Tag: Bond music

2020.03.27

“The Man with the Golden Gun”: The case of the Danish saxophone solo (2020)

Did John Barry compose the saxophone solo heard in “The Man with the Golden Gun”? Or was he in fact using a library cue without crediting the Danish creators Ib Glindemann and Jesper Thilo? Bond•O•Rama.dk examines the evidence.

In 2012, Ib Glindemann, a veteran Danish composer and arranger of film scores and big band jazz, claimed that the saxophone intro of the John Barry track “Getting the Bullet” on the soundtrack album of “The Man with the Golden Gun” (1974) is in fact not “one of Barry’s signature sexy saxophone solos” as Jon Burlingame puts it in his book “The Music of James Bond” but a cue that Glindemann composed as library music for the American market in the early 70’s.

Glindemann said that the tenor saxophone solo was performed by Jesper Thilo, a well-known Danish jazz musician. Thilo later confirmed his participation and even recalled performing the cue in a recording studio on Dortheavej in Copenhagen some 40 years ago.

“Yes - that’s me. I remember performing that solo,” Jesper Thilo said when Bond•O•Rama.dk played back the audio track from “The Man with the Golden Gun” to him in 2012.

The tenor saxophone part is featured on the film’s soundtrack while James Bond (as played by Roger Moore) is courting the belly dancer Saida (Carmen du Sautoy) backstage at a Beirut nightclub.

Film composer Søren Hyldgaard eventually tracked down further details from Glindemann. The cue in question is supposedly titled “Saxophone A” and was sourced from a Chappell Production Music LP from 1973/74.

The compressed production schedule on “The Man with the Golden Gun” meant that John Barry had to come up with 57 full minutes of score in only three weeks' time. One tantalizing theory is that the pressure caused Barry to simply filch Glindemann and Thilo’s cue, take credit for it and hope no-one would ever notice!

Barry passed away in 2011, and neither Hyldgaard nor Glindemann managed to locate a copy of the Chappell LP before their deaths in respectively May 2018 and April 2019. Now, film score enthusiast Jesper Hansen from The Danish Film Music Archive has looked into the matter.

2018.02.16

“Up and coming” (1972): The “Bond Street” dance

In the little-known Danish comedy "Nu går den på Dagmar" (international title: "Up and Coming") from 1972, two young acting students (played by Ulla Gottlieb and Finn Storgaard) do a fairly elaborate choreography to Burt Bacharach's own recording of "Bond Street".

"Bond Street", issued on the Bacharach LP "Reach Out" (1967), is based on the composer's cue "Home, James, don't spare the horses" written for the soundtrack of Columbia's "Casino Royale".

The dancing in "Nu går den på Dagmar" was choreographed by American dancer Gene Nettles who at this time was living in Denmark. Actor Finn Storgaard reveals to Bond•O•Rama.dk that the scene was hell to do because of the heat.

"We shot in the summer in a real studio apartment in Copenhagen. It was 30 degrees Celcius outside, but at least 40 degrees in the flat after the crew put up light boxes in all of the windows," Finn Storgaard recalls.

"Nu går den på Dagmar" was released in Danish cinemas on October 23, 1972. This excerpt is from a VHS issued by the company Kavan (the film has to date not been released on DVD).

● Watch more rare videos on Bond•O•Rama's Vimeo page

2017.07.05

James Bond concert in Tivoli: Interview with Adrian Prabava (2017)

On Friday 07.07.2017, Tivoli Copenhagen Phil performs "The Hunt for 007 - an Evening with James Bond" at Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen. James Bond•O•Rama.dk attended the first rehearsal and interviewed the conductor, Adrian Prabava.

The iconic date 07.07.2017 has inevitably given rise to several James Bond 007-themed events in Copenhagen. On this very Friday, Tivoli Concert Hall presents "The Hunt for 007 - an Evening with James Bond" as part of Tivoli's annual music festival SommerKlassisk.

Indonesian-born German conductor Adrian Prabava will be conducting the Tivoli Copenhagen Phil (formerly known as Tivolis Symfoniorkester) in a full programme of music from the James Bond 007 films. The programme was provided by European FilmPhilharmonic Institute.

At the initial rehearsal that James Bond•O•Rama.dk was invited to on Tuesday 4th July, The Tivoli Ensemble and vocalist Pernille Rosendahl were not yet in attendance. The Tivoli Ensemble will support the orchestra with drums and electric instruments at the concert; they might also fill in the iconic guitar riff (if Prabava so chooses) during the "James Bond Theme". Rosendahl, who is slated to sing four songs, has previous Bond experience from her band Swan Lee whose single "Tomorrow Never Dies" in 1997 was a contender for the title theme in the eponymous film.

During rehearsal, the conductor and the orchestra go through the entire programme for the first time. Prabava halts the music several times in order to fine-tune specific note lengths and polish any rough corners. Part of Michael Kamen's "Licence to Kill" score is repeated for string section only and then with strings and woodwinds until Prabava is satisfied with the result. It is like hearing the familiar 007 soundtracks being remixed and deconstructed live.

The percussionist gets a proper workout during Thomas Newman's busy action cues from "Skyfall". Afterwards, Adrian Prabava describes this suite as the "most challenging" part of the programme. The orchestral sound will be overdubbed with live synthesized effects and timed exactly to the sound effects in the accompanying scenes from the film which will be shown on a screen behind the musicians. Furthermore, modern composing for films is generally more complex than in the 60s, says Adrian Prabava.

"You can tell that film music has developed a lot the last ten years. Orchestral writing for cinema is getting more specialized, with greater possibilities of sampling and using the orchestra. There is kind of a new genre of composing for film, and this is also an aesthetic you can hear in "Skyfall"."

The disparity between Thomas Newman's hectic contemporary score and the luxurious, pop- and jazz-inflected John Barry sound from the sixties is particularly apparent when performed in direct sequence. Adrian Prabava senses that the melodic style of film composing might be coming back, though:

"Nowadays, if I listen to contemporary pop music, many pieces don't have this depth of composition we used to have in pop music in the 60s. I'm talking about harmony, about rhythm. Very often is it reduced to a simple rhythm and bass, with a lot of repetition, less melody. This is the music of our time. So this is reflected in the movie compositions as well. Many people go home without being able to sing along to what they heard in the cinema, it's very rare now. I think there is a turning back, with musical films like "La La Land", this longing for the ... emancipation of melody, going back to the fullness, a full-bodied composition."

Dirigent Adrian Prabava - pr-foto © Ulrike von Loeper

2015.12.24

“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969): Nina van Pallandt’s Christmas song

Only one of the 27 James Bond 007 film adaptations (to date) is set around Christmas.

Only this James Bond film contains a newly-composed Christmas song written by John Barry and Hal David.

Only this James Bond tune was originally recorded by a Danish vocalist.

OHMSS Christmas Angels framegrab — Christmas Eve at Piz Gloria. Framegrab from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969)

The Christmas song "Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown?" appears as source music in the film version of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (EON Productions 1969). The track, arranged by John Barry, is sung by Danish singer/actress Nina van Pallandt and an unnamed children's choir. Phil Ramone is credited as producer of the session which took place at CTS Studios in London.

The lyrics for the song were written by Hal David, who also collaborated with John Barry on "We Have All the Time in the World" for the "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" soundtrack. In Jon Burlingame's book "The Music of James Bond" (Oxford University Press 2012), Hal David says that in the case of "Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown?", he delivered a finished Yuletide poem to John Barry who then put it to music:

"I think it's the only time, with John, that I wrote the lyric first".

In the clip below, Nina van Pallandt lip-synchs to her recording of "Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown?" in the British TV special "Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show" (BBC 25.12.1969):