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Bruford-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. ...

Uncharted: 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 ...

Bruford: 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 ...

Bill Bruford: The Autobiography (Signature and Deluxe Editions)

By John Kelman

The Autobiography: Signature and Deluxe EditionsBill BrufordHardcover, 304 pagesISBN: 978-1905792191Foruli Limited Edition Books and Records2011 When Bill Bruford--veteran prog rock/art rock drummer turned jazzer--decided to hang up his sticks in 2009, the outcries were loud, passionate and, surprisingly, incredulous. How could this drummer, who cut his teeth with seminal groups such as Yes and King Crimson (with whom he played, in various incarnations, between 1972 and 1997), ...

Bill Bruford: The Autobiography Excerpt: Chapter 10: Is it different, being in jazz?

By Bill Bruford

[Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Bill Bruford's The Autobiography, first published in 2009 by Jawbone Press, but receiving the deluxe treatment in two very limited edition hardcovers by England's Foruli Limited Edition Books and Records in the fall of 2011. In his book, the veteran drummer--beginning in art rock bands including Yes and King Crimson but, over the a 40-year career, gradually moved towards where he wanted to be all along: jazz--describes his own experiential differences straddling ...

Patrick Moraz / Bill Bruford: In Tokyo

By John Kelman

Known as the art rock drummer who ultimately found his way to jazz, Bill Bruford doesn't appear to be letting up. It's been a busy year: the supposedly retired drummer published his thoroughly engaging Bill Bruford: The Autobiography (Jawbone, 2009) and participated in a whack of interviews; he's released what he claims will be his final album of “new" material, Skin and Wire (Summerfold, 2009) (teaming the intrepid drummer with contemporary keyboard group Pianocircus, performing music by composer Colin Riley); ...

Pianocircus featuring Bill Bruford: Skin and Wire

By John Kelman

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: The Summerfold and Winterfold Collections

By Phillip Woolever

Drummer Bill Bruford announced his retirement from live performance in March 2009, and coincident with the release of his autobiography, Bill Bruford: The Autobiography (Jawbone Press, 2009), he has provided a treasure of remarkable composition and improvisation with these intriguing time-capsule tidbits. Another name for the collections, which chronicle the majority of Bruford's musical exploits from 1978 through 2008, could be “Seasons of Excellence." Bruford first found fame in the early 1970s with Yes, and soon afterwards ...

Bill Bruford: The Autobiography

By John Kelman

The Autobiography Bill Bruford Trade Paperback; 352 pages ISBN: 978-1-906002-23-7 Jawbone Press 2009 “Veteran drummer Bill Bruford Retires From Public Performance“ the AAJ news item announced on January 26, 2009. At progressive rock boards like Progressive Ears it was enough to cause considerable consternation amongst fans who date back to Bruford's early days with Yes and King Crimson, and who have stuck with him through many subsequent Crimson incarnations, two versions of his ...

Bill Bruford Radio Interview

By Chris Comer

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Chris Comer has a candid conversation with jazz-rock drummer Bill Bruford in the spring of 2001. Bill Bruford played in progressive rock juggernauts Yes and King Crimson and fronts his own British jazz group Earthworks. Chris and Bill discuss the continuing progression of the Earthworks group and the British jazz scene, his status with King Crimson and frank comments about why he quit Yes. Of special note is a discussion of Bruford's drum-duet B'BOOM with ...

Bill Bruford: Earthly Endeavors, Heavenly Pursuits

By Ian Patterson

For twenty years drummer Bill Bruford has been the engine of Earthworks, one of Britain's most inventive and original jazz bands. Earthworks slowly revolving door has, over the years, seen the coming and going of some of Britain's finest young jazz talent, from keyboardist Django Bates and saxophonist Iain Ballamy to ex-Chick Corea sideman and current reed/flute maestro Tim Garland, and current pianist Gwilym Simcock. The fostering of such youthful talent has brought comparisons between Bruford's Earthworks and Art Blakey's ...

Bill Bruford's Earthworks: Video Anthologies Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

By John Kelman

Since forming his two record labels--Winterfold (to deal with solo efforts released prior to 1987, when he formed the first of his more jazz-centric Earthworks groups) and Summerfold (to handle everything that's happened since that career watershed)--drummer Bill Bruford has reissued, in remastered (and, in some cases, expanded) form his entire back catalog as a leader. He's also released Rock Goes to College (Winterfold, 2006), a short but powerful DVD from a 1979 BBC broadcast (an audio version of that ...