Carlos Malcolm

Hi John,      The reason you lost track of me and my musical activities is that my wife and I relocated from New York to Miami. My parents had retired and decided to live in Miami, close to Jamaica. I thought it a good idea for my three children to enjoy the benefit of the guidance and tutelage of their grandparents.     Over the years you have always asked about the story of my involvement with the James Bond movie, “Dr. No” and what happened.  Actually, I became involved with two James Bond productions, “Dr. No” produced by Saltzman and Broccoli in 1962 and “Thunderball”, produced by Kevin McLory, two years later in the Bahamas, in 1964. The two stories carry enough material for two short novels. So I’ll have to present them in two installments     In 1958, I was hired by the Jamaican Broadcasting Corporation as Head Arranger/Director in the Variety Department. I participated in the development and wrote music for several show utilizing Jamaican talent: The Our Gang Show, featuring Dame Louise Bennet the great Jamaican folklorist, The Jamaican Hit Parade, a popular music program featuring the top ten tunes for the week sung by the original Jamaican artists, the Lou and Ranny Show, again featuring Dame Louise Bennett and Ranny Williams. In addition to my loaded schedule and the JBC, I was commissioned to compose the music for the libretto Banana Boy, the yearly three-hour pantomime/musical produced by the Little Theatre Movement.  The production was very successful and I was again commissioned to compose music for the libretto, Jamaica Way, written by Samuel Hillary. I was also very busy with my own production company which created commercial radio jingles for American and British companies marketing products in Jamaica: Shell Oil, Texaco Oil, Vick’s Vapor Rub Maxwell House Coffee, Berger Paints,  Milo Chocolate drink, Charley’s White Label Rum, Sugar Mill Rum and a host of others. I’m not going off on a tangent here, but merely setting the stag for the reasons why I was commissioned by Eon Productions to create tropical background music and to arrange and record with a Caribbeanflavor the music presented to me by the musical director of the movie “Dr. No”. After decades of silence on the matter, in my next blog, I’ll deal in details with the circumstances concerning my involvement in “Dr. No” and in the following blog I’ll deal with the circumstances concerning my involvement in the movie, “Thunderball”. Carlos