Bruford- Gradually Going Tornado

[rickawakeman]

We saw the tour at the Showplace in Dover NJ! Great band and concert

[progholio]

I guess you know there's a Joe Frazier Round 2. It appeared on Jeff Berlin's Pump It! and of course the bass-line is great again.

Yes i have that one around the house, pretty cool but doesn't quite pack the punch of Round 1.

[Neptune]

I recommend purchasing this DVD. I've also seen some film from the Old Grey Whistle Test show that was very enjoyable.

Wow! Back in the 80's I saw something (maybe on PBS) where the bass and guitar players were just flying in synchronization, and it was in a college setting. I never did know what it was, but I never forgot the imagery of those two. Now, I strongly suspect that it was the final performance in this video.

I'd purchased One of a Kind back in 2008, but didn't realize that Five G was the song I probably saw as a kid on television.

Fantastic stuff. Man, those guys were SO damn good...

[No Pride]

One Of A Kind is his masterwork. Much better than GGT. Feels Good To Me is better that GGT too, if you don't mind Annette Peacock's vocal style. Berlin's vocals on GGT are a bit of an acquired taste

My sentiments exactly. I dig them all but One of a Kind was their masterpiece! And one of my favorite albums by anyone!

[Nijinsky Hind]

If you like a little avant garde jazz piano alongside your Bruford then The Bruford-Borstlap "In two minds" cd. Is a pretty good bet.

[jkelman]

So are there any other fans of this truly amazing record?
Got to admit I'd forgotten about this album for many years.I hadn't heard it for over twenty years,but I recently heard two tracks on the radio,and all the good memories came flooding back!
Managed to buy a copy and it still sounds as good now as when I first heard it!
Bruford is excellent,but I also think Jeff Berlin on bass is very good!
Are his other solo Bruford albums worth investigation or his Earthworks records too?

I reviewed all his Summerfold and Winterfold reissues when they came out a few years ago, so:

First, an interview: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/bill-bru...ohn-kelman.php

Now, some reviews:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/winterfo...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/every-st...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/bill-bru...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/bill-bru...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/bill-bru...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/bill-bru...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/bill-bru...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/earthwor...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/bruford-...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/rock-goe...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/bill-bru...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/in-two-m...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/bill-bru...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/skin-and...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/in-tokyo...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/one-pete...ohn-kelman.php
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/bill-bru...ohn-kelman.php

Last, a live show of Bruford/Borstlap at my first Punkt festival (and first time in Norway...far from my last!):
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/punktfes...d=22892&pg=2#4

Forgive some formatting issues...over the years, the website has made changes that have introduced formatting issues with older articles...just so you know they didn't look like that when first published and, with over 2,700 articles published at All About Jazz (and counting), going back and fixing them all? Ain't gonna happen, at least not right now.

Clearly I'm a big fan. So, having met and interviewed Bill, it was a real honour and privilege to write the liners when Koch released the single-disc Winterfold Collection and double-disc Summerfold Collection sets - both great comps, and great entry points into his pre-and-post-Earthworks discographies. A review of both here, more capsule reviews than in-depth, but still, gives you some idea what to expect: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/bill-bru...p-woolever.php

Cheers!
John

[interbellum]

Yes i have that one around the house, pretty cool but doesn't quite pack the punch of Round 1.

Here's an interview which you might know in which Berlin expains why he re-recorded Joe Frazier for his solo-album Pump It!
http://www.nfte.org/interviews/berlin_interview.html

[Bazcrim]

Here's an interview which you might know in which Berlin expains why he re-recorded Joe Frazier for his solo-album Pump It!
http://www.nfte.org/interviews/berlin_interview.html

Slightly off topic, but going by this interview Moraz needs to revisit those Story of i multitracks and remix, bringing Berlin and Mouzon more to the fore. Maybe a job for SW?

[Scrotum Scissor]

After the two first albums that I really love, GGT underwhelmed me, no AH, Stewart and BB are not sparkling, the sound is a bit dull

I have to agree. And it's not really about the J. Berlin vocal input, which is fairly OK as such. Rather it's the music itself which lacks spark altogether, especially revealed in those "new" renditions of material from National Health's Of Queues & Cures that just sounds tedious and bland here, particularly seeing how NH were a unit of such monster intensity AND refinement.

To be honest, I haven't really been much impressed by Bruford's accomplishments after this either. I though Earthworks were an unengaging electric jazz band and that his playing with KC, David Torn et al. was safe and through-the-motions.

[syncopatico]

I though Earthworks were an unengaging electric jazz band and that his playing with KC, David Torn et al. was safe and through-the-motions.

Earthworks were much more interesting live compared to the studio albums, but that would probably be applicable to *most* "electric jazz" bands...

[Scrotum Scissor]

Earthworks were much more interesting live compared to the studio albums

I've heard that many times now, and I'm still trying hard to believe it. But you're absolutely correct, of course, about most Electric jazz being better or more interesting live. Well, most EJ of Bruford's generation, anyway. I can point to dozens and dozens of current EJ bands who smoke quite intensely on their studio works as well.

[per anporth]

Bruford said it was Tim Garland's idea: "Tim Garland, a huge fan of the music of the old electric Bruford band of the late 1970s, which he’d grown up with. At his request we revisited a couple of tunes from that band; ‘One of a Kind’ and ‘Seems Like a Lifetime Ago’."

For anyone interested, Tim Garland has been keeping the spirit of Bruford's bands pulsing in a number of recent releases, especially the recent Lighthouse lp with Gwilym Simcock on piano. A couple of weeks ago, he released One, his new album, which is working in a similar sonic space - in a long interview in Jazzwise, Garland speaks at length about the influences on the composition & playing on the album, & highlights in particular his love for the Canterbury scene.

Most definitely worth a listen if you think this might be your thing!

[per anporth]

To be honest, I haven't really been much impressed by Bruford's accomplishments after this either. I though Earthworks were an unengaging electric jazz band and that his playing with KC, David Torn et al. was safe and through-the-motions.

I actually think that the final, acoustic, incarnation of Earthworks was an altogether more interesting proposition - electric Earthworks to me almost seemed to be hampered by looking back towards the electric bands of the late 70s - by contrast, the acoustic Earthworks was altogether its own thing, forging a new sound organically. That may have been partly the influence of Simcock, Clahar, Garland.

That said, electric Earthworks had some stellar players, such as Ballamy & Bates - I wonder if Bruf's return from the electric kit also was a contributory factor in freeing up the later version of the band...

[jkelman]

I actually think that the final, acoustic, incarnation of Earthworks was an altogether more interesting proposition - electric Earthworks to me almost seemed to be hampered by looking back towards the electric bands of the late 70s - by contrast, the acoustic Earthworks was altogether its own thing, forging a new sound organically. That may have been partly the influence of Simcock, Clahar, Garland.

That said, electric Earthworks had some stellar players, such as Ballamy & Bates - I wonder if Bruf's return from the electric kit also was a contributory factor in freeing up the later version of the band...

Not sure I can agree there. Earthworks MKI had Bruf's chordal drums...something not possible back in the '70s (or, at least, to the same extent). The group had two rising stars in Iain Ballamy and Django Bates, both of who have become important members of their generation's jazz scene. True, that group's first album (hey, it was produced by Dave Stewart after all!!) possesses some Canterbury that ties it to Bruford from the late '70s...but from Dig? forward it lost most of that and adopted its own voice and complexion, at last IMO.

Cheers!
John

[per anporth]

I need to listen to EW mk 1 again, John - all the more so after reading yours - I may well have been projecting some sort of spurious rationalisation on to what was no more than a matter of taste!

Either way, it's certainly significant that both incarnations of EW became breeding grounds for young UK jazzers to take steps "to the next level".

To a certain extent, Ballamy & Bates already had a certain standing here, because of their work with Loose Tubes. But whereas that astonishing collective was like a great organic soup, it seems as though the lines of musical evolution really started to form in the wake of that band.

[pb2015]

I was late to the Bill Bruford solo party. He has some excellent music, including this disc. Without trying to blow the thread up, but does anyone know why he did not write more for Yes?

I think he said he was only starting to write when he was in Yes.

[viukkis]

I've always wondered if Five Per Cent for Nothing is so short because that's all Bill had ever written up to that point.

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ Or alternatively because Wakeman was the only musician in the band with notable proficiency in reading charts.

[Dave (in MA)]

I have a vague recollection of Bruford saying he wrote it on piano, which he couldn't play.

By the time he got to If Summer Had Its Ghosts, he presented Gomez and Towner written out parts and self?-recorded demos to work with.