This two-LPs-on-one-CD package is essential listening for anyone who is seriously interested in either British blues, the Rolling Stones' early sound, or the history of popular music, in England or America, during the late '50s and early '60s.
In England during the years 1957-1962, jazz and blues used to intermix freely, especially among younger blues enthusiasts and more open-minded jazzmen -- by 1963, most of the former had gone off to form bands like the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the Pretty Things, etc., with guitars a the forefront of their sound, while the latter (most notably British blues godfather Alexis Korner) kept some jazz elements in their work.
The Graham Bond Organization (along with Zoot Money's Big Roll Band and other, similar outfits) represented the jazzier side of the British blues boom, less charismatic and sexually provocative than blues-rock bands like the Stones or the Yardbirds, but no less potent a product of the same inspiration, sax and organ being much more prominent in their sound. Indeed, Bond's playing on the organ as represented on this CD is the distant antecedent to Keith Emerson's more ambitious keyboard excursions of 3-4 years later, without the incessant copping of classical riffs.
The playing and singing (by Graham Bond and a young Jack Bruce) are curiously soulful, and when Ginger Baker takes a solo on "Oh Baby," it's a beautiful, powerful, even lyrical experience (as drum solos go), and one of those bold, transcendant, virtuoso moments, akin to Brian Jones' harmonica solo on the Stones' version of "Hi Heel Sneakers." The band was more exciting on stage, as the evidence of their one surviving early live performance indicates, but they were worth hearing on record as well.
In a universe that was fair and idealized, this CD and the two albums contained on it would rank right up there in sales with anything (including the Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton album) that John Mayall ever released, and Bond also proves himself a more fervent and exciting figure here than Mayall ever seemed on his records.
by Bruce Eder
1. (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon) - 3:13
2. Baby Make Love to Me (Godfrey, Group) - 1:52
3. Neighbour, Neighbour (Valior) - 2:40
4. Early in the Morning (Booker T. Laury) - 1:50
5. Spanish Blues (Graham Bond) - 3:05
6. Oh Baby (Graham Bond) - 2:42
7. Little Girl (Graham Bond) - 2:15
8. I Want You (Graham Bond) - 1:45
9. Wade in the Water (Traditional) - 2:41
10.Got My Mojo Working (Preston Foster) - 3:11
11.Train Time (John Group) - 2:24
12.Baby Be Good to Me (Janet Godfrey, J. Group) - 2:35
13.Half a Man (Graham Bond) - 2:06
14.Tammy (Ray Evans, Jay Livingston) - 2:49
15.Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Don Kirkpatrick, Keith Knox) - 2:05
16.Hear Me Calling Your Name (Jack Bruce) - 2:37
17.The Night Time Is the Right Time (Lew Herman) - 3:01
18.Walking in the Park (Graham Bond) - 3:30
19.Last Night (Charles "Packy" Axton, Ivan Johnson, Smoochy Smith) - 3:00
20.Baby Can It Be True? (Graham Bond) - 5:04
21.What'd I Say (Ray Charles) - 4:16
22.Dick's Instrumental (Smoochy Smith) - 2:33
23.Don't Let Go (Jesse Stone) - 2:43
24.Keep A-Drivin' (Chuck Willis) - 2:04
25.Have You Ever Loved a Woman? (Graham Bond) - 4:53
26.Camels and Elephants (Ginger Baker) - 4:41
The Organisation
*Graham Bond - Organ, Mellotron, Saxophone, Lead Vocals
*Jack Bruce - Vocals, Bass. Double Bass
*Ginger Baker - Drums
*Dick Heckstall-Smith - Tenor Saxophone
1970 Graham Bond - Holy Magick
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Precursory formation Graham Bond Organisation, became the in 1964 one of the most influential groups. The impressive composition with Ginger Baker (drums), Jack Bruce (bass) and Dick Heckstallem-Smith (saxophone - which replaced the guitarist John McLaughlin) team performed a hybrid of jazz, blues and rock, musically and visually stunning. Bond was the first in the UK, played mellotronie and organ Hammond coupled with a set of Leslie. The band originally constituted recorded two excellent, innovative plates ''Sound of '65'' and ''There's A Bond Between Us''. Both were mix of standards and new songs. The band re-interpret "Walk On The Wild Side", "Wade In The Water" and "Got My Mojo Working" to the songs "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" and "Walking In The Park" show great abilities,ability composing by leader. Paradoxically, such a execution musical, to hit on the market into the void. Among the jazz musicians prevailing opinion that the music group Bond is too loud and based the rock... and for the many audience pop, their productions were too complex and too jazz.
ReplyDeleteHowever,not large,but have.. devoted audience clubs' rhythm'n blues, loved them. Ironically, 30 years later, a group of The Tommy Chase Band will follow a strikingly similar path, this time under the flag of jazz.
Bond was under the influence recordings of Ray Charles was fascinated by American rhythm'n'blues. He began play music with other passionate blues, including with saxophonist Dick Heckstallem-Smith. At first joined John Birch the jazz object, then in large part due Heckstall-Smith to any one of the pioneers of white British blues-rock Alexis Korner. Cooperation with Korner was short-lived,but thanks to her, Bond decided, to found his own band. The Graham Bond Trio, with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker who had also come from Blues Incorporated. Baker had initially been a trumpet player with a number of jazz outfits, particularly the Terry Lightfoot Jazzband. John McLaughlin joined on guitar and Dick Heckstall-Smith on saxophone although the latter only lasted a short time before rejoining Alexis Korner. McLaughlin left at the end of 1963 and joined Brian Auger for a time. Heckstall-Smith returned to the band after feeling that the musical direction of Alexis Korner was not how he would have wished. The band now changed its name its name to The Graham Bond Organisation.(Bond at the beginning of the 60s he became interested in electric Hammond organ,as probably the first musician connect them to the amplifier Leslie, yielding a characteristic sound canon now) The sound of the band changed somewhat away from a looser jazz feel towards a much tighter and more powerful sound,in this manner the band composition crystallized ,besides Bond and Heckstall-Smith formed by the rhythm section of Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker (in the composition was also guitarist John McLaughlin,fired by Baker though it sounds unbelievably - inability to play at fast rate).
Decca signed the band and produced an EP and the first single, ''Long Tall Shorty''. After being dropped by Decca, the Graham Bond Organisation spent some time without a record label although the ''Live at Klooks Kleek'' album was recorded around this point. A second single ''Tammy'' was not indicative of what the band was performing although its b-side ''Wade in the Water'' is a very powerful track and was a staple of the band's live set. The band was then signed to Columbia. The band made two albums for Columbia, ''The Sound of '65'' and ''There's a Bond Between Us''. The first of these albums featured tracks such as ''Train Time'' that was later recorded by Cream.
Graham Bond Organization, the four years the search for new of musical paths,exciting concerts and financial problems. I kept circling around London from concert to concert, and Baker and Bond,taking drugs himself into a stupor. English critics they could not stop marveling, the high quality of British rhythm and blues proposed by the band. American critics have left on the band,a dry thread suggesting that... the British rhythm and blues has nothing to do with a real one.
ReplyDeleteStudio recordings never 'not were equal' the concert. Despite the good album the band did not achieved success on the charts,the monetize mostly on concerts. In concert halls in the audience could enjoy his blues - jazz mix at will. They kidnapped her audience. Graham Bond was the musical conductor, but a group led Ginger Baker, followed by Jon Hiseman. Graham had no head for business, mostly because he was under the influence of either alcohol or drugs, or both in one glass. Drummers Baker and Hiseman gained so both professional artistic spurs, but also to become effective promoters, which resulted later with interest in a range of fantastic music projects. Dick Heckstall-Smith did not shine at the beginning of the band, but the progress he made in GBO were unbelievably great. All registers of saxophones become a piece of chip cookies. Playing on two saxophones simultaneously gone to the history of rock music. Jack Bruce compose not so much. Learn methods - Graham. It here Bruce has composed his first songs. What after, was making in Cream, everybody knows.
The group quickly gained recognition, and his two studio albums "The Sound Of 65" (March, 1965) and "There's A Bond Between Us" (November,1965) still considered to be one of the most important items of the British blues-rock of the 60's. In addition to the characteristic sound of the Hammond, Bond was one of the first to apply on a large scale new electric keyboard instrument mellotron, pioneered also enriched the electric blues-rock, jazz. The second and final album ''There’s A Bond Between Us'' offered a slightly wider musical range played with a bit less verve, and Bond’s pioneering use of the Mellotron (before the Beatles, Stones and Moody Blues discovered it) presaged his move towards progressive music.
Compared with the straight-ahead purist electric blues of Bluesbreakers, the earlier ''Sound Of 65'' shows a band attempting engagingly to pervert the blues in every conceivable direction. It combines the expected traditional blues covers (“Hoochie Coochie Man”, “Got My Mojo Working”) and instrumental R’n’B workouts (“Wade In The Water”, “Train Time”), reworked in distinctive, individual fashion, with lyrically naive but musically adventurous Bond originals which move confidently in the direction of what would later be called “jazz-rock”. All the tracks are carried along by the sheer, rough-edged energy of Bond’s vocals and the irrepressible swing of the band’s ensemble playing, plus a remarkable cheap-studio production with plenty of reverb that gives the impression of a live recording. In fact the album was the Organisation’s well-honed live set with each number pared down to three minutes or less, the solos from Bond’s growling B-3 and Heckstall-Smith’s squalling tenor short and ferocious rather than extended and building. High spots include the flavouring of “Wade In The Water” with more than a soupçon of Bach’s Toccata, the spoof field holler of “Early In The Morning”, Bruce’s rumbling upright bass figures on “Mojo”, Bond’s and Heckstall-Smith’s wailing snake-charmer licks on “Spanish Blues”, and the eerie “Baby Make Love To Me” which is carried on just harmonised saxes, bass and drums and boasts lead vocal and braggadocio harmonica from Bruce. Only the mandatory (and thankfully truncated) Baker drum solo on “Oh Baby” and the maudlin closer “Tammy” (intended as a “commercial” single) conspire to lower the overall appeal. The album became a milestone in the history of British rock. It was simultaneously, completely different from the plate, eg such as The Rolling Stones and The Animals. First of all, it is explicit rooted musicians, in jazz and fewer at that time rock.
ReplyDeleteThe band immediately became a live tour-de-force on the London club circuit but, as with so many other artists who are ahead of their time, failed to find commercial success in terms of record sales; its albums weren’t even released in North America, where the whole concept of “British Blues” was initially treated as a joke.
Unfortunately, the genius came at a price. Bond since childhood suffered from asthma, and in later life joined a mental illness affective bipolar disorder, which is characterized by rapid changes in mood. He was also Black Lady, Hera, heroin to be called, is bleak for this growing fascination with the occult and black magic.
Many factors contributed to the fact that the GBO disbanded. First of all, their music is very moving away in the direction of jazz, which caused problems with getting a mass audience and audience records. Another factor was ahead of the music scene, and thus incur the costs associated with the pioneering spirit. It should be noted that a similar, but slightly later design Colosseum received not only an artistic success, but also commercial! use.
Heroin effectively thwarted Bond's career. He started exits quit concert, he could not lead to the end of the sessions, the third album GBO. The ORGANisation lasted for two studio albums before disbanding shortly after Bruce and Baker, finding the double pole (Bond) too difficult a taskmaster, departed for new challenges, in September 1965, Jack Bruce went to John Mayall Bluesbreaker. But the main reason was the continuing conflict between Bruce and Baker they,loved to play with each other,but I hate, ourselves as humans. In June 1966, Ginger Baker departed, and met with Bruce in the supergroup Cream. Bruce and Baker reached an agreement with another rising star Eric Clapton. The rest is history and in September 1967 the organization passed into history by internal struggles, substance abuse and lack of commercial success.
Thx Marios
Any chance of reupping this - Thank you!
ReplyDeletegtr, "The Graham Bond Organisation - The Sound Of '65 / There's A Bond Between Us" ...reup
Deletethanx 4 sharing :)
ReplyDeleteThis may sound a bit dim of me but where's the download link?
ReplyDeleteJulian Radbourne, click above one of the words "Text"....
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