News

The one and only Bond and Brown album "Two Heads Are Better Than One" is set to be reissued by Spanish.

Munster Records on their Vinilísssimo label on November 18th...

Here’s finally some reviews regarding the Live At The BBC & Other Stories set – even more is to be found on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk!

★★★
Covering a 10-year period beginning in 1962, Live At The BBC is another four-CD set of Graham Bond material from Repertoire, following their acclaimed Wade In The Water in 2012, and digs deeper to uncover all of Bond's BBC output - under his own name and featured with other artists - plus bonus material sourced from private home recordings, early jam sessions and rare EPs.

There's a strong focus on the less celebrated chapters of Bond's career, namely pre and post the classic Organization line-up. His first recordings, as a member of The Don Rendell Quintet, were as an alto saxophonist and a September '62 session gives evidence why he'd claim runner up in Melody Maker's "New Star" jazz poll that year. Weeks later, foreseeing the changeing club landscape, he left Rendell and would from thereon be found behind a Hammond organ - with his name center-stage - creating a tough, uncompromising amalgamation of R&B, soul, jazz and blues. Introductions by BBC presenters Steve Race, George Melly, Pete Drummond and John Peel have been retained and provide valuable background context to the fractious jazz scene as well as many droll moments. "Ginger Baker looking like a Francis Bacon portrait in 3D" suggests, not unreasonabbly, Melly.

Bond's final years saw deepening drug addiction, deteriorating mental health and a preoccupation with the occult, but his fiery rhythmic '72 set with Pete Brown demonstrates that despite his personal distractions he could still conjure musical magic. Even more spectacular are two '70 sessions by the Graham Bond Initiation. Fifteen minute versions of "Wade In The Water" aren't for the faint hearted, but Bond's flamboyance and relentless, driving power make them a spectacular tour de force.

Three stars may look stingy but some of the audio quality of the non-BBC material falls into the collectors-only category and there's another star deducted for the disappointing packaging two Jewel-cases wrapped in a thin card cover with information spread awkwardly across two booklets. However, thes quibbles don't negate this as a treasure trove from a tremendously talented and magnetic performer.

Mark Raison

★★★★
Hammond organ behemoth Graham Bond is a key but often overlooked figure in the evolution of UK R&B, nurturing future luminaries such as Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and John McLaughlin in his band, while his mid-60s albums were vital. He was also a troubled junkie, who embraced the occult and threw himself under a tube train in May 1974.

Former band-mate Pete Brown's 2013 Wade In The Water collection was the first major project to acknowledge Bond's huge importance, showcasing seminal albums and curious. This fascinating companion set charts Bond's career through recordings he made for the BBC (featuring a moonlighting George Melly), starting in the early 60s playing alto sax with Don Rendell's Quintet, traversing his Quartet and Organisation to the woefully under-documented Initiation.

Bond's searing organ excursions provide templates later adopted by Keith Emerson and Jon Lord, as displayed on his epic signature song, Wade In The Water, which appears in several tumultuous incarnations. There are also home recordings, previously unreleased obscurities and a riotous Peel outing by the short-lived Bond & Brown. The latter has done another beautiful job in presenting his former colleague as one of the true titans of British music, from an insider's perspective.

Kris Needs

Late Hammond organ behemoth Graham Bond was a key figure in the evolution of British R&B and jazz-infused rock. He nurtured future titans as John McLaughlin, Ginger Baker, Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Jack Bruce in his bands, recorded seminal albums, pioneered the use of classical influences and was one of Britain's earliest exponents of the Mellotron. When this reviewer was Lucky enough to catch Bond live in 1970, he flamboyantly unleashed the organ templates that had already been picked up by the likes of Emerson and Lord with a charismatic power that was ragingly elemental and almost supernatural. Bond was also a mentally unstable heroin addict who threw himself under a Tube Train in May 1974, leaving a towering legacy but often overlooked legend, which was tainted by his interest in infamous occultist Aleister Crowley. Former bandmate (and Cream lyricist) Pete Brown tried to set record straight With 2013's Wade in The Water Collection of seminal tracks and albums. He's now folowed it With this stellar set charting Bond's career through his BBC recordings, starting in the early 60's With Don Rendell's Quintet, moving through his Quartet and Organisation to the might Initiation. There are also home recordings, previously unreleased obscurities and a beautifully bonkers Peel session by the short-lived Bond and Brown. While the early outings are fascinating, it's the wild 1970 Peel sessions with Initiation that frequently astonish, the uproarious incantations including Walking In The Park, Love Is The Law and several incarnations of Bond's epic signature song, Wade In The Water. While his jazz and R&B roots are stil visible, Bond was now stretching into areas presaging and reatching beyound prog, as his Hammond became a roaring, ceremonial altar crackling with energy. Enchanced by memorabilia and Brown's warm notes, this lovely artefact makes an essential companion to the previous set and will hopefully help reposition Bond as one of the British music's true idiosyncratic giants.

K.N.

★★★★★
Jack Bruce once revealed that in reality Cream was Ornette Coleman Trio, but neither he or Ginger Baker ever thought to inform Eric Clapton that he was Ornette. Along with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated - from whose every changing ranks he press-ganged Baker and Bruce as the full-on rhythm team for his Organization - Graham Bond helped to craft the sound of jazz based Brit R&B. Though Bond had first made his presence heard playing passionate Cannonball Adderley-inspired alto sax in Don Rendell's Quintet, it's when he quit and switched to a growling Hammond organ (plus Leslie speaker) as his main instrument that his own band began to attract some degree of attention on the London club scene. But before the arrival of another Korner alumni, tenor sax man Dick Heckstall-Smith, the Organization's temporary fourth man was a Young John McLaughlin. From the start the Organization performed a very eclectic mix of originals such as "Spanish Blues", with Graham simultaneously playing sax and organ, plus countless covers that ranged from Ramsey Lewis's "Wade In The Water", an arsenal of Cannonball Adderley hits that include "Things Are Getting Better" , a fist full of Ray Charles' showstoppers like "What'd I Say" to The Fabs "I Saw Her Standing There". These weren't note-for-note copies but highly personalised interpretations played at full blast. Much of the Organization's non-stop tension was generated by way of the constant love/hate relationship that existed between Baker and Bruce spurring on Bond to torture his Hammond in a muchmore lethal manner than say Brother Jack McDuff, while his sandpaper vocals may have lacked finesse but his commitment was beyound question. Meanwhile, tenor man Dick Heckstall-Smith greatly added to the foursome's overall potency. If the London-based Music industry was willing to give Bond a hearing and precious studio time, live audiences could be divided: around the London area they were duly impressed while out there in the provinces they could be sparse and indifferent. Drawn predominantly from BBC air shots (some introduced by George Melly), plus odds and sods including a pairing of Bond with Pete Brown make this a worthy companion to repertoire's earlier 4CD collection Wade In The Water in that it repositions Graham Bond's stature as a prime mover in the development of jazz based R&B.

Roy Carr

★★★★
Subtitle...And Other Stories Points to organ/sax/singer Bond's wide Reach: Quartet; Organization; Initiation; guests. Beeb sound is variable across 4-CDs, 1962-72; a '66 Wade In The Water is top. Bond called "a Balzac in dark glasses".

GB

With the release of the diamond mine that is the new Graham Bond Live At The BBC And Other Stories box set, I was rather hoping to see a full review and possibly even an accompanying feature piece in this most under-recognised genious. What did I get? Despite the four stars awarded (I'd bestowed an easy five myself) a mer 40 words in the Reissues Extras section. It's high time you rectified the omission of Mr. Bond from your pages and gave us something in depth.

And while I'm here... I've read the Punk Anniversary Special from cover to cover and am still looking for the word "Ruts", Peace, love and outrage.

Mark Sanders, Rushden, Northamptonshire

★★★★★★★★☆☆
On this Collection of radio sessions and one-off studio liaisons, Graham Bond's inspirational presence is clear from his first touch on the Hammond organ. Introduced by George Melly, recorded live in a cinema in London's West End and broadcast on the BBC's Jazz Club in April 1963, the opening cover of The Modern Jazz Quartet's Bluesology packs swagger and ferocity aplenty.

Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, rejected by Johnny Dankworth's old-school jazz troupe for beeing to loud, essay one of the great rhythm sections in rock history as Bond forges the sound of the new. As the session gains momentum, Bond's gleeful distorition and edgy, Grand Guignol Dynamics suggest the auto-destructive impulses of The Who and the floor shaking heaviness of prog bands to come.

Bond's alto sax-blowing invention had already had an airing, storming through his Coronation Street tribute Elsie And Ena, the previous year with Don Rendell Quintet on Jazz Session.

A sequel to Repertoire's 2012 Wade In The Water compilation, Live At The BBC And Other Stories gains from including the wry introductions by hepcat BBC announcers and the expertise of collabrators Dick Heckstall-Smith and sleeve notes written by Pete Brown. Bond's scintillating progress is tracked right up to recordings made With Brown for Sounds Of The 70s in 1972, two years before his premature death under a Tube train.

The grisly nature of his demise, shrouded in hard drug use and occult ritual, has meant Bond's protean talent is sometimes sidelined.

The thrilling music and energy gathered here puts Bond's tumultuous creativity and diversity centre-stage. The Brown/Bond epic, Beak Street mines fervent Afro-rock, sessions with proto Brit rocker Duffy Power, and I Saw Her Standing There (from the July 1963 Pop Goes The Beatles show) recast pop in a jazz furnace.

Signature tune Wade In The Water is presented in five separate performances, culiminating in the mighty 13-minute-plus version introduced by John Peel in 1970. The wildly varied renditions make it a vehicle for Bond's galloping, improvisational growth. His time may have been brief but, as Peel notes, he didn't hang about. A truly compelling force.

Gavin Martin

Back in the dark ages of the 1980s, it was hard to find almost anything by Graham Bond, especially in the US. The situation began to change with the double-LP reissue of his two most important albums (from the mid-1960s, with the Graham Bond Organization’s Ginger Baker-Jack Bruce lineup) in the late 1980s; gathered steam with CD reissues of his other, if lesser, subsequent LPs over the next couple decades; and seemed to reach a climax with 2012’s stupendous four-CD Wade in the Water box set, which had most of the Graham Bond Organization’s 1963-67 studio recordings plus some extras. Toss in the live 1963 recordings and 1966 demos on Solid Bond, as well as the kinda disappointing live October 1964 set that has been issued under several titles, and what else could remain?

Lots, as the four-CD Live at the BBC and Other Stories proves. While the majority of it’s devoted to BBC sessions from 1963, 1966, 1970, and 1972, there’s also a September 1962 session when Bond was playing jazz on alto sax as part of the Don Rendell Quintet; a 1962 home-taped improvisation between Bond and Dick Heckstall-Smith; a long, live, and lo-fi “What’d I Say” by the Organization in 1966 or 1967; and a Manchester club rehearsal/jam session from 1962 at which Bond (still a jazz alto saxophonist) played with Ken Wray & the Joe Palin Trio. There’s even a Philamore Lincoln track on which Bond guested, as well as a 1962 Brian Dee Trio EP cut with Bond on sax. It’s more surplus Bond than anyone knew existed, save perhaps his longtime friend and sometime collaborator Pete Brown. Most famous as a frequent lyricist for Cream, Brown also wrote the liner notes for the booklets, which are jammed with rare photos and memorabilia.

Top marks for packaging, then, though note this comes in the standard jewel box size, not a larger one. Rarities in quantity, of course, do not necessarily (or usually) equate to quality on the order of an artist’s best recordings, and this collection’s no exception. On the three 1963 BBC sessions, Bond (and for that matter Baker and Bruce) were just starting to make the transition from jazz to jazzy R&B. Although these cuts include some songs that they’d later record for studio releases (such as “Spanish Blues” and “Wade in the Water”), the execution is somehow more polite and restrained than it would be just a bit later on his finest (and, uncoincidentally, far more demonic) 1964-1966 sides.

Of the tunes unavailable in other versions, the highlight is “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town,” one of seven tracks from an April 25, 1963 radio session with John McLaughlin on rather unassertive guitar. Unfortunately, on some cuts from that session, Bond cedes his customary lead vocal position to the undistinguished Bobby Breen. The two other ’63 BBC sessions are more Duffy Power performances than they are Bond’s (though the second of these sessions mixes in a couple instrumentals), as Power takes the vocals (including for two versions of “I Saw Her Standing There”). That’s not such a bad thing, as Power like Bond was one of the great overlooked figures of early British R&B. But he, like Bond, had yet to reach his peak on these early efforts, where they had yet to fully shake off the more refined British jazz-blues approach of the pre-Beatles era.

By the time of the three songs on their January 22, 1966 BBC session, Bond seemed to have met his own devil at the crossroads, as both his singing and organ were invested with a far more sinister flavor. Done with the short-lived lineup with Baker, Heckstall-Smith, and trumpeter Mike Falana (Bruce had recently departed), these tracks don’t feature a guitar of any kind. “Wade in the Water” and “Only Sixteen” are more satisfying than “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”—not a great song to mutate into British R&B, to put it mildly.

It’s disc three, however, that really broadens this box’s appeal beyond hardcore Bond fans, and contains most of the material on this collection that truly lives up to his legend. Recorded by his short-lived Graham Bond Initiation outfit at two separate BBC sessions on January 31 and March 22 of 1970, it’s highlighted by a ferocious medley of two of his best compositions, “Walkin’ in the Park”/“I Want You,” and two equally galvanizing 13-minute interpretations of “Wade in the Water.” He never gave up hopes for “Wade in the Water” making a splash, it seems, as more than a dozen live, radio, and studio versions have now appeared on Bond releases.

The ‘70 sessions also have two takes of one of his best post-Organization songs, “Love Is the Law,” as well as a couple others from his obscure, uneven late-‘60s US-recorded albums. In the March 1970 performance, Bond goes at some length to insist to John Peel that he’s dedicated to “holy magick” rather than “black magick,” “which I know to be an extremely dangerous thing to dabble in.” “Love Is the Law,” he claims, “is more or less like a hymn to Aquarius...we’re trying to do something about making the world a bit better, not worse.” The loose yet forceful “The World Soon Be Free” totally eclipses the comparatively anemic one on his Love Is the Law LP, and overall the ’70 sessions have a nearly mesmerizing blend of rock, blues, and hip jazz, with an aura that’s grim yet compelling. It’s Bond near his very best, playing and singing at a level he’d never again come close to in the four years remaining in his life.

To be blunt, the pre-1963 jazz cuts won’t be of much interest to most Bond fans, or indeed most rock fans. They’re pretty straight early-‘60s jazz, and had Bond not moved to organ-based R&B, I’d wager the tracks (and Bond himself) would be virtually forgotten today. The March 23, 1972 BBC session with the duo of Bond and Pete Brown isn’t nearly as exciting or distinctive as the Initiation material from just a couple years earlier, and the live, free form-ish Initiation version of “Wade in the Water” from an unspecified source (from 1969/1970) doesn’t match the 1970 BBC rendition.

But the Initiation performances on disc three alone make this a vital addition to the Bond catalogue. Disc three, indeed, would make a good standalone release. It makes one mourn the failure of the Graham Bond Initiation (who changed personnel even in the two months between these sessions) to release any studio product, though the group featured no musicians of renown save Bond himself.

Repertoire also has a 2-LP Live at the BBC set scheduled for release soon.

Richie Unterberger

I suppose vinyl freaks will find it quite interesting that a selection of BeeB tracks from "Live At The BBC & Other Stories" soon will be released as "Live At The BBC" (Repertoire V191). And though the 2LP / 180g / 1 000 copies set is a slimmed collection compared with the 4CD set, it gives a great overview regarding Graham's BBC output. That said - it's a pity that no tracks featuring either Don Rendell or Pete Brown are included.

http://www.repertoirerecords.com

In the meantime enjoy a brand new interview with Graham Bond Initiation drummer Keith Bailey. His contribution to the Initiation made a lasting impression and as info regarding the band is quite sparse, am proud to add this in depth interview with him.

The box set went to press early this week. A late addition were the four tracks Duffy Power and the GB4 recorded for the 5th edition of BBC's "Pop Goes The Beatles" - "I Got A Woman", "Cabbage Greens", "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Spanish Blues". BUT - as the sleevenote states - "Please allow for sonic imperfections!"

Christmas starts early this year in form of Repertoire's stunning 4CD collection "Graham Bond - Live At The BBC And Other Stories". If "Wade in the Water' - Classics, Origins & Oddities" was THE introduction to the mighty Graham Bond - this is THE best of the rest.

The set kicks off with a 1963 BBC "Jazz Club" broadcast featuring the Graham Bond Quartet with singer Bobby Breen guesting. Apart from great guitar from John McLaughlin throughout, highlights are Graham singing "Every Day I Have The Blues" and Bobby Breen taking the spot on "Hello Little Girl".

Another 1963 session with the Graham Bond Quartet follows - this time with Duffy Power added. Apart from "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Got A Woman" - which they recorded for EMI - this session includes "Summertime" and "Hallelujah I Love Her So".

The first CD close with a BBC broadcast the Don Rendell Quintet recorded in the autumn of 1962, just before Graham left for Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated. Added guest on a couple of tunes is Dick Heckstall-Smith and it works out really well - on "Richmond Festival" we find the sax players trading solos - Dick on tenor, Don on soprano and Graham on alto.

It's a pity we couldn't find and include a BBC session with the classic GBO, but this one featuring the Bond/Baker/Heckstall-Smith/Falana line-up is a really good substitute: "Wade In The Water", "Only Sxteen" and best of them all - "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" - a much better and looser version than the studio one found on "Wade in the Water' - Classics, Origins & Oddities".

The second CD continues with Bond & Brown and a solid session recorded for the BeeB in 1972 - "Macumbe", "Milk Is Turning Sour In My Shoes" and "Beak Suite".

Sometime during 1962 Dick Heckstall-Smith augmented with Graham recorded some free improvisations for Dick's wife to use as ballet music - to be found here!

Graham otherwise took part in demo sessions for Dick's solo album "A Story Ended" – composer Pete Brown sings as well on "Moses In The Bullrushhoures".

Though the sound is rough the music is good - "What'd I Say?" is lifted from a rare GBO live tape documenting the Bond/Heckstall-Smith/Hiseman line-up. Sorry to say this is the only complete track - the other ones are unfortunately marred with drop outs and distortion.

The GBO ran out of steam and Graham left for America. Returning he put together the Graham Bond Initiation - in my opinion his best outfit post America. Last track on the second CD is a rare live take of "Wade In The Water" - yes, they played that tune as well!

The third CD is fully dedicated to the Initiation in form of two 1970 BBC sessions - Top Gear and a John Peel live show - the new band sounds fresh mixing old favorites and new tunes - extraordinary indeed!

The last CD opens with a track from a rarer than rare 1962 Vaux EP called "Jazz and Twist". Courtesy of Terry Biddle, I had never heard about the record before he turned up with his copy! Credited to Brian Dee's Trio featuring Graham Bond - Milt Jackson's "Things Are Getting Better".

"Things Are Getting Better" turns up again at another 1962 session - this time Graham with a combo led by pianist Joe Palin recorded during rehearsals(?) at Club 43 in Manchester. A much surprising find indeed, which apart from the mentioned track also includes tunes of the day/standards to become: "Sack O' Woe", "Mack The Knife", "Work Song" and "Oleo".

Honestly - "Wade in the Water' - Classics, Origins & Oddities" turned out pretty well and this new collection is really THE best of the rest – soundwise as well. It's great to see so much BBC material collected together. The early sixties stuff hasn't been around since it was aired first time around and we're all grateful to Paul Wilson for helping out regarding these sessions. No less interesting are the Initiation sessions – nice to finally see them commercially available. Icing of the cake is Graham as featured sax player playing modern jazz. Everyday I have the blues, but things are getting better and better and better..........

The "Wade In The Water" box set has sold well and there's some serious interest in doing a follow up compilation. Some good sounding tapes with great music has turned up recently, but more is needed to make a solid compilation. In that case please get in touch with me at skilly@online.no if YOU have interesting material - e.g. BBC sessions - which could fit well into this project :-)

Jack was original member of the Graham Bond Trio, which later expanded to a quartet and in 1964 became the mighty Graham Bond Organization. A highly respected combo which travelled up and down the English countryside for a solid two years before Jack left for a short spell with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Jack shared the stage with Eric Clapton for a few gigs and a year or so later they teamed up with GBO drummer Ginger Baker and found fame as Cream . However, inbetween Mayall and the formation of Cream, Jack got his first No. 1 with Manfred Mann - "Pretty Flamingo". The rest of the bands output featuring Jack was otherwise quite a different story. With Henry Lowther and Lyn Dobson on board as well, the band now sounded quite jazz and nothing at all what the old lineup had produced. But late summer 1966 Jack left the Manfreds and for about two years Cream were THE group, delivering four solid albums. As a writer Jack came to his force in the band. Apart from a 1965 solo single and a few odd tunes on the GBO albums he now contributed 1/3 of the material to Fresh Cream and about half of Disraeli Gears and Wheels Of Fire. The material - in collaboration with beat poet Pete Brown - showed strong craftmanship in composing and after the break up of Cream the duo sucessfully continued with masterpieces as Jack's debut solo album "Songs For A Tailor", "Harmony Row" and the slightly later "Out Of The Storm". Rest in peace Jack.

I did a double take when I spotted Repertoire's new Graham Bond Organization boxed set on the wall of Freakbeat Records. Its five-and-a-half x eight-inch size seemed more appropriate to a DVD set, and I'd be astonished to learn there was an hour footage extant on the seminal British blues quartet. Can there even be much audio on a group that only released two LPs and seven singles? Thankfully there is: these four CDs include 37 previously unreleased tracks.

For the most part, the set is sequenced chronologically, and Disc One digs up some fascinating early curios, beginning with a trio of January/February 1963 recordings with British blues kingpin Alexis korner sitting in on guitar. Though saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith appears on these cuts, he's absent from much of this disc, which features Graham Bond (keyboards), Jack Bruce (bass) and Ginger Baker (drums) backing R&B vocalist Duffy Power on several cuts, auditioning for EMI with guitarist John McLaughlin and backing jazz guitarist Ernest Ranglin (as "The GBs") on a couple of rare 7-inchers. Regardless of who else is in the line-up, Bond's distinctive Hammond work takes center stage.

Heckstall-Smith is back in the fold for an April 1964 Decca tryout, by which time the foursome were officially known as the Graham Bond Organization. Though Bond's voice was in terrible shape, they passed the audition, resulting in a fine single ("Long Tall Shorty" b/w "Long Legged Baby") and a handful of recordings doled out on compilations and the Gonks Go Beat soundtrack. Then the GBO departed for Columbia, which would release their debut album, Sounds of 65, included in its entirety on Disc Two.

The Organization's second and final album , There's a Bond Between Us, takes up much of Disc Three, along with some non-LP single sides, a 45 where Bond and Baker back singer Winston G, and half a dozen unreleased sides, some of which feature trumpeter Mike Falana in place of Jack Bruce. While the consensus is that There's a Bond is the lesser of the two GBO albums (if only for the presence of the execrable ballad "Baby Can It Be True"), it nonetheless includes several fine R&B cuts as well as some of the first recordings to employ a Mellotron.

Disc Four rounds up more stray singles (including "Waltz For a Pig", which was released as a Who B-side!), but most of this disc is given over to live recordings. Sound quality is marginal at best (the vocals in particular are muddy and distorted), but the playing is solid, and the material sticks to the blues/R&B they did best - you won't hear a version of "Tammy" here. This is not the Klook's Kleek performance that was issued on Charly Records in the late 1970's (some Organization studio recordings are also absent from this box, much of the material on the Solid Bond double album proved impossible to licence).

The accompanying booklet is atractively designed and feature notes from Pete Brown, who cut the Two Heads Are Better Than One album With Bond in 1972. My one quibble with the package is that, because of its small size, all discs are partially stacked on top of each other and wind up either falling out or being stuck like glue to the inlay card.

Certainly some of this material remained in the vaults for good reason (you won't know whether to laugh or cry at the laryngitis beset Decca audition). And some of the multible versions will try the patience of those who see this group as a mere footnote to the history of Bruce and Baker's Next band, Cream. But for those of us that consider the Graham Bond Organization to have been the grittiest, grooving-est British blues band of them all, this set is manna from heaven.

The rebellion of sound

Strange it is sometimes, being a reviewer. When Comrade Ivan Beavis, musical pundit as well as Star Fund organiser, sent on to me the new box set of Graham Bond Organization classics from the early 1960s, Wade In The Water, I knew I would be grooving to an early British blues legend as well as a homeboy of mine from Romford, who went to the rival school, The Royal Liberty Grammar, and mastered the Hammond organ and alto sax - unlike his more typical schoolmates I knew who played classical violin and cello.

Yet hearing him growling through his laryngitis on his 1964 recording of Muddy Waters's monica, Ginger Baker's rattling drums and Dick Heckstall-Smith's hooting tenor sax, I thought: "Did this sound really come from the same Essex suburbs where I grew up?"

Uncannily, it did, and as I got further into the four CDs, I felt that more than ever I could understand the rebellion of his sound, so different from that made by the thousands of City commuters stepping to Romford and Gidea Park stations to catch the early morning trains to Liverpool Street.

Perhaps, in the context of all this, Bond felt, as the lyrics of the song he recorded in 1964 proclaimed, that he was only "half a man."

Among these 96 tracks, many of them aimed primarily at the '60s pop market, there are bound to be some mishaps, like the mawkish effort at Tammy or the lifelessly maudlin What Am I Living For? But other tracks are full of energy and verve.

Hear Bond's filigreeing organ chorus of Version 1 of Green Onions or the guttural Heckstall-Smith blowing a storm on High-Heeled Sneakers.

On some of the early tracks Bond is playing with two renowned guitarists.

He's a part of Ernest Ranglin And The GBs on an April 1964 session and the Jamaican ace and guitar mentor of Bob Marley stacks up many a groove on one of his performing visits to Ronnie Scott's.

Hear him solo beside Bond's stinging organ riffs of SO-HO. And on Untitled Abbey Road Blues Instrumental, it's John McLaughlin's guitar licks that follow another rasping chorus from Bond's organ.

Disc three includes 18 tracks from the Bond/Baker/Bruce/Heckstall-Smith quartet.

The performances remixed from the Organization's 1965 album There's A Bond Between Us stand out, in particular Ray Charles's What'd I Say? where Heckstall-Smith lets himself loose, and Have You Ever Loved A Woman? where Bond's soulful vocal is the prelude to more blues-baked Heckstall-Smith and another earthy organ chorus.

Two sides of the tenorist emerge on these tracks - a tender, love-toned solo on Bond's ballad Baby, Can It Be True? and his horn raucous and plangent on his own feature, Dick's Instrumental.

Baker stokes up a fire on his own feature - the enigmatically titled Camels And Elephants, with more than an intimation of what was to come half a decade later with Bruce and Eric Clapton in Cream.

He sings a desperate vocal of the pains of addiction and incarceration on Cold Rain, enduring "90 days in jail with my backside to the wall," and Bruce wails on his harmonica on the two versions of Positive aka HHCK Blues.

The final disc brings a little of Bond the alto saxophonist to the fore, but not before a springing trio performance of Wade In The Water, with organ, drums and Bruce plucking acoustic bass.

The last nine tracks are live, from autumn 1964.

Heckstall-Smith and Bond go head to head on their horns on Queen Of Hearts, with Baker's drums crashing, and despite the low-grade recording quality, the performance is full of skill and spirit.

Bruce's voice and harmonica are featured on The First Time I Met The Blues and Bond pulls out a specially gravelly vocal and some powerful Hammond patterns on Little Girl.

When Graham Bond died in 1974 after years of the primal opposites of innovation and addiction, he left almost a mythopoeic story. A story of an insurgent boy living in the superficial calm of the Essex suburbs who strove to play and sing the blues and live the damaged life of the wandering bluesman across the cities of post-war England.

Some of those whom he played with survived and others like Bruce, Baker and McLaughlin found world renown - migrating to the US, recording with jazz eminences like Miles Davis and creating amalgams of genres which astonished millions.

As for the Romford boy, we have his records like these to tell a different but still potent story.

Surprising 4 1/2 page feature on our man in the recent Classic Rock Magazine!

"This is what people have been waiting for!" exclaims Pete Brown, producer, and, vitally, longtime associate of so many of the musicians featured on this fine collection. You can understand Brown's enthusiasm: this is easily the most comprehensive collection of Graham Bond's work with the Organisation.

With four CD's, excellent graphics and wise, witty and intimately informed notes from Brown, this is a must buy not only for Bond fans, but for anyone interested in the roots of prog and jazz-rock. Brown's production has revived some tracks, removing extraneous claps et al while bringing Bruce's bass to the fore. Previously unreleased tracks that astonish include Baker's first foray into writing and vocals, "Cold Rain", and alternative takes to classic material like "HHCK Blues". Pre-Organisation cuts featuring Alexis Korner are also on board, plus previously unreleased material with McLaughlin. Brown has also bravely included eight live tracks, again previously unreleased, which may not have the sound quality contemporary ears appreciate, but for sheer energy give a sense of how explosive the band were. Brown's notes rightly point up that Bond didn't just underwrite Cream and Bruce and Baker's experiments With jazz-rock, but also suggest that Bond's organ antics were influential on the likes of Keith Emerson et al. But the real gold dust here, is a previously unreleased seven-track set with Ernest Ranglin, still hot from the Ronnie Scott's house band. Priceless.

Get organized
Hugh Dellar is blown away by this exaustive, though not definitive, anthology of the groundbreaking London jazz 'n' blues combo

Many is the morning I've found myself at Finsbury Park underground station waiting for my tube into work, pondering the fact that while the lives of many lesser lights are commemorated in a whole raft of different ways, the platform from which the mighty Graham Bond exited this realm remains blankly devoid of any form of monument or recognition. no blue plaque, no mosaic, no nothing.

The fact that he is perhaps best remembered by your average music fan (when he is thought of at all, of course) for the manner of his departure and for his preceding long slow slide through the darkness of heroin addiction, an unhealthy obsession with the occult and, if Harry Shapiro's biography is to believed, child abuse, is also a tragedy of sorts, for it obscures one single vital fact: when in full flight, The Graham Bond Organization produced some of the most life-affirming, gutsy, exuberant music ever made anywhere.

Hopefully this new anthology may go some way towards reiterating this and will help to cement his stature as one of the truly great musikal figures of the '60s. In terms of influence on the musical scene of the era, few can come close to the impact that the GBO managed. Bond pioneered the slamming funky Hammond-through-Leslie-speakers sound later adopted by all and sundry; he was perhaps the very first Brithish musician to work the Mellotron into his sound, with 1965's There's A Bond Between Us coming soaked in the thing: he somehow managed to fuse jazz, R&B, soul and blues into a steaming, dirty, fiery furnace of sound absolutely devoid of any of the indulgences that came to later be associated with jazz-rock.

Whilst sadly not completely definitive (for copyright reasons, the compilers were unable to access most of the work of the third line-up featuring Dick Heckstall-Smith and Jon Hiseman), this 96-song set is nevertheless the most complete GBO compilation ever, and comes complete with enough unissued gems, alternative takes and obscurities to merit Investment from even the most dyed-in-the wool obsessive.

Organised in a broadly chronological manner across four CD's, the set kicks off with the scorching previously unreleased "Roll 'Em Pete" from very early '63, a 1:40 blast that shows all the crucial elements of the sound already in place: a gutsy groove, staccato punctuation from the Hammond, parallel sax lines, and the kind of raw vocal stylings only a very select clique of white boys could ever hope to hit!

There then follow seven cuts with Duffy Power handling the lead vocals, including a truly joyous, swinging romp through "I Got A Woman", and a further seven with the GBO backing legendary Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin. Loose, frentic mod jazz of the highest order.

Alongside the obligatory wellknown heavy hitters from the band's repertoire ("Harmonica", "Spanish Blues", "Neighbour, Neighbour" and the like), there are lesser heralded gems such as the '67 B-side "I Love You", which has the Hammond hitting relentless distorted overdrive amidst free skronking intrusions, along with such lost wonders as '65's "Cold Rain", Ginger Baker's singing and songwriter debut. Ginger's fragile, nasal south London twang relates a tale of addiction over a chilling use of Mellotron vibes sampling! Jaw-dropping, chilling stuff.

The package comes complete with a 44-page booklet crammed with archive material and great liners by Pete Brown. One small gripe to wind up with, though surely there must be some way of ensuring all four compact discs remain in the box on opening! All in all, a must-have purchase, but one you'll need to be on your toes to keep in pristine nick.

This 4-CD collection documents the career of one of the decade's most important but under-rated groups

The Graham Bond ORGANisation were one of the key bands of the 1960s British Blues explosion although they did not gain the commercial credit they deserved. However, listening to this collection the listener can get a genuine feel for the energy of the time with a band that is now correctly recognised as being at the heart of this movement. In fact, The Graham Bond ORGANisation could be considered one of the first supergroups, or even pre-supergroup, as it counted future Cream members Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce among its members we well as guitar virtuoso John McLaughlin and Dick Heckstall-Smith who was later in Colosseum.

This 4-CD set is an excellent overview of the band's career including unreleased tracks, alternative versions, demos and live tracks. Several tracks are present in many forms. The title track Wade in the Water shows how it progressed and developed over the course of the band's life. Train Time even became a feature of Cream's live set. The set shows how the band evolved from the Graham Bond Quartet to the Graham Band ORGANisation in which only Bond and Dick Hestall-Smith were the only constant members.

Compiled by Pete Brown and Dick Heckstall-Smith the tracks have been "improved" in quality, bringing out elements that were not so audible in the originals. However, the power of the band is something that is ever-present. The live tracks reinforce the feeling on the earlier released Live at Klooks Kleek that the Graham Bond ORGANisation must have been an exceptional live act for those who were fortunate enough to see them.

Many of the tracks are covers of well-known standards such as High-Heel Sneakers and What I'd Say. There are also originals written by band members including Bond and even Ginger Baker whose song Cold Rain about heroin addiction was previously unreleased. The collection is broad although the third line-up with Jon Hiseman is not represented for contractual reasons. A cover of I Saw Her Standing There with Duffy Power is one of several tracks recorded as Duffy Power with the Graham Bond Quartet.

Those who have not previously listened to John McLaughlin will marvel at the jazzy guitar parts of those earlier GBO tracks where McLaughlin was building his reputation as a jazz guitar player. Wade in the Water sounds quite different to the later versions where Heckstall-Smith's saxophone is to the fore. After this the classic line-up of Bond, Baker, Bruce and Heckstall-Smith evolve their tight blues sound into something quite special. Particularly interesting are the previously unreleased versions of Booker T's Green Onions and the classic High-Heeled Sneakers. Later tracks include Waltz for a Pig, credited to The Who Orchestra. This has been issued as the b-side of The Who single Substitute in the US even though the track was solely the Graham Bond ORGANisation.

Many of the tracks have previously appeared on The Sound of '65 and There's a Bond Between Us but a large proportion of the tracks are appearing for the first time. Despite the Jon Hiseman era omissions, this is a superb collection of jazzy blues tracks by one of the most under-rated but most important bands of the 1960s.

Mostly complete collection of British jazz-soul giant leaves a few mysteries intact

Bond was more than a bandleader who brought the pre-Cream Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce together. He was more than the man who gave John McLaughlin a leg up. He was also a complex, troubled, difficult man with esoteric fixations who died in peculiar circumstances in 1974. This 4CD set reveals and revels in Bond the innovator, reconfiguring Roland Kirk and Jimmy Smith for 60's Britain. His music was powerful, as attested by a wild live show included here. Although it doesen't say so, this is the complete released recordings 1963 - 1967 and more (with every psedonymous session), bar the second single with Duffy Power. Nowhere is it explained where the tapes used as sources had lurked unused, at the rationale for remixing them isn't given in Pete Brown's text. Such opacities are probably fundamental with anything to do with Bond.

An enlightening salute to a true innovator

Subtitled Classics, Origins & Oddities, this impressive and lovingly compiled box set offers the most complete portrait imaginable of a hugely influential figure, for many the founding father of the British R&B movement. Bond, who died aged 36 in 1974, was ultimately denied the wider acclaim afforded those he mentored and inspired, such as Jack Bruce, Stevie Winwood and Jon Lord.

He was a pioneer of the combination of Hammond organ and Leslie speaker cabinets to add rich textures to jazz and blues material, providing a gateway for the harder rock and even prog musicians who followed. Check the record shelves of just about every British musician who started out in the mid-60s and you'll find a copy of the Organization's game-changing album The Sound Of '65.

That album is well represented here but, across 96 tracks, you'll find a jaw-droppingly broad canvas of musical intuition and intellect; a lavish cornucopia of sound which borrows from the past but twists and tweaks its origins before letting them loose on future generations. Live cuts, demos, alternate mixes and the like can often be little more than filler in many multi-disc compendiums, but here they're just about all integral building blocks of a bigger plan that continues to demand reverence.

Monster tribute to overlooked UK R&B pioneer

Graham Bond should be up there with the likes of Alexis Korner as a founding father of the UK R&B boom, but the roaring, Hammond organ-toting titan's legend faltered when he got into drugs and Crowley magick, practically evaporating after his suicide under a London tube Train in 1974.

Influenced by Ray Charles, Mose Allison, Booker T, Roland Kirk, Jimmy Smith, Coltrane, Mingus and Chess blues, GBO gigs were an explosion of telepathic musicians creating new alchemy through cross-breeding musical styles, anchored by Bond's larger-than-life personification of the blues' wild original spirit. He was the early 60's foremost exponent of the Hammond organ-Leslie speaker combination, influencing the likes of Jon Lord, Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson.

Born in Romford in 1937, Bond initially played alto saxophone with jazz groups before joining Korner's Blues Incorporated, taking drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce to form his Organisation in 1963 with young guitarist John McLaughlin. While the latter was replaced by sax virtuoso Dick Heckstall-Smith, Bruce and Baker defected in 1966 to form Cream With Clapton (replaced by drummer Jon Hiseman, who went on to form Colosseum with the sax-man). Lack of commercial success and Bond's escalating drug habit split the group in 1967. He went on to form Initiation, reflecting his interest in magick, later joining Ginger Baker's Air Force.

UK underground poet Pete Brown has done a spectacular job of positioning his old collaborator (they made an album together in 1972) as a crucial and charismatic jazz-blues pioneer. His four-CD, memorabilia-stacked labour of love collates singles, classic albums The Sound Of '65 and There's A Bond Between Us (remixed to further greatness), compilation appearances, live recordings, curious such as a collaboration with Jamaican guitar legend Ernest Ranglin, and unreleased gems including Baker's heroin addiction lament Cold Rain.

Contrasting with rough-cut gems such as the demonic Wade In The Water, amped-up prison moan Early In The Morning and several stellar tear-ups, tour de force ballads like My Heart In Little Pieces display one of the finest blues voices this country ever produced. At last, this overlooked giant is blessed With a suitably colossal memorial.

Repertoire has established a fine reputation for quality reissues of classic recordings from the 1960s and '70s. That said, this box set by the Graham Bond Organisation sets a new standard even for them. Containing four discs and 96 tracks from early 1963 through 1967, this collection includes previously unreleased material -- a great example is disc one's first cut, "Roll 'Em Pete," recorded for EMI in early February of 1963 by the Graham Bond Trio with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, as well as the first version of their standard "Cabbage Greens," with the Velvettes as the female backing chorus.

What's notable about these sides is how assured they are: the group had just recently left Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated less than a month before and had played exactly one gig. Disc one moves forward with the band savagely backing R&B vocalist Duffy Power and later, guitarist Ernest Ranglin as the G.B.'s. in early 1964.

None of this material is filler; it is all quality. John McLaughlin joined the band briefly, making it the Graham Bond Quartet, and after being fired by Baker, the great saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith entered the fold, making the legendary "Organisation" complete. Bruce and Baker, and even Heckstall-Smith, would leave eventually as well, but the excellent meld of blues, R&B, rock, and jazz (check the amazing hard rock, free jazz freakout in the blues jam, "I Love You," from 1967 -- and it all takes place in under three minutes) would roll on for another year-and-a-half or so.

These four discs are loaded with live tracks, alternate takes, unreleased demos, live sides, and even an entire gig from 1964 to close out the last disc. Wade in the Water: Classics, Origins & Oddities is not a mere odds and sods collection, but a deep, well-rounded portrait of the band from its beginnings at EMI to its glory years at Decca to Columbia and its eventual dissolution in 1967. The influence of these sides on British music cannot be overstated. It would inform not only the British blues scene, but its R&B and rock scenes, both at the time and in the future. One can hear Bond's influence on everyone from the Who and Georgie Fame, to the latter-era Jam and Paul Weller's solo material, the James Taylor Quartet, and the acid jazz scene in general. The notes are beautifully annotated, with a solid intro by producer Pete Brown, who, along with Heckstall-Smith, did a fine job remixing and remastering the material.

Graham Bond is usually remembered for his magickal interests and his untimely death, an apparent suicide in 1974. The band he founded, the formidable Graham Bond Organisation - whose output between 1963 and 1967 is celebrated here - is better known for Bond's more illustrious sidemen, notably Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. A year after the pair left to form Cream in summer 1966, replacement drummer Jon Hiseman and trusty tenor saxman Dick Heckstall-Smith also quit, joining rival bandleader John Mayall before themselves founding Colosseum.

Yet it's the GBO's electrifying recordings that should be remembered, a thrilling, unique brand of British R'n'B, driven by Bond's supercharged Hammond organ. In 1961 Bond was well etablished as an alto sax player (with Don Rendell), before he switched allegiance from Charlie Parker to Ray Charles. Briefly joining Alexis Korner, Bond poached Bruce and Baker from Blues Incorporated to create the first GBO in 1963, adding budding guitarist John McLaughlin. McLaughlin's rapid departure and Heckstall-Smith's arrival established the definitive GBO lineup adopting a daring jazz rock aproach that was truly liberating.

Bond's intense, wholehearted playing influenced Brian Auger, Zoot Money, Jon Lord and Keith Emerson, among many. Bond was an innovator, playing the Hammond through a Leslie cabinet (pre-Mike Ratledge/Soft Machine) and pioneering the Mellotron on record, road testing the cumbersome instrument long before it became a fashionable prog accessory. An intimidating, unruly looking bunch, the GBO had no obvious frontman or focal guitarist. Commercial success eluded them, to the point of bafflingly covering Debbie Reynolds' "Tammy", but the GBO did record the two exceptional albums The Sound Of '65 and There's A Bond Between Us.

These underpin this collection, elevated by such delights as Duffy Power's rousing Parlophone singles (with the GBO) and unheard sessions with Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin. There's little from the final trio with Heckstall-Smith and Hiseman but that's a contractual quibble (interested parties should check out Solid Bond). Deserted again by musicians he had nurtured, suffering depression and battling drug abuse, Bond uprooted to America for a couple of years, returning to oversee various ungainly bands (Holy Magick, Incantation, Magus) that drew on a preoppupation with the occult.

Bond re-united with Ginger Baker in the unwieldy Air Force, worked with Pete Brown (who provides this boxset's affectionate notes) and recorded two LPs that clumsily tried to marry chants and incantations with free jazz. At his best, though, powering the original GBO, Bond was a true catalyst for future ideas, still sounding dazzlingly fresh and modern today.

This four-CD box set charts the musical history of the original '60s British blues supergroup the Graham Bond Organisation, which evolved out of the legendary Alexis Korner Blues Incorporated and in the future would provide two members of Cream - Jack Bruce on bass and Ginger Baker on drums.

The seminal line-up also had Dick Heckstall Smith on tenor and soprano saxes. But the driving force was multi-instrumentalist Graham Bond, who powered the group on Hammond organ and synthesiser.

Compiler Pete Brown has unearthed a fine collection of unissued recordings of this hard-working band along with tracks from the various line-ups fronted by Bond in the early '60s with the excellent but unappreciated vocalist Duffy Power, John McLaughlin and guitarists Ernest Ranglin and Winston G. That alone makes the set a must as the original vinyl is as rare as hen's teeth.

Wonderful musicians playing with exuberance and talent.

For well over a decade there has been talk of the plethora of unreleased Graham Bond Organization material existing in the vaults. At the of 2012 it was announced that Germany's Repertoire Records would be issuing a 4 CD G.B.O. box set "Wade In The Water: Classics, Origins & Oddities" which I duly advanced ordered (and you can order it here). No stone has been left unturned (though the oft reissued spotty sounding "Live At Klook's Kleek" set is conspicuously absent from the package). Rather than give you a track by track review I thought I'd go through some of the highlights.

DISC ONE:
Some of the more interesting aspects of Disc One are records The Graham Bond Quartet/Organization made with other artists. Seven tracks recorded in a session backing Duffy Power (for what would be the band's debut vinyl appearance backing him, which we profiled here) are included. The band (as The G.B.'s) next backed Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin on a rare as hell jazzy 45 on the Black Swan label and seven tracks with Ranglin are also included. I'd long expected them to be ska flavored as Ranglin made some ska records and Black Swan was predominantly a ska label but they are far from, coming across as Wes Montgomery jamming with Jimmy Smith. Also included are several songs recorded under the moniker of The Graham Bond Quartet (including their EMI audition session including "Wade in The Water" which first saw the light of day on the CD "R&B At Abbey Road").

DISC TWO:
Disc two is predominantly composed of stereo mixes of tracks from the band's 1965 debut LP "The Sound of '65" (Columbia records) and tunes from their brief period on Decca records which came prior to singing on with EMI's Columbia outlet. Among them are their sole Decca 45 "Long Tall Shorty/ b/w "Long Legged Baby", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Little Girl" and "Strut Around" from a 1964 Decca LP compilation called "Rhythm And Blues" (which also featured the tracks on the Decca 45) and the powerful "Harmonica" from the film "Gonks Go Beat". A previously unreleased track called "What Am I Living For" from the first LP session is included along with other previous unissued tracks from '64 like "Green Onions", "Honey Bee" and a different recording of "Hi Heeled Sneakers".

DISC THREE:
Disc three contains Stereo mixes of all the tracks from their 2nd LP, 1965's "There's A Bond Between Us" as well as two songs cut backing singer Winston G. ("Please Don't Say" and "Like A Baby", Winston's debut 45). Unlike other Winston G. tracks I've heard these are dead boring. Disc three also houses my all time favorite G.B.O. single, April 1965's "Tell Me (I'm Gonna Love Again") b/w "Love Comes Shining Through". There are a slew of unreleased tracks on disc three (six actually) including Ginger Baker's first recorded original, the brilliant "Cold Rain" (featuring Graham Bond on Mellotron, an instrument the G.B.O. used frequently) which sounds like an autobiography of a junkie. The disc concludes with their powerful dirge "St. James Infirmary" (you can read about the U.S. pressing here).

DISC FOUR:
Disc four starts out with the last G.B.O. Columbia 45 ("Soul Tango" b/w "Wade In The Water", a different take than the U.S. 45 version that also previously graced the "Sound of '65" LP). It also contains their amazing B-side recorded as "The Who Orchestra" for The Who's "Substitute" single. There's the band's final 45 for Page One in '67 ("You Gotta Have Love Babe" b/w "I Love You", with an alternate mix of the former as well). The disc is rounded out by a slew of live cuts of varying degrees of quality, most are interesting only for the sake of historical posterity and in my book don't warrant too many repeated listenings.

It came out around the Christmas period, meaning a lot of people missed it. Not @MonkeyPicks, who has just mentioned that The Graham Bond Organization Wade In The Water box set is out right now.

An impressive thing it is too. Released by Repertoire, it is described as the essential collectors set, as well as the biggest and most comprehensive collection of work ever. 96 tracks over four CDs, including tracks from the classic albums, some remixed for the first time by Pete Brown and Dick Heckstall-Smith from the original 4-track masters.

On top of that, rare are several unreleased performances, a wild live gig by the original line-up (never heard before), rare demo sessions and some material of GBO backing other artists. There's also a 48-page booklet, featuring rare archive memorabilia and an introduction by Pete Brown.

An amazing collection of work from the legendary Graham Bond, a 60s Hammond player who was incredibly important to the London scene during the best mod years of the decade! Bond was way more than just a jazz musician and like George Fame, Zoot Money, and a few of his other contemporaries he had a way of mixing together jazz and soul with a strong touch of blues almost a new British version of soul jazz, similar to the way that some of the bigger English rock groups were drawing from American R&B!

Graham sings on most tracks with these raspy vocals that are incredibly charming, and downright soulful and in addition to his own work on organ, instrumentation features lots of pre-Cream work from Ginger Baker on drums and Jack Bruce on bass plus plenty of tenor from Dick Heckstall-Smith too. If you dig the mod work of Georgie Fame, you'll find plenty to love here too but Bond also really helps point the way towards more progressive jazz-rock experiments of the future although this set features mostly tracks from 1966 and before, without any of Graham's later trippier music.

The 4CD package is the best collection we've ever seen of Bond's music from these years and includes rare singles, unreleased cuts, and even some side projects with Ernest Ranglin and Duffy Power too. 98 tracks in all, with a great booklet as well and titles that include "Cabbage Greens", "Harmonica", "Tammy", "Early In The Morning", "Honey Bee", "Long Tall Shorty", "Soul Tango", "Down In The Valley", "Waltz For A Pig", "Like A Baby", "Please Don't Say", "Walking In The Park", "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf", "Dick's Instrumental", and lots lots more.