THE GRAHAM BOND ORGANISATION
''LIVE AT KLOOK'S KLEEK''
RECORDED LIVE AT KLOOK'S KLEEK CLUB IN LONDON, 23 OCTOBER 1964
1998
41:53
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1 Wade In The Water 02:45 (Ramsel Lewis)
2 Big Boss Man 05:20 (Al Smith, Willie Dixon)
3 Early In The Morning 04:16 (Bobby Darin, Woody Harris)
4 Person To Person Blues 05:15 (Glover, McRae)
5 Spanish Blues 03:01 (Graham Bond)
6 Introduction By Dick Jordan 02:05 (Hilda Joan Young)
7 The First Time I Met The Blues 05:11 (Buddy Guy)
8 Stormy Monday 04:14 (T. Bone Walker)
9 Train Time 04:17 (Traditional)
10 What'd I Say 05:26 (Ray Charles)
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Graham Bond/Organ, Alto Sax, Vocals
Jack Bruce/Bass Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
Ginger Baker/Drums
Dick Heckstall-Smith/Tenor Sax
**********
REVIEW/AMG
Bruce Eder
This nine-track concert gig has appeared in various guises and through various labels (most notoriously Springboard International in the U.S. in the late '70s), and it has a dubious reputation on vinyl. In 1988, however, it appeared on CD under this title, and it finally seemed to justify the trouble it took to record. The Graham Bond Organization's studio recordings were admirable, sometimes impressive, but never essential parts of the British blues boom, leading one to wonder precisely what -- apart from the presence of two future members of Cream -- the group's reputation was based on. The answer is on these sides, recorded by Giorgio Gomelsky "under extreme difficulty." Listening to the band rumble and surge through standards like "Wade in the Water," "Big Boss Man," "Stormy Monday," and "Early In the Morning," it's easy to understand how they got signed and what the record companies were looking for, and also why they didn't get it -- this is gritty stuff, loud R&B with some jazz elements, Dick Heckstall-Smith blowing up a storm on sax, and more than a little stretching out (especially by Baker, whose solos here (check out "Early In the Morning") are more enjoyable than most of what he did with Cream), all of it pretty intense and none of it easy to capture in the studio. The audience and the urgency of concert work were both essential to the group's functioning. On the technical side, there's some distortion, even some overload, and Jack Bruce's bass isn't captured in its more resonant form (and what electric bass on any live recording before about 1968 ever was?), but the electricity is here, along with the immediacy, and this CD may be the way to best appreciate this band.
**********
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Richie Unterberger
An important, underappreciated figure of early British R&B, Graham Bond is known in the U.S., if at all, for heading the group that Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker played in before they joined Cream. Originally an alto sax jazz player -- in fact, he was voted Britain's New Jazz Star in 1961 -- he met Bruce and Baker in 1962 after joining Alexis Koerner's Blues Incorporated, the finishing school for numerous British rock and blues musicians. By the time he, Bruce, and Baker split to form their own band in 1963, Bond was mostly playing the Hammond organ, as well as handling the lion's share of the vocals. John McLaughlin was a member of the Graham Bond Organization in the early days for a few months, and some live material that he recorded with the group was eventually issued after most of their members had achieved stardom in other contexts. Saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith completed Bond's most stable lineup, who cut a couple of decent albums and a few singles in the mid-'60s.
In their prime, the Graham Bond Organization played rhythm & blues with a strong jazzy flavor, emphasizing Bond's demonic organ and gruff vocals. The band arguably would have been better served to feature Bruce as their lead singer -- he is featured surprisingly rarely on their recordings. Nevertheless, their best records were admirably tough British R&B/rock/jazzsoul, and though Bond has sometimes been labeled as a pioneer of jazz-rock, in reality it was much closer to rock than jazz. The band performed imaginative covers and fairly strong original material, and Bond was also perhaps the very first rock musician to record with the Mellotron synthesizer. Hit singles, though, were necessary for British bands to thrive in the mid-'60s, and Bond's group began to fall apart in 1966, when Bruce and Baker joined forces with Eric Clapton to form Cream. Bond attempted to carry on with the Organization for a while with Heckstall-Smith and drummer Jon Hiseman, both of whom went on to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Colosseum.
Bond never recaptured the heights of his work with the Organization. In the late '60s he moved to the U.S., recording albums with musicians including Harvey Brooks, Harvey Mandel, and Hal Blaine. Moving back to Britain, he worked with Ginger Baker's Airforce, the Jack Bruce Band, and Cream lyricist Pete Brown, as well as forming the band Holy Magick, who recorded a couple albums. Bond's demise was more tragic than most: he developed serious drug and alcohol problems and an obsession with the occult, and it has even been posthumously speculated (in the British Bond biography Mighty Shadow) that he sexually abused his stepdaughter. He committed suicide by throwing himself into the path of a London Underground train in 1974.
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GBO BIOGRAPHY/WIKIPEDIA
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GB/BIOGRAPHY/WIKIPEDIA
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TO THE TOP
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''LIVE AT KLOOK'S KLEEK''
RECORDED LIVE AT KLOOK'S KLEEK CLUB IN LONDON, 23 OCTOBER 1964
1998
41:53
*********
1 Wade In The Water 02:45 (Ramsel Lewis)
2 Big Boss Man 05:20 (Al Smith, Willie Dixon)
3 Early In The Morning 04:16 (Bobby Darin, Woody Harris)
4 Person To Person Blues 05:15 (Glover, McRae)
5 Spanish Blues 03:01 (Graham Bond)
6 Introduction By Dick Jordan 02:05 (Hilda Joan Young)
7 The First Time I Met The Blues 05:11 (Buddy Guy)
8 Stormy Monday 04:14 (T. Bone Walker)
9 Train Time 04:17 (Traditional)
10 What'd I Say 05:26 (Ray Charles)
**********
Graham Bond/Organ, Alto Sax, Vocals
Jack Bruce/Bass Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
Ginger Baker/Drums
Dick Heckstall-Smith/Tenor Sax
**********
REVIEW/AMG
Bruce Eder
This nine-track concert gig has appeared in various guises and through various labels (most notoriously Springboard International in the U.S. in the late '70s), and it has a dubious reputation on vinyl. In 1988, however, it appeared on CD under this title, and it finally seemed to justify the trouble it took to record. The Graham Bond Organization's studio recordings were admirable, sometimes impressive, but never essential parts of the British blues boom, leading one to wonder precisely what -- apart from the presence of two future members of Cream -- the group's reputation was based on. The answer is on these sides, recorded by Giorgio Gomelsky "under extreme difficulty." Listening to the band rumble and surge through standards like "Wade in the Water," "Big Boss Man," "Stormy Monday," and "Early In the Morning," it's easy to understand how they got signed and what the record companies were looking for, and also why they didn't get it -- this is gritty stuff, loud R&B with some jazz elements, Dick Heckstall-Smith blowing up a storm on sax, and more than a little stretching out (especially by Baker, whose solos here (check out "Early In the Morning") are more enjoyable than most of what he did with Cream), all of it pretty intense and none of it easy to capture in the studio. The audience and the urgency of concert work were both essential to the group's functioning. On the technical side, there's some distortion, even some overload, and Jack Bruce's bass isn't captured in its more resonant form (and what electric bass on any live recording before about 1968 ever was?), but the electricity is here, along with the immediacy, and this CD may be the way to best appreciate this band.
**********
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Richie Unterberger
An important, underappreciated figure of early British R&B, Graham Bond is known in the U.S., if at all, for heading the group that Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker played in before they joined Cream. Originally an alto sax jazz player -- in fact, he was voted Britain's New Jazz Star in 1961 -- he met Bruce and Baker in 1962 after joining Alexis Koerner's Blues Incorporated, the finishing school for numerous British rock and blues musicians. By the time he, Bruce, and Baker split to form their own band in 1963, Bond was mostly playing the Hammond organ, as well as handling the lion's share of the vocals. John McLaughlin was a member of the Graham Bond Organization in the early days for a few months, and some live material that he recorded with the group was eventually issued after most of their members had achieved stardom in other contexts. Saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith completed Bond's most stable lineup, who cut a couple of decent albums and a few singles in the mid-'60s.
In their prime, the Graham Bond Organization played rhythm & blues with a strong jazzy flavor, emphasizing Bond's demonic organ and gruff vocals. The band arguably would have been better served to feature Bruce as their lead singer -- he is featured surprisingly rarely on their recordings. Nevertheless, their best records were admirably tough British R&B/rock/jazzsoul, and though Bond has sometimes been labeled as a pioneer of jazz-rock, in reality it was much closer to rock than jazz. The band performed imaginative covers and fairly strong original material, and Bond was also perhaps the very first rock musician to record with the Mellotron synthesizer. Hit singles, though, were necessary for British bands to thrive in the mid-'60s, and Bond's group began to fall apart in 1966, when Bruce and Baker joined forces with Eric Clapton to form Cream. Bond attempted to carry on with the Organization for a while with Heckstall-Smith and drummer Jon Hiseman, both of whom went on to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Colosseum.
Bond never recaptured the heights of his work with the Organization. In the late '60s he moved to the U.S., recording albums with musicians including Harvey Brooks, Harvey Mandel, and Hal Blaine. Moving back to Britain, he worked with Ginger Baker's Airforce, the Jack Bruce Band, and Cream lyricist Pete Brown, as well as forming the band Holy Magick, who recorded a couple albums. Bond's demise was more tragic than most: he developed serious drug and alcohol problems and an obsession with the occult, and it has even been posthumously speculated (in the British Bond biography Mighty Shadow) that he sexually abused his stepdaughter. He committed suicide by throwing himself into the path of a London Underground train in 1974.
**********
GBO BIOGRAPHY/WIKIPEDIA
**********
GB/BIOGRAPHY/WIKIPEDIA
**********
TO THE TOP
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