Bond, James Bond
As a kid one of my favorite reading activities was to see how fast I could finish the latest Ian Fleming ‘James Bond’ novel while listening to my favourite band, the Shadows. With the release of ‘Dr No’ in 1962, Monty Norman’s ‘Bond’ theme, with its twangy guitar riff arranged by John Barry, became an instant classic.

Later, when I started taking guitar lessons I was intrigued by the ‘adult’ musical vocabulary of this style of music, which seemed so much more sophisticated, than most of the pop or classic jazz that I was hearing on the BBC - although there were some pretty advanced voicings in some of George Harrison’s Beatle parts.

Minor, Melodic Minor
The text-book melodic minor scale suggests a rivalry between the ascending major 6th and major 7th versus the descending minor 6th and 7th, when in practice, these alternates coexist. The fun begins when it is harmonized with triads and upper partials. Compared with the major scale, the number of possible chords is effectively doubled and, other than the tonic, each scale tone is available in two different flavours.

The scale also allows for the dominant minor V chord ex 1

The ii-V(or v)-i progression, for example, exists in four versions, the ascending, descending and the hybrids i.e. b6 #7 and #6 b7. ex 2

Seventh, Major Seventh
Take the tonic chord in E minor for example. There are two kinds of 7th , the minor and the major. Add a ninth and you get the ‘007’ flavored Em9(maj7). In the case of the dominant B7, the D natural (#9) can comfortably sit above the D#. ex 3 A further step is to add the bluesy Lydian #4, which supplies the minor 7th on the b6 chord – in E minor, the C7 chord. ex 4

Include the #1 and the maj 3rd as chromatic passing tones to the 2 and 4 respectively ex 5, and you end up with a ‘super-melodic’ minor which includes the whole chromatic scale. This excerpt from my composition ‘Private Dick’* treats all the intervals as equally available, with some cool harmonic results, including some ‘thickened line’ parallel harmonies. ex 6

Strummed, not stirred
The postscript to my Bond obsession occurred in 1977, when I arrived at CTS studios in Wembley, North London, for a session that turned out to be for "The Spy Who Loved Me"– Marvin Hamlisch’s debut as a Bond composer. I got to add my twang to this Oscar-nominated part of Bond repertoire. Then the next year I joined Wings and playing “Live And Let Die” fused my Beatles and Bond obsessions.

* Appears on the Laurence Juber Collection from Solid Air Records