Jazz Articles

Bill Bruford's Earthworks: Earthworks Complete

by John Kelman
July 3, 2019

Since retiring as a professional musician in 2009, progressive/art rock turned jazz drummer Bill Bruford has successfully managed to maintained a place in the public eye. Beyond his engaging, informative and successful Bill Bruford: The Autobiography (Jawbone Press, 2009), the drummer/percussionist has more recently released a second, equally captivating book, Uncharted: Creativity and the Expert Drummer (University of Michigan Press, 2018).Initially stemming from the success of his autobiography but since assuming a life of its own (and no ...

Bruford-Borstlap: Sheer Reckless Abandon

by John Kelman
May 19, 2019

One of the great joys of music can be that of distance: coming back to a piece of music, a musician/group or a discography, even, years later to rediscover it anew. While returning to music after a break of months, years...even decades...is not always a revelation, it's likely true that, if the music was appealing the first time around, it will be just as compelling—maybe even more so—when a significant amount of time has passed since it was last experienced. ...

Pete Lockett's Network of Sparks featuring Bill Bruford: One

by John Kelman
February 28, 2010

Released in 1999 on the obscure Melt 2000 label, Bill Bruford's reissue of fellow percussionist Pete Lockett's One continues the now retired drum legend's campaign to release and/or reissue works focusing on the clearly infinite rhythmic, melodic and textural potentials of all-percussion ensembles. One follows the World Drummers Ensemble's world-centric A Coat of Many Colors (Summerfold, 2006) and New Percussion Group of Amsterdam's near-classical Go Between (Summerfold, 2007), which reissued a 1987 EG Records date. For fans of Bruford 's ...

Pianocircus featuring Bill Bruford: Skin and Wire

by John Kelman
September 2, 2009

For his final release of “new" music, percussionist Bill Bruford collaborates with Pianocircus—an all-keyboard ensemble best-known for its unique coverage of largely contemporary classical music, fitting somewhere between Steve Reich and Phillip Glass' systems music and the avante leanings of Estonian Erkki-Sven Tüür and David Lang. With four of Pianocircus' six members alongside Bruford and bass guitarist Julian Crampton, Skin and Wire features music by Colin Riley, who occupies similar territory, but adds elements of electronics and ambient music to ...

Bill Bruford / Michiel Borstlap: In Two Minds

by John Kelman
February 3, 2008

In the years since Every Step a Dance, Every Word a Song (Summerfold, 2005) and In Concert in Holland (Summerfold, 2005)--a CD and DVD documenting drummer Bill Bruford's nascent duo with Dutch keyboardist Michiel Borstlap, the pair has continued to perform at irregular intervals. But reconvening after time apart only means there's plenty to talk about. Both lead active lives apart--Borstlap's Eldorado (Gramercy Park, 2008) and Bruford's Earthworks Underground Orchestra, for example--so when they do meet, there's no lack of ...

The New Percussion Group of Amsterdam: Go Between

by John Kelman
November 10, 2007

Those who think of Bill Bruford only as art rock drummer for groups including Yes and King Crimson, fusion drummer with his late-1970s group Bruford, or even (finally, after all these years) a jazz drummer with his ongoing Earthworks projects and improvisation-heavy duets with Dutch pianist Michiel Borstlap, still don't know the whole story. Those familiar with his work in the collective World Drummers Ensemble know that this iconic British percussionist has a pervasive and encyclopedic interest in anything that ...

Bill Bruford / Tim Garland: Earthworks Underground Orchestra

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
December 4, 2006

Bill Bruford forged his reputation as a relentless pioneer striving to advance the art of percussion. Using odd times and improvisation in rock or exploring with electronic drums, he sought to challenge both his self-expression and the drummer's role. Since 1986, his primary outlet as a composer and bandleader has been Earthworks. What began as an electro-acoustic quartet has become strictly acoustic, bringing him back to his early love: jazz. To celebrate this twenty-year anniversary, Bruford and ...

World Drummers Ensemble: A Coat of Many Colors

by John Kelman
April 19, 2006

For those who think that percussion should be restricted to timekeeping, A Coat of Many Colors may come as something of a surprise. On the other hand, listeners familiar with Swiss percussionist Pierre Favre's Ensemble and his remarkable Singing Drums (ECM, 1984) will find the idea of a full programme from four percussionists much less of a shock. But what differentiates the World Drummers Ensemble from Favre's is its broader cultural spectrum. Drummer Chad Wackerman, best known for ...

Bill Bruford / Tim Garland: Earthworks Underground Orchestra

by John Kelman
January 26, 2006

Although jazz has left behind its America-centricity and become a more international language, a mysterious chasm still exists between the American and UK jazz scenes. For every artist like Kenny Wheeler who has achieved American recognition, a dozen others have not. But with Earthworks Underground Orchestra, drummer Bill Bruford and woodwind multi-instrumentalist Tim Garland narrow the gap, proving that swing is more than a defined rhythm--it's a feel, with an expanding definition.

Bruford's 1980s electro-acoustic Earthworks quartet began a gradual ...

Bill Bruford/Michiel Borstlap: Every Step a Dance, Every Word a Song

by John Kelman
February 15, 2005

Drummer Bill Bruford has certainly come a long way since his emergence with Yes in the early '70s. While his interest in jazz was evident in the improvisational aspect of his 25-year association with King Crimson, his mathematical sense of precision and disposition towards mind-boggling subdivisions of rhythm often precluded the kind of elasticity required to approach the looser demands of jazz. As early as '83, however, Bruford was experimenting with the intimate conversational nature of the duo on recordings ...