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Bill Bruford: The Summerfold Collection 1987-2008
by John Kelman
Intrepid percussionist/composer/bandleader Bill Bruford began his career in the late '60s art-rock arena with Yes and, later, King Crimson, but jazz has always moved underneath, like an eddying current. His early recordings, well documented on the companion Winterfold Collection, may not speak the language of jazz, but they possess its spirit. By 1986, Bruford was looking for a new path. Crimson had again dissolved, the 1981-'84 incarnation having provided him with the opportunity to explore nascent electronic drum ...
Continue ReadingBill Bruford: The Winterfold Collection 1978-1986
by John Kelman
It's often easy to judge artists based on where they are now, but when you have a recorded legacy as rich as that of Bill Bruford, it's far better to view the body of work as a whole. As divergent as the intrepid percussionist/composer/bandleader's career has been, there are common threads running through all his work, making the earlier, electrified and amplified material on this Winterfold Collection fit contextually as a logical antecedent to his more recent unplugged and improvisation-centric ...
Continue ReadingBill Bruford's Earthworks: Earthworks Complete
by John Kelman
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 ...
Continue ReadingHeaven & Earth: Live and in the Studio 1997-2008
by John Kelman
Yet another year, yet another characteristically detailed and chronologically contextualized King Crimson mega-box set. Except that 2019 is no typical year. And Heaven & Earth is no typical King Crimson box set. While Heaven & Earth: Live and in the Studio 1997-2008 completes (well, almost) the series of box sets documenting King Crimson's original commercial recordings (and so much more), it's far from the group's first (or only) release to go along with the current three-drummer ...
Continue ReadingBruford-Borstlap: Sheer Reckless Abandon
by John Kelman
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. ...
Continue ReadingUncharted: Creativity and the Expert Drummer
by David A. Orthmann
Uncharted: Creativity and the Expert Drummer Bill Bruford 282 Pages ISBN: #9780472053780 University of Michigan Press 2018 Uncharted: Creativity and the Expert Drummer isn't the place to look for colorful, gossipy stories about Bill Bruford's celebrated years as a prog rock architect and drummer with Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, and U.K.; or, his tenure as a leader of highly regarded, if less commercially viable, electric and acoustic jazz units. The book is reminiscent ...
Continue ReadingBruford: Seems Like a Lifetime Ago 1977 - 1980
by John Kelman
With the plethora of box sets being issued these days with new masters and, perhaps even more importantly, new mixes of classic recordings, it was inevitable that the small but significant discography of drummer Bill Bruford's first steps into a solo career with his band Bruford should finally get the deluxe treatment. Seems Like a Lifetime Ago 1977-1980 not only covers the three studio and one live recording that this at-the-time completely unexpected and utterly distinctive surprise of a group ...
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