By Borge Skilbrigt
©2001 Old
Goat Publishing
While this may be news to Agent 007 lovers, there's more than one Brit named Bond. While that fictional film character with the first name of James may garner the bigger audience, it is another Bond-Graham Bond-who has left a long-lasting impression with his influential music. Although many consider Alexis Korner as the father of the British blues/R&B movement, Graham Bond also deserves credit for its development. "Loud, hypnotic and neurotic" is how Melody Maker reporter Chris Welch once described Bond's music. "It wails, screams and tears at the senses for minutes on end, demanding either complete attention or complete rejection."
Bond was not afraid to experiment, introducing the Mellotron to British audiences as well as being one of the first on the scene to use the Hammond organ. His approach to music was also unconventional, as he boldly mixed elements of jazz into his brand of R&B, a feat unheard of at the time. "It doesn't have to be a 12-bar. Blues can be 91/2 bars, or 14 bars, and in any time," he once explained to Melody Maker. "You can play so many different sequences, or no sequences at all. Talk about 'Free Form'-there is a tremendous parallel with the blues, because it's so free. We are playing the blues of today and I can get away with playing practically anything. There is no reason at all why you can't take the blues and put the technique of modern jazz on it."
Graham John Clifton Bond (b. October 28, 1937, Romford, Essex; d. May 8, 1974, London, U.K.) was born a chronic asthmatic and, as a child, suffered constantly from his breathing impairment. He started playing the piano at an early age. "I told my parents I wanted to play organ and they were all going to come up to the Albert Hall to watch me play," he later recalled to Melody Maker. "So they got me a piano and I studied from the age of seven until I was 14." He later joined the school orchestra and became proficient on the cello and oboe. Although classically trained, he developed great interest in Dixieland jazz in the early 1950s, and by 1953 he had joined some school friends in forming the Modernnaires.
At age 14, Bond took up kharma yoga (also known as "breathing yoga"), which led to his interest in the saxophone. "When I was 15 I decided to form a jazz band and because I had chronic asthma, I took up alto sax to help strengthen my lungs and breathing. Now I've got very strong lungs. My father bought me an alto, and for weeks before that I practiced fingering with the stick with the notes cut in. I've got an unconventional approach to saxophone. I never bothered with chords-I just believe in blowing!" However, as the jazz scene was gradually changing, Bond also became interested in bebop. He soon met drummer Terry Lovelock and, along with pianist Colin Wild, formed the Terry Graham Trio.
Although the group was a modern jazz outfit, they had to compromise their style and sound because the public craved dance music. With gigs hard to come by, Bond worked days as a refrigerator salesman. But, he was eager to go a step further musically and so began jamming in the London jazz scene. He met with some resistance, however, as audiences and even most musicians found his sax playing far too avant-garde for their tastes.
By mid-1957, Bond found himself working as a cocktail pianist on the Spanish isle of Majorca. Even though he initially enjoyed the Mediterranean lifestyle, he returned to England less than a year later, where he teamed up with Lovelock and various musicians as the Terry Graham Quartet.
An important meeting took place late in March 1960. Tenor player Dick Heckstall-Smith (b. September 26, 1934; Ludlow, Shropshire, U.K.) was already a pro jazz musician with lots of experience when the two met at one of Heckstall-Smith's gigs. Bond asked to sit in and was quite impressive with his alto playing, a significant development since his earlier failings on the scene. That same month he married a pianist named Diane Eton and by May had joined the Goudie Charles Quintet, playing London's suburbs. The band expanded to a sextet with Goudie on guitar, Milton James on tenor sax, Gordon Bellamy on trombone, Roy Surman on bass and Art Terry on drums, in addition to Bond on alto sax.
Bond stayed with the group for a year until he became involved with Don Rendell and his quartet through former bandmate Lovelock. Lovelock, now Rendell's drummer on leave, had advised the tenor player to check out his friend. Bond became a member of the band, or as Melody Maker wrote in May 1961: "The Don Rendell Four Become Five." Bass player Tony Archer and pianist John Burch comprised the rest of the quintet. In early June, just two weeks before recording their debut album for the U.S. label Jazzland (a subsidiary of Riverside), drummer Lovelock was replaced by Phil Kinorra (a.k.a. Julian Covey).
While they were recording, Melody Maker reported that the month-old quintet "nearly swung the tapes off the machines when they were blowing some of the wildest jazz this side of New York." A few days after the session, the Don Rendell Five left for their first provincial tour: Birmingham, Derby, Leicester, Nottingham and Leeds. This circuit would become their usual path when they later returned north. Meanwhile, in London they secured more income with gigs at the Flamingo Club, Ronnie Scott's and the Marquee club.
Although busy by night with the quintet, Bond also worked as a sales and promotion manager for Central Record Distributors. In early October, the New Don Rendell Quintet's Roarin' became available in retail stores on both sides of the Atlantic (U.S./Jazzland JLP 51 (M), Jazzland JLP 951S (S); U.K./Jazzland JLP 51). As the second British jazz group ever to have a release on an American label (Joe Harriott's band having the first), this was an extraordinary achievement, as U.S. labels until that point had shown little interest in overseas groups. The record was very good with its combination of soon-to-be standards and self-produced material, and the stormy interplay between the two seemingly incongruous jazz and blues styles was especially appealing.
A month later, Bond briefly joined forces with Heckstall-Smith in the Live New Departures when a New Jazz & Poetry concert-including poet Pete Brown-was staged at St. Pancras Town Hall in London.
Kicking off 1962 rather nicely, Bond's name appeared in two sections of Melody Maker's annual jazz poll. Apart from achieving second place in the "New Star" section (topped only by Dick Morrissey), he also secured sixth place in the "Alto" section-not bad for a guy who was brand-new to the pro scene. In May, with drummer Kinorra now replaced by Ted Pope, the group visited Belgium and performed at an international jazz show in Brussels. They were promptly invited back for TV and radio in the autumn. Summer came with the usual festivals, and apart from First West County at Taunton, Earlswood at Birmingham, and East Coast at Cleethorpes, the band also performed at the Second National Jazz Festival at Richmond for the second straight year.
In mid-September, the quintet recorded their first session for the BBC. With Heckstall-Smith as a guest player, they sounded like a small big band á la the Cannonball Adderley Sextet. The band smoked, especially when the sax section traded solos: Rendell on soprano, Bond on alto and Heckstall-Smith on tenor.
Bond was now also involved in a budget big band, the Johnny Burch Octet. Aside from Burch, Bond and Heckstall-Smith, the lineup featured Miff Moule (baritone), Mike Falana (trumpet), John Mumford (trombone), Jack Bruce (double bass) and Ginger Baker (drums). Pretty much a combination of the Rendell Band (Bond and Burch) and Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated (Heckstall-Smith, Bruce and Baker), they started playing together on their days off. While they didn't tour (aside from a few gigs in Wales), they did secure regular nearby gigs at clubs, including Klooks Kleek, the Plough Pub located in Illford, Essex, and occasionally the Marquee.
In late October, Bond quit the Don Rendell Quintet, explaining that he had wanted a change for a while and was feeling challenged to play piano again. The chance came almost right away, when harp player/vocalist Cyril Davies left Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, which was suddenly moving into a direction of mixing Muddy Waters blues with horn-driven Charles Mingus jazz-something Davies very much disliked. On the other hand, this direction appealed to Bond, who gladly accepted when Korner invited him in. In addition to Korner on guitar and Dick Heckstall-Smith on tenor, the impressive Blues Incorporated roster now included Ronnie Jones on vocals, Johnny Parker on piano, Bruce on double bass and Baker on drums. Some fine black female backing singers called the Velvettes also performed with them on occasion.
Though the Rendell Quintet had worked pretty hard on the tiny circuit, Graham's new group went into a massive round of gigs. Apart from a residence at the Marquee, they also worked regularly in clubs as far away as Manchester and Liverpool.
Early in 1963, Blues Incorporated left their Marquee residency for a new spot at the Flamingo. Although both were off-license clubs, it was probably a good move for Korner because the new venue became an all-night club during the weekends. Around this time, Bond, Bruce and Baker started to play the intervals as a Hammond organ trio. (Georgie Fame has said that Bond introduced him to the organ during this period. The instrument would prove to be quite powerful in the R&B connection in the years to come). "I was the first one to be taking the Hammond around the country except for people like Harold Smart," Bond later said to Beat Instrumental. "I pioneered the splitting of the Hammond. It was necessary to do it to get around in those days."
Ginger Baker was hardly a stranger to Bond. Aside from playing together in the Johnny Burch Octet, the two had played the occasional gig together in various other formations. Scotsman Jack Bruce, on the other hand, was a bit younger than the other two, although still an experienced bass player. During his early teens, Bruce had studied cello before heading off to Italy with a group for a while. He returned, sat in with Heckstall-Smith and Baker at a May ball, and next popped up in Korner's band. By this point, Bond was working every night either with Blues Incorporated, the Johnny Burch Octet or his own trio. In fact, he contributed to all three combinations on some nights.
In between the tight gig schedule, Blues Incorporated also found time to do some sessions for the BBC. They appeared on both the 6.25 TV show and radio's Jazz Club. (Later, "Rockin'," recorded at the radio broadcast, turned up on Korner's retrospective album, Bootleg Him). During this period, the band also did a session for Decca at their West Hampstead studio. Recorded at night with an invited audience, Blues Incorporated performed 11 songs. Unfortunately, only "Early in the Morning" and "Night Time Is the Right Time" were ever released.
Bond also played on a session for competitor EMI. Backed by the Blues Incorporated rhythm section plus Heckstall-Smith and the Velvettes, Bond both sang and played his Hammond through the audition recording. Nothing came to fruition at the time, but the EMI link was made.
In late February, Bond's trio played in Manchester on their own, making more money than either Blues Incorporated or the Johnny Burch Octet could command per player. Bond realized that leading his own trio would be far more lucrative financially than being part of a septet, so after a heated discussion with Korner at the Flamingo, Bond left, taking Bruce and Baker with him. The rhythm section hadn't actually decided to leave, as the steady income with Korner was quite secure, but, as Baker put it, "He left for me and Jack!" Bruce would later say it took years before Korner really forgave him.
In any event, the trio were on their own and, although Bond's reputation helped a lot, they struggled to obtain gigs. The group was now Graham's main source of income, but he still contributed to the Burch Octet and was also occasionally involved with the Live New Departures, a jazz and poetry unit that had been performing sporadically since the St. Pancras Town Hall concert in 1961. However, early in March, guitarist John McLaughlin joined the trio after leaving Georgie Fame's band, and Bond signed a five-year contract with EMI.
The band's first release was backing singer Duffy Power on a Hammond-spiced version of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There." Bond's own "Farewell Baby" was originally chosen as the A-side and "I Saw Her Standing There" as the B-side, but Parlophone flip-flopped the songs prior to release.
A package tour backing Power took place in April, with Joe Brown and Marty Wilde also on the bill. That same month, the Graham Bond Quartet found time to record a BBC radio session for Jazz Club on the twenty-fifth. Augmented by singer Bobby Breen on two songs, they played a mix of Ray Charles songs and original material and arrangements. In May, "I Saw Her Standing There" was released as a single, and during the summer months Duffy Power and the Graham Bond Quartet-as they were billed-promoted the record through two BBC radio sessions. In June, they appeared on Saturday Club and the following month were featured on Pop Goes the Beatles. During this time, another EMI session with Duffy and the Quartet produced two Ray Charles tunes, but both remain unreleased.
In August 1963, Bond appeared at the "National Jazz Festival" again, as the organizers now had chosen to include R&B in the program. Also that month, Heckstall-Smith left Blues Incorporated. He found a new place to stay when Ginger Baker fired McLaughlin in September. The reason, according to Baker, was quite simple: McLaughlin was "a miserable moaner." During his short stay, however, McLaughlin was introduced to certain things by Bond, one being the occult. Bond had been quite interested in the subject for some time and he guided McLaughlin in learning to read Tarot cards. Bond's interest in the occult eventually grew much stronger.
With Heckstall-Smith replacing the fired guitarist, the combo could experiment with two saxophones up-front, with Bond doubling on Hammond and alto. They hit the London club scene hard, playing Klooks Kleek, the Refectory and Jazzshows Jazzclub-soon to be renamed the 100 Club-and toured further north with regular gigs at Newcastle's Club a Go-Go.
By 1964, Graham had fallen from second to fourth place in Melody Maker's New Star poll, but he reached a high position in the "Miscellaneous" column as an organist. By April, the group changed their name from the Graham Bond Quartet to the more dynamic Graham Bond Organization (also spelled "Organisation"). However, their earlier EMI deal hadn't really pleased the band, so the members auditioned for Decca at its West Hampstead facilities. The group played a good, live studio session that was marred only by Graham's tiring voice. They nevertheless secured a deal and recorded their first single, "Long Tall Shorty" backed with "Long Legged Baby," for their new label that May.
New Musical Express found the release "a driving, insidious 12-bar shaker" and observed, "'Long Tall Shorty' introduces Decca's Graham Bond Organization-an apt name because organ is strongly featured. Graham supplies the ravin', shoutin' vocal, with harmonica added for topical effect and a steady beat is maintained throughout."
By the end of the month, the group had recorded another four songs. Bond and the rhythm section also backed Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin on a Black Swan session in the spring. Released as Ernest Ranglin and the GB's, the results were something unexpected-smooth cocktail jazz. A new chance to see the countryside arose when the Organization-with Long John Baldry & the Hoochie Coochie Men, among others-joined Memphis Slim for a month-long tour. The Graham Bond Organization now played more or less every day, with Dick Heckstall-Smith insisting that they played an incredible 50 gigs in 54 days.
By August, the band was back in the studio recording three new songs for Decca. At the same time, Decca released the album sampler, Rhythm and Blues, of which half the tracks were Bond-related. Apart from five belonging to the Organization, two tracks were from a Blues Incorporated session from the previous January. Sometime that autumn, the band also became involved in the film Gonks Go Beat. The convoluted plot involved emissaries from planet Gonk who prevented a war between "Beatland" and "Ballad Isle." Although the group came away from it with honor-miming to the song "Harmonica"-the movie itself was inane.
An article appearing in an October issue of Melody Maker gave Bond an opportunity to discuss his group's development: "The Organisation is a co-operative group in that there is no star and everybody is indispensable. I think the visual thing is extremely important, but the point about both our musical policy and presentation is that at least 90 per cent is completely improvised. At first things were very hard because our sound was too way out at that time. Then groups like the Stones, Beatles, Animals and Manfred Mann helped the transition which made young people able to appreciate the sort of blues and gospel things we do."
The Organization backed Motown singer Marvin Gaye on a TV show during his first U.K. visit in November 1964. Augmented by John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men, the Organization added punch to "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" and "Baby Don't You Do It." In December, their collaboration with EMI also resumed as the group started working on their first album for EMI's Columbia label. The sessions continued between gigs throughout January and February. On the last day of 1964, the Organization was featured on the BBC-TV 2 Beat in the News show.
The band spent most of January 1965 participating in the second British Chuck Berry tour, which encompassed two shows a night for nearly a month. In addition, Columbia issued the single "Tammy" from the group's forthcoming album. New Musical Express described the track as having "a blues-flecked solo voice treatment with organ and brass backing and an insistent beat." The next month, Columbia brought out the group's first proper LP, The Sound of '65. Although it did not chart, the record was outstanding, as it effectively mixed U.S. standards with original numbers. It was, as Record Mirror wrote, "a first-rate record. One to be studied." Disc Weekly's reviewer also gave it favorable marks, writing, "It sounds like nothing else I've heard, and it's really musical in spite of the raw instrumental sounds achieved." New Musical Express proclaimed, "Way-out blues sounds, weird at times, but always fascinating. Plenty of wailing harmonica and raving vocalistics."
Similar to other hardworking groups of the era, the Organization was quite prolific, and the next single, "Tell Me (I'm Gonna Love Again)," hit the airwaves on April 2, 1965. Disc Weekly again approved the release, calling it "a real swinger from this very good group," and adding, "Far more commercial than anything they've done before, yet they still retain that gravelly quality." April also saw the issuing of Winston G's single, "Please Don't Say," with backing by Bond and Baker (U.K./Parlophone R 5266). Their involvement likely stemmed from their sharing the same manager, Robert Stigwood, with Winston.
By late July, the Organization was featured on ITV's weekend show, Ready Steady Go!, on which they promoted their new single, "Lease on Love." Bond also used the opportunity to demonstrate his newfound keyboard, the Mellotron. The Mellotron resembled an organ but was able to emulate strings, brass and woodwind, giving Bond command of a mini orchestra. As Bond explained to Melody Maker, "The Mellotron uses pre-recorded tapes of other instruments. For example, every note in the register of the trumpet is recorded-and I can play it on the organ keyboard getting the real sound." The instrument created a minor sensation when Bond first publicly used it at the Marquee. However, they soon suspended its use in shows because, as Dick Heckstall-Smith told Blues-Rock Explosion, "It went out of tune the whole bloody time. It was also very big." "Lease on Love" may have been the first recording to feature the Mellotron, and the song garnered outstanding reviews. A New Musical Express critic noted, "Here's a good one that I can confidently recommend: 'Lease On Love' by the Graham Bond Organisation. What I like about this group is that the soloist has an inherent R&B feeling, and this is particularly noticeable with the persistent organ blues riff behind him." Disc Weekly asserted, "Graham is singing better than ever with a hush-coloured voice and oodles of feeling."
With autumn came the fifth festival at Richmond under the new name of The National Jazz & Blues Festival. The festival, featuring the Organization's wild version of "Hoochie Coochie Man," was taped for U.S. television.
In September, following several disagreements with Baker, Bruce was sacked from the band. However, he continued to return for gigs as he felt it was his group as well. When Baker finally pulled out a knife and told him, "If you show up again, this goes in you," Bruce left for good. The group then brought in Nigerian trumpet player Mike Falana, who had previously played with some Organization members while in the Burch Octet. Although the new lineup cut some strong recordings, few tracks were ever released including a supreme version of "Wade in the Water," which made its way onto a U.S. single B-side.
Columbia released the Graham Bond Organization's second album, There's a Bond Between Us, in December. The material on it, which was divided between original and cover tunes, had been recorded by the original lineup over the summer. The reviews were generally positive, with New Musical Express observing, "Here's a restless, wailing rhythmic and sometimes overpowering sound, both vocally and instrumentally from organist Graham Bond, who augments his music with a Mellotron." But Record Mirror noted a disparity between the live and studio settings, commenting, "Perhaps the atmosphere of his live performances is lacking."
