Jimmy Bond

• Name — Jimmy Bond • Birth Name — James Edward Bond Jr. • Born — 27 January 1933 • Birthplace — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States • Died — 26 April 2012 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Instrument — Double bass • Genre — Jazz, R&B, pop, folk, gospel • Occupation — Musician, composer, arranger • Years Active — Early 1950s – late 1980s

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 played bass in clubs in Philadelphia, with musicians such as Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and Gene Ammons. After his formal studies ended, he performed regularly with Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sonny Rollins, and in 1958 began 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 participated in hundreds of recording sessions 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.