Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

INTERVIEW May 24, 2020

Bill Bruford: In the Court of the Percussion King

From the 1995-2003 archive: This article first appeared at All About Jazz in March 2001. A charmed life might be a good way of describing that of Bill Bruford. Always at the center of and driving vastly creative projects, including King Crimson, Yes, Earthworks, Genesis, Bruford, Gong and many other collaborations of like minds, Bruford continues to amaze and astound both audiences and the modern greats of drumming alike. Though at times self-effacing, tacit, enlightening and direct, he ...

ALBUM REVIEW July 3, 2019

Bill 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 ...

ALBUM REVIEW May 19, 2019

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. ...

BOOK REVIEW June 3, 2018

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 ...

ALBUM REVIEW November 5, 2017

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 ...

BOOK REVIEW December 16, 2011

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), ...

BOOK EXCERPTS February 2, 2010

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 ...