Shaken, not stirred

Hamilton, Ohio – The lights go down. The screen comes up. The familiar turn. The crouch. The draw. The trigger pull.

An insistent rhythm of jangling strings before an explosion of orchestral sound. 

So begins another adventure in the nearly 65-year film history of Agent 007, the world’s greatest spy with a license to kill.

The Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra explores the music playing behind Bond - James Bond - with Shaken, Not Stirred Saturday, March 28, at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts as part of its mainstage Fitton Showstoppers series.

“We had a movie show at the Fitton Center a couple of years ago that featured a Bond section,” said CCJO arranger and trumpet player Eric Lechliter. “(Fitton Center Executive Director) Ian (MaKenzie-Thurley) came to me and asked if we could dig a little deeper. That’s how we got to this show.”

It took some effort to winnow down a list of songs to play in a tight two-set show from such a deep catalogue in a franchise known as much for its music as for its outrageous action sequences and wild gadgets. 

“There were some givens,” Lechliter said. “You can’t do a Bond show and not do Goldfinger or To Russia With Love. But there’s music from every era of Bond.”

Mandy Gaines serves up the vocals while fronting a band including Steve Schmidt on the organ, Brandon Coleman on guitar, Jim Leslie on drums, Lechliter on trumpet and Zachary Granger on trombone.

“She’s going to put her own Mandy stamp on all those songs,” Lechliter said. “She’ll be singing everything from Shirley Bassey to Adele.

“We settled on this organ band because the Hammond B3 organ has a unique sound really suited to this style. With the guitar and horns, we have a lot of flexibility within the music as it’s written.

Lechliter has a personal favorite in the show. The theme from 1979’s Moonraker - one of three Bond themes Bassey sang in the film franchise - appears toward the end of the first set before intermission.

“It’s the height of the campy era of James Bond with Roger Moore,” he said. “They’re riding the popularity of Star Wars and they go into outer space. But there’s an opulent quality to the music that I really like. It’s fun to play.”

The entire show promises to be fun for the audience.

“My job as the arranger is to make sure people recognize the songs,” Lechliter said. “Some of them we’re doing pretty close to the original orchestrations. Some of them, we’re changing up some of the instrumentation or maybe putting a jazzier spin on the tune. But it’s all that exciting, iconic music people have come to love.”

Tickets for Shaken, Not Stirred: The Music of James Bond – sponsored by Sharon Lee Kindness and Woody & Diane Fitton -  are $41 for Fitton Center members, $51 for non-members and are available online right here, by phone at 513-863-8873, ext. 110 or in person at the Fitton Center box office.

The Fitton Center for Creative Arts is located at 101 S. Monument Avenue on the Riverfront in downtown Hamilton, Ohio.

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