As many of the James Bond movies had not been made when the original The James Bond Songbook LP was recorded, five of the twelve tracks are cover versions of original Bond movie music (Thunderball, From Russia With Love, 007 Theme From Dr No, and Goldfinger), with the rest being genuine James (Jimmy) Bond originals being sold as "personal interpretations of Ian Fleming's stories".

By the time that Thunderball appeared in cinemas in 1965, Bond-mania was in full flight. With a sufficient backlog of music it was only a matter of time before the cash-in albums appeared. Mirwood Records contributed to the flood of Bond related LPs with The James Bond Songbook, and against all expectations it was a pretty fine effort. The Mirwood team had seen the angle in employing jazz bass player Jimmy Bond, and for this occasion calling him James, allowing for the entirely legitimate release of The James Bond Songbook by the James Bond Sextet.

Jimmy Bond was a jazz veteran who had been playing on the LA scene since the early 50s, Jimmy Bond had been a fixture in Chet Baker's mid-50s band, and frequently played on live dates with artists such as Gene Ammons and Charlie Parker. He became a fixture in the band of Ella Fitzgerald. In the 60s he concentrated on studio work, appearing on sessions for Phil Spector, Frank Zappa, Fred Neil and Tim Buckley as well as covering the notoriously difficult to fill bass chair for the Jazz Crusaders on occasion. This level of serious musicianship meant that any album that he made would not lack weight, and for The James Bond Songbook he surrounded himself with some of LA's highest quality session players.

Drummer John Guarin was a fixture in the area's studios and Joe Parnello was an accomplished pianist / arranger whose career would see him as Musical Director for Tom Jones and Frank Sinatra among many. The three-pronged horn line up was as good as you could hope to make up from the area. Buddy Collette was one of the earliest pioneers of playing jazz on the flute, though he was equally accomplished on the tenor sax. He had made a series of albums on the West Coast and had been an early teacher of Charles Mingus. Harold Land was another native Californian and after working with the legendary Max Roach - Clifford Brown band of the mid-50s, he had recorded one of the definitive West Coast hard bop records "The Fox" for the Hi-Fi jazz label, produced by David Axelrod. In the late 60s he led an incredible group with Bobby Hutcherson, all the time making great music, with his wonderful tone on the tenor sax. Final group member Bobby Bryant was the trumpeter of choice on West Coast sessions in the late 60s, and went on to make some fine albums for Cadet and Pacific Jazz towards the end of the decade.

With this line-up, even a simple run through of the tunes was likely to cook, and sure enough the band takes on all the Bond music with aplomb. Thunderball is a tour-de-force for the interaction between Bond's bass and Land's tenor, From Russia With Love becomes an intricate bossa nova and 007 Theme From Dr No showcases exactly why Bryant was so in demand amongst the session elite of LA. The bonus of this album are the extra tracks that Bond wrote for this project. They are a fine example of 60s small group jazz with fine players working through some great changes. It's a shame that work such as this is virtually ignored because of the context in which it was originally presented. The James Bond Songbook is, if not a jazz masterpiece, a hidden gem worthy of your attention.

Packaging & Liner Notes
CD: Standard jewel case.