E9583 - Graham Bond: The Forgotten Architect of British R&B Who Set Up Cream

Graham Bond taught Deep Purple's Jon Lord the organ, suggested the name The Animals, employed Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and John McLaughlin before they were famous, and was the first rock artist to record with a Mellotron. This episode asks why a resume like that ended in obscurity. Born in 1937 in Romford, Essex and adopted from a Dr. Barnardo's home, Bond rose through the British jazz scene on saxophone, was voted Britain's new jazz star in 1961, then pivoted into Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, where he met Baker and Bruce and formed the Graham Bond Quartet.

We explore...