The Graham Bond Organisation
Live At Klooks Kleek

A rather strange and likeable character, this Graham Bond: chubby, with a little mustache and a disordered tuft on his forehead. He was one of the pillars of the evolution of English "niche" music before the explosion and (re)birth of blues-rock, and in his Organization, at different times, individuals like John McLauglin, Jon Hiseman, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker served. In short, akin to Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated and John Mayall's entourage, the ensemble branded by Graham Bond allowed the formation of historic groups like Cream (meanwhile, Clapton was cutting his teeth with the Yardbirds) and Colosseum, before their rise in progressive rock.

This "Live At Klooks Kleek" represents a dusty snapshot of a fleeting era, an underground 1964 in the shadow of the exploding Beatles cherubs and all pop music. A deeply blues album, enriched with jazz and sweat-dripping r'n'b sounds; Bond, with his gritty voice, roars in the faces of the (few) spectators, Bruce and Baker pounding on the instruments while a Hammond organ makes everything muddled and warm, deeply sincere. It's the usual array of old blues, from a famous and overused "Stormy Monday" (W. Dixon) to another splendid "The First Time I Met The Blues" (B. Guy).

An album that stands in stark contrast to the grandiose live shows of the '70s, where the exterior dazzles the spectator, the virtuosity enchants and gives rise to the first guitar heroes; this collection of tracks is pure instinct, pure passion purely underground, framed by an essential sound quality and a generally "dirty" and informal atmosphere.

In the decade following this performance at Klooks Kleek (a dilapidated pub active in the '60s, also the venue for John Mayall's debut album), Bond would collaborate with his wife to produce a couple of LPs under the name Holy Magick, quickly sliding into heroin, a morbid interest in occultism, and debts, before dying under unclear circumstances in 1973.