Jethro Tull may very much be considered a cornerstone of Britain’s ‘70s prog boom, but Ian Anderson’s outfit was always firmly planted at the genre’s borders, looking outward toward folk and blues rock.
Anderson offered insights to his musical inclinations in 2021 when he served up a list of the albums that influenced him. Alongside the wild eccentricity of Captain Beefheart are records from the Jimi Hendrix Experience and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton opus.
Yet, beyond those, one record catches the eye. The Graham Bond Organization were a jazz-tinted rhythm-and-blues band that featured two soon-to-be legends: bass guitarist Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker. Two years earlier, the band featured another icon-in-the-making, guitarist John McLaughlin. Like Mayall's group, the Graham Bond Organization was an incubator for talent that would shape the future of jazz-tinged rock.
Anderson has credited their 1965 debut LP, The Sound of '65, for kickstarting the prog movement that would encompass not only Jethro Tull but also Yes, Pink Floyd, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, to name a few.
“This was the seminal album for anyone in the U.K. nurturing early jazz-rock pretensions,” Anderson said. “Two pre-Cream members plus the renegade jazzman Bond give sturdy renditions of classic jazz, blues, and home-grown compositions which fired a generation of Brit bands of the late ’60s/early ’70s.”
In a similar chat with Classic Rock, Anderson continued to heap praise on the record, explaining how Bond's approach to songwriting rubbed off on him.
“They played a homegrown amalgam of eclectic jazz and blues, which made a big impact on me as a teenager,” he said. “I was just starting to play music at this time. The use of the Hammond organ, as played by Bond, was quite forceful and dramatic, and wonderful. Of course, as everybody knows, the core of the Graham Bond Organization went on to form Cream, which took it even further.”
Moreover, the band’s free-wheeling spirit, as their music careened between blues, jazz, and whatever else they fancied taking in, opened Anderson’s eyes to different instrument combinations.
“Hearing saxophone and Hammond organ, along with bass and drums, really clicked with me,” Anderson says. “It made me realize that you could do something with this lineup. It didn’t have to be Black American music; you could take things from classical music and use them. In some ways, it was the beginning of what became classic rock.”
Jethro Tull would eventually pivot from blues-rock to prog, costing them guitarist Mick Abrahams. in the process.
Indeed, longtime Tull guitarist Martin Barre says Anderson took a “big risk” by drafting him to fill in for Abrahams. But Anderson knew he needed to shake up the band’s style if they wanted to be successful.
“They’d taken a huge plunge into the unknown getting me onboard as a guitar player,” Barre recently told Guitarist. “Tull were a blues band, but [Anderson] was quite clever, looking ahead with the music.”
Tony Iommi took a leave from Black Sabbath to audition for the band, and appeared with them on the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. Although he soon returned to Sabbath, he brought with him key lessons that helped the band shape up.
Buoyed by the Graham Bon Organization’s change-making music, and armed with a more versatile guitarist in Barre, Anderson and Jethro Tull evolved into a fully-fledged prog outfit, and the shape of the music scene was forever changed.
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