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. ~ Bruce Eder
