Europe Jazz Network
MUSICIANS

Bill Bruford grew up with jazz. As an amateur drummer in the 1960's, and after a handful of lessons from Lou Pocock of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, he began his professional career in 1968. He was a guiding light in the so-called British "Art Rock" movement, touring internationally with Yes and King Crimson from 1968-74. There then followed several years spent observing and participating in the music processes of, among others, Gong, National Health, Genesis, and U.K. until Bill felt ready to write and perform his own music with his own band Bruford, recording four albums from 1977-80. It was, however, the reconstituted King Crimson of 1980-84 that provided the vehicle for his revolutionary use of the electronics in developing the melodic side of percussion. Following an interim two year/two album stint improvising on acoustic piano and drums with Patrick Moraz, Bruford formed his electro-acoustic jazz group Earthworks in 1986, with Django Bates and Iain Ballamy, specifically to continue this work on melody from the drum set, but now in a jazz context. Earthworks, the group's first offering in 1987, was named the "Third Best Jazz Album of the Year" by America's USA Today; then came Dig? (1989), All Heaven Broke Loose (1991), and the summer 1994 live set Stamping Ground. King Crimson again proved itself a veritable percussion think-tank when it launched the double-rhythm team of Bruford and Pat Mastelotto in the 1994 double-trio incarnation. Through late 1994 and 1995, the band toured the world, giving 120 concerts, and producing studio and live CDs documenting its fresh and innovative use of two drummers. 1996 saw further King Crimson concerts, and the production of a CD Rom encapsulating Bruford's approach, in a tri-format combination of audio and MIDI/digital data, entitled Packet of 3. In between all this, Bill has also found time to records and/or tour with Kazumi Watanabe, David Torn, The New Percussion Group of Amsterdam, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Akira Inoue, Al Di Meola, Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe, the Buddy Rich Orchestra, and his old firm Yes amongst others. He also continues to be an active clinician with a series of clinics in Europe and America in 1993, culminating in his highly acclaimed appearance at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention at Columbus, Ohio in November. In 1990, the readers of Modern Drummer Magazine voted him into that magazine's Hall of Fame. Bruford's current work underlines his commitment, and return to jazz, and 1997 saw two major releases. First, the Earthworks "best of" compilation, Heavenly Rodies, taken from all four qlbum and including previously unreleased material, on Virgin Records. Then a release of fresh material with jazz titans Ralph Towner (guitars and piano) and Eddie Gomez (bass), entitled If Summer had its Ghosts. BILL BRUFORD'S EARTHWORKS Having already spent almost twenty years on the cutting edge of modern rock percussion, Bill Bruford formed Earthworks in 1986, as a deliberate move towards the intelligence of jazz. Availing himself of the brightest young talent on the burgeoning U.K. jazz scene, namely keyboardist and tenor horn player Django Bates, and saxophonist Iain Ballamy, both best known as frontrunners with the anarchic Big Band Loose Tubes, Bruford encouraged the use of rock technology with jazz sensibility - the hall mark of Earthworks' stylist approach. They succeeded in keeping most of the best, and straining out some of the worst, of both rock and jazz. By letting in air and light and adding a little wit and wisdom, they produced a particularly British antidote to the increasingly grotesque jazz fusion scene. The first LP for Editions EG, Earthworks, was a testament to their achievement. It sounds simple, but the band only found its direction through serious live playing. No theoretical studio concoction here. Japan, Europe, and the UK were all visited before the release of the first album. Immediately heads turned. "This is a heady concoction indeed, and one which joyously breaks down all sorts of musical barriers in its path". (The Times) "It mixes up styles, moods and meters as effortlessly as it ignores musical boundaries". (Wall St.Journal) "Unlike so many fusion sets, there's much substance here". (Billboard) The next five years saw the band consolidate and build on this early success with a second LP for Editions EG, Dig?, released in 1989, and a series of major jazz festival appearances in London, Glasgow, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Montreal, and Chicago amongst others. Earthworks' third album, All Heaven Broke Loose, was recorded in Germany in, sadly, approximately the same one hundred hours, at the beginning of 1993, that it took the Allied Forces to defeat Iraq: the title is perhaps an optimistically ironic comment on that unhappy event. "Earthworks makes jazz out of just about anything handy on its third release for Editions EG". (Jazziz) "Bruford is able to play with the kind of flexibility and nuance that simply wouldn't work in... Genesis, Yes, or King Crimson". (4-stars, Downbeat) But it is ultimately live where jazz happens. Recorded mostly in America, and partly in England on tour in 1992, the band's fourth CD, Stamping Ground, was, indeed, live, one-take, no overdubs, and very real. Finally, we are brought up to date with the "best of" compilation, Heavenly Rodies, released on Virgin Records on May 25th, 1997. This takes a broad overview of events since 1986, culling eleven tracks from across all four CDs, and adding, for good measure, previously unreleased live versions of Pigalle and Libreville. It is, for the newcomer, the ideal entry point to the ferocious agility with which the band negotiates the rapids, and for the long standing customer, an excellent "greatest hits" package measuring the considerable distance travelled physically, musically, and metaphorically, since 1986. For booking, contact: EMMECI