Jimmy Bond (musician)

Biography

Bond was born in Philadelphia, and learned the double bass and tuba as well as studying orchestration and composition. He attended the Juilliard School between 1950 and 1955. He also played bass in clubs in Philadelphia, with musicians including Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and Gene Ammons. After his studies ended, he played regularly with some of the leading jazz musicians of the day, including Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sonny Rollins, and in 1958 started touring with George Shearing.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1959. He became resident bass player at the Renaissance nightclub on Sunset Boulevard, where he played with Ben Webster. Art Pepper, Jim Hall and Jimmy Giuffre, and also recorded with Paul Horn. From 1962, he became a session musician in Los Angeles. From then until the early 1970s – and on a more occasional basis until the 1980s – he played on hundreds of recordings covering not only jazz but also rock, pop, folk, and gospel. He became one of the members of the Wrecking Crew, a group of session musicians often associated with work for Phil Spector. Other musicians with whom he recorded included Randy Newman, Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, The Jazz Crusaders, Nina Simone, Lightnin' Hopkins, Jimmy Witherspoon, Linda Ronstadt, Henry Mancini, Lou Rawls, Tony Bennett, and B.B. King. Increasingly he also worked as an arranger, with producers Nik Venet, David Axelrod and others, as well as composing and arranging advertising jingles.

He died in 2012, aged 79, as a result of complications from cardiopulmonary disease.

Discography

With Curtis Amy

With Earl Anderza

With Louis Bellson

With Tim Buckley

With Joe Gordon

With Paul Horn

With The Jazz Crusaders

With Irene Kral

With Julie London

With Gerry Mulligan

With Art Pepper

With Gerald Wilson

With Jimmy Woods