We meet the veteran jazz bassist— and occasional James Bond adversary—Putter Smith.

Interview: Joel McIver

Photography: Getty

Getty

Patrick ‘Putter’ Smith, now 80, has a resume as a jazz bassist going back as far as the Fifties, and has amassed a huge list of recording and performance credits alongside Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Duke Ellington, Billy Eckstine, Lee Konitz, Art Farmer, Erroll Garner, Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper, Bob Brookmeyer, Diane Schuur, Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach, Sonny and Cher, the Beach Boys, the Righteous Brothers, and many more. In his later career, he also became a respected teacher of upright bass at the Musicians’ Institute in Los Angeles. Smith is also known outside the music world for his acting role in the 1971 James Bond movie, Diamonds Are Forever, in which he played an affable hitman, Mr. Kidd—but acting was not for him, as we discover in this rare interview.

Are you still teaching bass, Mr Smith?

Yes, although teaching has changed very much over the last 45 years. When you originally begin studying the instrument, they usually start you on the low notes and the scales. With my current student, I’m starting him in the middle and at the top right away. It’s working very well, and he’s burning it up at 14 years old. But it’s no harder to learn to play up high. In fact, it’s easier to play up high because you have more room with your hands. Anyway, teaching is teaching the student rather than the method, and I’m enjoying it.

Do you also play bass guitar?

When it first came out in the early Sixties, Don Randi, a contractor for [the late producer] Phil Spector told me, ‘Buy an electric bass and I’ll get you some gigs’. I had a young family—a two-year-old and a one-year-old— and at that point all you’re concerned about is making your family safe, so I bought one, and he started getting me gigs right away.