“This is what people have been waiting for!” exclaims Pete Brown, producer, and, vitally, longtime associate of so many of the musicians featured on this fine collection. You can understand Brown's enthusiasm: this is easily the most comprehensive collection of Graham Bonds's work with the Organisation. With four CDs, excellent graphics and wise, witty and intimately informed notes from Brown, this is a must buy not only for Bond fans, but for anyone interested in the roots of prog and jazz-rock. Brown's production has revived some tracks, removing extraneous claps et al while bringing Bruce's bass to the fore. Previously unreleased tracks that astonish include Baker's first foray into writing and vocals, ‘Cold Rain’, and alternative takes to classic material like ‘HHCK Blues’. Pre-Organisation cuts featuring Alexis Korner are also on board, plus previously unreleased material with McLaughlin. Brown has also bravely included eight live tracks, again previously unreleased, which may not have the sound quality contemporary ears appreciate, but for sheer energy give a sense of how explosive the band were. Brown's notes rightly point up that Bond didn't just underwrite Cream and Bruce and Baker's experiments with jazz-rock, but also suggest that Bond's organ antics were influential on the likes of Keith Emerson et al. But the real gold dust here, is a previously unreleased seven-track set with Ernest Ranglin, still hot from the Ronnie Scott's house band. Priceless.

Jazzwise spoke to poet Pete Brown about working with Graham Bond

You knew Graham before the Organisation?

I saw him at The Pad, Soho when he was New Jazz Musician of the Year (1961). There was this guy blowing alto like Adderley crossed with Dolphy. Not long after I started the poetry stuff. Michael Horovitz recruited Dick Heckstall-Smith and of course he brought Graham in.

But that generation couldn't survive just playing jazz?

You starved or did sessions. Poor old McLaughlin; he did terrible sessions that really brought him down. That's why the likes of him and Jack and Ginger were driven to the blues. That's what marked out the GBO. They played that intense, ferocious fusion of jazz, blues and soul.

You've said the band ‘loved the music but hated each other.

That post-war generation were fighting against the day job, national service, everything, to get to something creative. You had to have a lot of bollocks to fight your parents and the conventional morals of the time. To achieve that, people's personalities grew big and frightening.

Which led to unique music?

Yeah: there's a high degree of musicianship these days, and I love people like Janelle Monáe. But it'd be great if younger guys heard this box set and its uncompromising, individualistic music. That'd be something for the new guys to learn.

And like the art school dance, and sadly unlike Bond, you go on forever?

I've a new album with Phil Ryan, The Wisdom Of Pearls, and I've got some gigs with Clem (Clempson) for whom I wrote some of his new album. But I still feel Graham's very much with us. Maybe he's haunting us!