departed. Hinkley kept the group alive by adding guitarist and singer Bernie Holland plus drummer Pete Gavin, shifting toward a more varied and hard rock-centered style with less jazz emphasis on the 1970 album Far Canal. Neither release achieved commercial success, and the band dissolved around the time Far Canal came out. Hinkley subsequently played in Vinegar Joe (which also included Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer) before working as a session musician.
