Graham Bond
Encyclopedia
Graham John Clifton Bond (28 October 1937 in Romford
, Essex
– 8 May 1974, Finsbury Park
, North London
) was an English
musician
, considered a founding father of the English rhythm and blues
boom of the 1960s.
Bond was an innovator, described as "an important, under-appreciated figure of early British R&B", along with Cyril Davies
and Alexis Korner
. Jack Bruce
, John McLaughlin
and Ginger Baker
first achieved prominence in his group, the Graham Bond Organisation
. Bond was voted Britain's New Jazz Star in 1961. He was an early user of the Hammond organ
/Leslie speaker
combination in British rhythm and blues
- he "split" the Hammond for portability - and was the first British artist to record using a mellotron
, on his "The Sound of '65" and "There's A Bond Between Us" LPs
. As such he was a major influence upon later rock keyboardists: Deep Purple
's Jon Lord
said "He taught me, hands on, most of what I know about the Hammond organ".
in Gidea Park
, East London, where he learned music. He first gained attention as a jazz
saxophonist
as a member of the Don Rendell Quintet, then briefly joined Alexis Korner
's Blues Incorporated
before forming the Graham Bond Quartet with musicians he met in the Korner group, Ginger Baker
on drums
and Jack Bruce
on double bass
, together with John McLaughlin
on guitar
; and adopting the Hammond organ as his main instrument. The group then became the Graham Bond Organization (GBO), while John McLaughlin was later replaced by Dick Heckstall-Smith
on saxophones.
Lack of commercial success, plus internal struggles, brought an end to the group in 1967 as Bond's mental and physical health deteriorated. Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker had already left, to form Cream with Eric Clapton
. Baker's replacement, Jon Hiseman
, and Dick Heckstall-Smith went on to form Colosseum
.
After the break-up of the Organization, Bond continued to exhibit mental disorders, with manic episodes and periods of intense depression
, exacerbated by heavy drug use. Moving to America, he recorded two albums and performed session work for Harvey Mandel
and Dr. John
among others, but he returned to England in 1969. He then formed Graham Bond Initiation with his new wife Diane Stewart, who shared his interest in magick
, and in 1970 Holy Magick, which recorded a self-titled album and We Put Our Magick On You. He was also re-united with old band members while playing saxophone in Ginger Baker's Air Force
and spending a short time in the Jack Bruce Band. The same year a double Organization live compilation album, Solid Bond, was released.
In 1972 he teamed up with Pete Brown
to record Two Heads are Better Than One. After the near-simultaneous collapse of his band and his marriage, Bond then formed Magus with British folk-singer Carolanne Pegg and American bassist Marc Mazz, which disbanded around Christmas 1973 without recording. During that same period, he discovered American singer-songwriter-guitarist Mick Lee, and they played together live but never recorded. Plans to include Chris Wood
of Traffic
never materialized due to Bond's death.
Bond's financial affairs were in chaos, and the years of lack of commercial success and the recent demise of Magus had badly hurt his pride. Throughout his career he had been hampered with severe bouts of drug addiction, and spent January 1973 in hospital after a nervous breakdown
. On May 8 1974, Bond died under the wheels of a train at Finsbury Park station
, London at the age of 36. Most sources list the death as a suicide
. Friends agree that he was off drugs, although becoming increasingly obsessed with the occult
(he believed he was Aleister Crowley
's son).
Romford
Romford is a large suburban town in north east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
– 8 May 1974, Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park is a 46 hectare public park in the London Borough of Haringey. Officially part of the London area of Harringay, it is also adjacent to Stroud Green, the Finsbury Park district and Manor House. It was one of the first of the great London parks laid out in the Victorian...
, North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, considered a founding father of the English rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
boom of the 1960s.
Bond was an innovator, described as "an important, under-appreciated figure of early British R&B", along with Cyril Davies
Cyril Davies
Cyril Davies was one of the first British blues harmonica players and blues musician.-Biography:Born at St Mildred's, 15 Hawthorn Drive, Willowbank, Denham, Buckinghamshire, near London, he was the son of William Albert Davies, a labourer, and his wife Margaret Mary...
and Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues"...
. Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
, John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin may refer to:*John McLaughlin , Scottish professional footballer who played for Clyde, Greenock Morton, Millwall, Dunfermline Athletic and Motherwell...
and Ginger Baker
Ginger Baker
Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker is an English drummer, best known for his work with Cream and Blind Faith. He is also known for his numerous associations with World music, mainly the use of African influences...
first achieved prominence in his group, the Graham Bond Organisation
The Graham Bond Organisation
The Graham Bond Organisation were a British jazz/rhythm and blues group of the early 1960s in which Graham Bond was lead singer, keyboardist and alto-saxophonist, Jack Bruce was bassist, Ginger Baker was drummer, Dick Heckstall-Smith was tenor and soprano saxophonist and John McLaughlin was guitarist...
. Bond was voted Britain's New Jazz Star in 1961. He was an early user of the Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
/Leslie speaker
Leslie speaker
The Leslie speaker is a specially constructed amplifier/loudspeaker used to create special audio effects using the Doppler effect. Named after its inventor, Donald Leslie, it is particularly associated with the Hammond organ but is used with a variety of instruments as well as vocals. The...
combination in British rhythm and blues
British rhythm and blues
British rhythm and blues developed as a major musical movement in the early 1960s in London and other urban centres in the UK as predominately young white male musicians attempted to emulate the style and recordings of African American rhythm and blues artists...
- he "split" the Hammond for portability - and was the first British artist to record using a mellotron
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
, on his "The Sound of '65" and "There's A Bond Between Us" LPs
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
. As such he was a major influence upon later rock keyboardists: Deep Purple
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
's Jon Lord
Jon Lord
Jonathan Douglas "Jon" Lord is an English composer, pianist and Hammond organ player.Jon Lord, also known as 'Hammond Lord', is a classically trained piano player. He is recognised for his Hammond organ blues-rock sound and for his pioneering work in fusing rock and classical or baroque forms...
said "He taught me, hands on, most of what I know about the Hammond organ".
Biography
Adopted from a Dr. Barnardo's home, Bond was educated at the Royal Liberty SchoolRoyal Liberty School
The Royal Liberty School, once a traditional English grammar school, now a state comprehensive boys senior school in Gidea Park in the London Borough of Havering in east London, United Kingdom.-Admissions:...
in Gidea Park
Gidea Park
Gidea Park is a place in the London Borough of Havering, east London, England. Gidea Park is a part of Romford post town.-History:Gidea Park is the location of the "Romford Garden Suburb" constructed in 1910 to 1911 on the Gidea Hall and Balgores Estates as an exhibition of town planning...
, East London, where he learned music. He first gained attention as a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
saxophonist
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
as a member of the Don Rendell Quintet, then briefly joined Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues"...
's Blues Incorporated
Blues Incorporated
Blues Incorporated were a British R&B band in the early 1960s, led by Alexis Korner and featuring at various times Jack Bruce, Charlie Watts, Terry Cox, Ginger Baker, Long John Baldry, Ronnie Jones, Danny Thompson, Graham Bond, Cyril Davies, Malcolm Cecil and Dick Heckstall-Smith.-History:Korner ...
before forming the Graham Bond Quartet with musicians he met in the Korner group, Ginger Baker
Ginger Baker
Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker is an English drummer, best known for his work with Cream and Blind Faith. He is also known for his numerous associations with World music, mainly the use of African influences...
on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
on double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, together with John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
; and adopting the Hammond organ as his main instrument. The group then became the Graham Bond Organization (GBO), while John McLaughlin was later replaced by Dick Heckstall-Smith
Dick Heckstall-Smith
Dick Heckstall-Smith was an English jazz and blues saxophonist. He played with some of the most important English blues-rock and jazz fusion bands of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:...
on saxophones.
Lack of commercial success, plus internal struggles, brought an end to the group in 1967 as Bond's mental and physical health deteriorated. Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker had already left, to form Cream with Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
. Baker's replacement, Jon Hiseman
Jon Hiseman
Jon Hiseman is an English drummer, recording engineer, record producer and music publisher.-Career:...
, and Dick Heckstall-Smith went on to form Colosseum
Colosseum (band)
Colosseum is a pioneering British progressive jazz-rock band, mixing progressive rock and jazz-based improvisation.-History 1968 - 1971:The band was formed in September 1968 by drummer Jon Hiseman, tenor sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith and bass player Tony Reeves, who had previously worked together...
.
After the break-up of the Organization, Bond continued to exhibit mental disorders, with manic episodes and periods of intense depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
, exacerbated by heavy drug use. Moving to America, he recorded two albums and performed session work for Harvey Mandel
Harvey Mandel
Harvey Mandel is an American guitarist known for his innovative approach to electric guitar playing. A professional at twenty, he played with Charlie Musselwhite, Canned Heat, The Rolling Stones, and John Mayall before starting a solo career...
and Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
among others, but he returned to England in 1969. He then formed Graham Bond Initiation with his new wife Diane Stewart, who shared his interest in magick
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
, and in 1970 Holy Magick, which recorded a self-titled album and We Put Our Magick On You. He was also re-united with old band members while playing saxophone in Ginger Baker's Air Force
Ginger Baker's Air Force
Ginger Baker's Air Force was a jazz-rock fusion band comprising Ginger Baker on drums, Steve Winwood on organ and vocals, Ric Grech on violin and bass, Jeanette Jacobs on vocals, Denny Laine on guitar and vocals, Phil Seamen on drums, Alan White on drums, Chris Wood on tenor sax and flute, Graham...
and spending a short time in the Jack Bruce Band. The same year a double Organization live compilation album, Solid Bond, was released.
In 1972 he teamed up with Pete Brown
Pete Brown
Peter Ronald Brown is an English performance poet and lyricist.Best known for his collaborations with Jack Bruce, Brown also worked with The Battered Ornaments, formed his own group Pete Brown & Piblokto!, and worked with Graham Bond and Phil Ryan. Brown also writes film scores and formed a film...
to record Two Heads are Better Than One. After the near-simultaneous collapse of his band and his marriage, Bond then formed Magus with British folk-singer Carolanne Pegg and American bassist Marc Mazz, which disbanded around Christmas 1973 without recording. During that same period, he discovered American singer-songwriter-guitarist Mick Lee, and they played together live but never recorded. Plans to include Chris Wood
Chris Wood (rock musician)
Christopher Gordon Blandford 'Chris' Wood was a founding member of the English rock band Traffic, along with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Dave Mason....
of Traffic
Traffic (band)
Traffic were an English rock band whose members came from the West Midlands. The group formed in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason...
never materialized due to Bond's death.
Bond's financial affairs were in chaos, and the years of lack of commercial success and the recent demise of Magus had badly hurt his pride. Throughout his career he had been hampered with severe bouts of drug addiction, and spent January 1973 in hospital after a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
. On May 8 1974, Bond died under the wheels of a train at Finsbury Park station
Finsbury Park station
Finsbury Park Station is a busy transport interchange in North London. The interchange consists of an interconnected National Rail station, London Underground station and two bus stations. The main entrances are by the eastern bus station on Station Place...
, London at the age of 36. Most sources list the death as a suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. Friends agree that he was off drugs, although becoming increasingly obsessed with the occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
(he believed he was Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
's son).
Discography
- 1961 Roarin with Don Rendell (Jazz)
- 1964 Live at Klooks Kleek
- 1965 The Sound of 65
- 1965 There's a Bond Between Us
- 1969 Love Is the Law
- 1969 Mighty Grahame Bond
- 1970 Solid Bond
- 1970 Holy Magick
- 1971 Bond in America
- 1971 We Put Our Magick on You
- 1972 This Is Graham Bond
- 1972 Two Heads Are Better Than One (with Pete Brown)
Further reading
- Richie Unterberger. Unknown Legends of Rock 'n' Roll: Psychedelic Unknowns, Mad Geniuses, Punk Pioneers, Lo-fi Mavericks and More. Miller Freeman Press, 1998.
- Harry Shapiro. Graham Bond: The Mighty Shadow. Square One (UK), 1992.