Hilary Kole was a kid in the early 1980s when her parents took her to see her first James Bond movie: “For Your Eyes Only,” with Roger Moore in the role of Bond, James Bond.
“It was one of the first movies I actually remember seeing in a movie theater with my parents,” Kole said, then added: “I was way too young, by the way, to see a Bond film back then.”
She was about 6, but her dad, Robert, loved James Bond.
He also loved singing and performing in musicals; he had a pretty terrific Broadway career back in the 1950s and he taught his daughter how to sing. She went on to study composition at the Manhattan School of Music.
These days, Kole, 42, gets to channel both of her father’s passions in her “Music of James Bond” symphony show.
The Tucson Symphony Orchestra is presenting the concert with guest conductor Scott Terrell this weekend to open the TSO Super Pops series.
We grabbed a phoner with Kole last week from her home in Brooklyn, New York, to talk about the show and her love of all things Bond, James Bond. It will be her first public concert in Tucson, although she said she did a private gig here years ago.
“I am very much looking forward to Tucson,” she said.
Birth of the Bond show: She conceived the idea after doing a pops concert and singing a couple James Bond film themes with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra six years ago. “I really enjoyed it so much that I thought this would be a great idea to make my own solo show,” she said.
For the past five years, she’s performed the show with countless orchestras around the country.
About the show: “It’s all the music of James Bond. The whole thing about it is the franchise spans over 60 years and so it’s so many different genres of music kind of mashed up into one very fun, fun event for a singer. I get to sing a lot of different ways and it’s challenging and fun.”
What to expect: Lots of audience interaction. “I talk a lot in the show and based on research that I’ve done over the years, a lot about the plots of the movies, but also about fun stuff about the actresses and the actors who played in Bond over the years. It’s an interactive show; I get a lot of feedback from the audience while the show is going on because everybody has their favorite Bond movie, their favorite Bond girls, their favorite Bond song.
“It’s important for me to have a rapport with the audience and I think the audience enjoys it. They get to know a little bit more about me, they get to learn a little bit more about the background of these movies and the backgrounds of the songs that they don’t know. It’s always interesting for me to get to know the audience and get to know the city where I’m at, what that feels like. Because every audience is completely different and it feels very fresh for me. It’s like having a conversation with new people every night.”
Her favorite James Bond: “I grew up with Roger Moore being Bond and I didn’t know anything other than that until my father, very forcefully, said, ‘Oh, no, no, no. It’s Sean Connery who’s the real Bond.’ … And then, of course, I saw Daniel Craig. I really love Daniel Craig, but Roger Moore is my childhood Bond.”
Her favorite James Bond movie: “All of them are so silly and funny and they’ve changed throughout the years. I would say ‘Skyfall’.”
Her favorite Bond song: Sheena Easton’s “For Your Eyes Only” from 1981’s “For Your Eyes Only,” the 12th installment of the franchise. “It was one of my favorite songs when I was a kid.”
Timeless classic: “It’s been my experience, especially with Daniel Craig and ‘Skyfall’ and Adele and Sam Smith writing for the newer films, I really feel like it is kind of a timeless franchise. And I see people of lots of different ages. Of course it started 60-plus years ago, but it’s one of these things that doesn’t go away and there’s got to be a reason for it.”
The music: “I get to be a lot of different sides of myself. I never quite imitate anybody, and I couldn’t because you have everyone from Louis Armstrong to Adele to Sam Smith, Paul McCartney, Nancy Sinatra. And you get to sing Melvin Hammers and Carole Bayer Sager songs. Burt Bacharach, I get to sing jazz, R&B, rock, very traditional numbers. It’s so fun.”
When she’s not singing Bond songs: Kole also tours a Judy Garland tribute show with orchestras.
“She was very instrumental to my decision to become a singer.”
