CD/LP/Track Review
Count Basie: Basie Meets Bond (2002)
C. Andrew Hovan
An avid audiophile and music collector, Hovan is a Cleveland-based writer/photographer and regular contributor to AAJ, Cleveland Scene, and Down Beat.
Leave it to one of the most swinging big bands of its time to make a silk purse out of a cow’s ear. Visiting themes from James Bond movies, arrangers Chico O’Farrill and George Williams craft hip and bristling versions of what might appear to be less than complimentary pieces for jazz exploration. But then O’Farrill was a master writer and he proved that this Bond thing wasn’t just a fluke when a year later in 1966 he helped to develop the catchy Basie's Beatles Bag.
With its low sputtering bones and lively cowbell taps, “Kingston Calypso” is typical of the transformation with strains of “Three Blind Mice” worked in just for fun. “Dr. No’s Fantasy” gets things blaring from the git-go as drummer Sonny Payne’s swaggering backbeat pushes further and further, Basie injecting those sparse few notes here and there with characteristic élan. And those are just two highlights among many, not to mention the boisterous and characteristic statements of tenor man Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis.
Originally issued on the United Artists label, Basie Meets Bond can be recommended without reservation despite what might seem like the misguided intentions of some marketing exec.
Track Listing: 007, The Golden Horn, Girl Trouble, Kingston Calypso, Goldfinger, Thunderball, From Russia With Love, Dr. No's Fantasy, Underneath The Mango Tree, The James Bond Theme, Dr. No's Fantasy (First Version)
Personnel: Count Basie (piano); Al Aarons, Sonny Cohn, Wallace Davenport, Phil Guilbeau (trumpets); Henderson Chambers, Al Grey, Grover Mitchell (trombones); Bill Hughes (bass trombone); Marshall Royal (alto saxophone); Bobby Plater (alto saxophone & flute); Eric Dixon (tenor saxophone & flute); Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (tenor saxophone);Charlie Fowlkes (baritone saxophone & bass clarinet); Freddie Green (guitar); Norman Keenen(bass); Sonny Page (drums)
Record Label: Capitol Records | Style: Big Band
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- Steve Saragossi wrote on 2012-01-03 17:16:09 [ REPORT ]
I think your comment "make a silk purse out of a cow’s ear" is maybe a little unkind, and even unnecessary. The Bond scores on the whole were written by John Barry who himself had a rich jazz background, even learning his trade by one of Stan Kenton's band before sating his own jazz combo The John Barry Seven. His scores in the 60s, including the Bonds, did more than many film scores to utilise jazz in an organic fashion into film music. Basie's album extrapolates and augments what is clearly there in the first place. My comments do extend to Monty Norman's work on Dr No or Lionel Barts main theme to From Russia With Love.
