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Jack Bruce

JACK BRUCE. The composer, the singer, the multi-instrumentalist, the Legend. Hailed as one of the most powerful vocalists and greatest bassists of his time, his improvisational skill and utterly unique, free-spirited approach to composition and performance would forever change electric music. His pioneering, full-toned, free-wheeling playing on the electric bass revolutionised the way the instrument is used and influenced the playing of countless bassists to today, including Sting and Jaco Pastorius. His work with bands such as Cream and the Tony Williams Lifetime, as well as his solo material, unlocked the doors to the pent-up energy of a new approach to the art of sound, breaking the barriers of tradition and creating a kind of music that had never been heard.

Jack was born to musical parents in the shipbuilding city of Glasgow, Scotland on 14 May 1943. His parents travelled extensively in Canada and the U.S.A. Jack attended 14 different schools, finishing his formal education at Bellahouston Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, to which he won a scholarship for cello and composition. He left the Academy and his homeland at the age of 17, because of poverty and discouraged by his professors' lack of interest in his ideas.

Jack travelled to Italy and then England, playing double-bass in dance bands and jazz groups, and joined his first important band in 1962 in London. This was Alexis Korner's Blues Inc. with whom Charlie Watts, later to join the Rolling Stones, was drummer. Jack left Alexis in 1963 to form a group with organist Graham Bond, guitarist John McLaughlin and drummer Ginger Baker. This group became the seminal Graham Bond Organisation after John left, and saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith joined. Jack was compelled to leave this band after three years by Ginger Baker, who said his playing was "too busy"!

Jack had to turn down Marvin Gaye's offer to join his U.S.-based band because of his impending first marriage. He then joined John Mayall's Blues Breakers, where he first met Eric Clapton, followed by Manfred Mann in an ill-advised attempt at commercialism. It was Ginger Baker who initially asked Jack to form a trio with Eric Clapton. Eric insisted that Jack be the singer.

Cream went on to sell 35,000,000 albums in just over two years and were awarded the first ever platinum disc for Wheels of Fire. Jack wrote and sang most of the songs, including "I Feel Free", "White Room", "Politician" and perhaps the world's most performed guitar riff, in "Sunshine Of Your Love". Cream split in November 1968 at the height of their popularity; Jack felt that he had strayed too far from his ideals and wanted to re-discover his musical and social roots.

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Album Review

John Mayall: The First Generation 1965-1974

Read "The First Generation 1965-1974" reviewed by Maurizio Comandini


Se gli inglesi hanno soprannominato “The Godfather of the British Blues" l'imperturbabile John Mayall una ragione ci sarà... La malavita non c'entra nulla, per fortuna, ma c'entra tantissimo la buona musica e la capacità di organizzarla partendo da zero, o quasi. John Mayall è nato a Macclesfield, il 29 novembre del 1933. Siamo nello Cheshire, meno di trenta chilometri a sud di Manchester. Il padre è un chitarrista dilettante, appassionato di jazz e di blues e ...

Album Review

Mike Taylor: Trio, Quartet & Composer Revisited

Read "Trio, Quartet & Composer Revisited" reviewed by Vic Albani


Nella tomba numero 23588 del cimitero di Sutton Road di Southend on Sea, nell'Essex a circa 71 km da Londra è sepolto dal 1969 il corpo di Michael Ronald Taylor, conosciuto nel mondo con il nome di Mike e che i grandi appassionati di rock e pop forse ricordano quale autore di alcuni brani di un seminale lavoro dei Cream. Mai praticamente compreso per la sua grandezza—anche per il fatto di essere morto a soli 31 anni affogato ...

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Album Review

Mike Taylor: Trio, Quartet & Composer Revisited

Read "Trio, Quartet & Composer Revisited" reviewed by Chris May


Historical context: Extracts from the diary of Ron Rubin, one of two bassists, the other being Jack Bruce, on Mike Taylor's Trio (Lansdowne, 1967).... “Saturday 18th February 1967. UFO, Tottenham Court Road. 'Giant Sun Trolley' Happening, opposite the Soft Machine etc. Mike spent the evening lying comatose, rigid and immobile in the middle of the floor below the bandstand, dancers gyrating around him, his hands crossed on his chest. We played without him....Monday 28th August 1967. Ronnie Scott's ...

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Extended Analysis

The First Generation 1965-1974

Read "The First Generation 1965-1974" reviewed by John Kelman


What do guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Jon Mark, Harvey Mandel and Freddy Robinson, reed/woodwind multi-instrumentalists John Almond, Ray Warleigh, Alan Skidmore, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Red Holloway and Ernie Watts, bassists John McVie, Jack Bruce, Andy Fraser, Tony Reeves, Stephen Thompson and Larry Taylor, drummers Mick Fleetwood, Keef Hartley, Aynsley Dunbar, Jon Hiseman and Collin Allen, trumpeters Henry Lowther and Blue Mitchell, and violinist Don “Sugarcane" Harris all share in common? They are but a few of the notable ...

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Album Review

Group Sounds Four & Five: Black & White Raga

Read "Black & White Raga" reviewed by Chris May


So seismic were the eruptions of British pop and rock in the mid 1960s, along with the effusive chronicling which accompanied them, that the parallel fecundity of the country's jazz scene was widely overlooked then and has been largely forgotten since. Contemporary media coverage was practically non-existent except on those occasions when a musician got busted. Even there, pop and rock musicians were the preferred tabloid fodder. So unfair. Hell, British jazzers had invented getting busted back in 1950, when ...

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Album Review

Cream: Goodbye Tour Live 1968

Read "Goodbye Tour Live 1968" reviewed by Doug Collette


Goodbye Tour Live 1968 is a snapshot of Cream's adieu to the world, but a panoramic one nonetheless. Housed in a glossy nine and a half-inch by ten slipcase boasting a group photo identical to its namesake title, the inlay with four CD's accompanies a sixty-six page book wherein factual and passionate prose from David Fricke, replications of memorabilia in the form of sales charts and posters from this final road jaunt plus reprints of music journalism of the time ...

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Album Review

Jack Bruce: Live at Rockpalast 1980, 1983 and 1990

Read "Live at Rockpalast 1980, 1983 and 1990" reviewed by Roger Farbey


It is no exaggeration to state that Jack Bruce was probably the most inventive bassist of the twentieth century. He straddled the worlds of jazz, blues and rock seamlessly, and his bass guitar playing was unprecedented in its sheer imaginative breadth and power. Crucially, he was also a vocalist of incredible range and dynamism. His contribution to Cream surely needs no elaboration. As a rock star he was a veritable human dynamo, but as a jazz musician he was extraordinary ...

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Crowdfunding Campaign

Bass Icon Jeff Berlin To Launch Pledge Music Campaign For New Tribute Album To Legendary Jack Bruce

Bass Icon Jeff Berlin To Launch Pledge Music Campaign For New Tribute Album To Legendary Jack Bruce

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James

Bass icon Jeff Berlin has launched a Pledge Music Campaign for a new tribute album to legendary Jack Bruce titled Jeff Berlin Plays Jack Bruce: Songs For A Wailer! Jack Bruce, best known for his work with classic rock legends Cream, as well as his critically acclaimed solo work, sadly passed away in 2014. Jeff Berlin, who has been called “the greatest bassist in the world”, was a personal friend of Jack's and felt the time was right for a ...

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Recording

Spectrum Road: Jack Bruce, Cindy Blackman Santana, Vernon Reid & John Medeski

Spectrum Road: Jack Bruce, Cindy Blackman Santana, Vernon Reid & John Medeski

Source: Calabro Music

Spectrum Road is a groundbreaking collaboration between four giants of modern music: Jack Bruce, Vernon Reid, John Medeski and Cindy Blackman Santana. Born from a shared passion for the music of legendary drummer Tony Williams, the band will release their self-titled debut album on June 5 through Palmetto Records. Later that week, Spectrum Road celebrates its arrival with a highly anticipated performance at Bonnaroo on June 9, which also serves as the first show of a US summer tour. Complete ...

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Video / DVD

Sat Eye Candy: Jack Bruce

Sat Eye Candy: Jack Bruce

Source: JamBase

THE BASS WORLD'S CREAM DE LA CREAM Jack Bruce changed the way people play the bass. With the chops of a jazz hound, the high-minded sophistication of a classical player and the raw force of rhythm & blues, Bruce helped establish the seriousness of rock musicianship in the 1960s and 70s. His groundbreaking work with Cream, jazz titans like John McLaughlin and Tony Williams, composers Kip Hanrahan and Carla Bley, and many others has produced a body of work few ...

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Performance / Tour

Tony Williams Lifetime Tribute Vernon Reid, Medeski, Jack Bruce

Tony Williams Lifetime Tribute Vernon Reid, Medeski, Jack Bruce

Source: JamBase

FOUR MONSTER TALENTS GATHER TO SALUTE VISIONARY MUSICIAN & BAND Tony Williams Lifetime Tribute featuring legendary bassist of Cream and one-time Lifetime member Jack Bruce, guitarist Vernon Reid (Living Colour), organist John Medeski (Medeski Martin & Wood), and ace drummer Cindy Blackman brings their unique take on Williams' revolutionary music to The Blue Note in New York City (Jan. 27-30), Yoshi's in Oakland (Feb. 2-5) and Jazz Alley in Seattle (Feb. 7 & 8). Lifetime was founded as a trio ...

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Book / Magazine

Jack Bruce, Composing Himself: The Authorized Biography

Jack Bruce, Composing Himself: The Authorized Biography

Source: Michael Ricci

Jack Bruce Composing Himself The Authorized Biography By Harry Shapiro, Foreword by Eric Clapton Published: March 2010 ISBN: 978-1-906002-26-8 Price: $19.95 320 Pages When Cream broke up in 1968 it was by no means a foregone conclusion that it would be Eric Clapton who would enjoy continued commercial success. After all, it was Jack Bruce who had the looks, and who co-wrote and sang all the bands major ...

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Recording

Jack Bruce 6-CD Full Career, Retrospective Anthology

Jack Bruce 6-CD Full Career, Retrospective Anthology

Source: All About Jazz

Jack Bruce celebrated his 65th Birthday in May, and to celebrate this milestone, Esoteric Recordings is releasing a lavish six-CD boxed set anthology entitled, “Can You Follow, “ on June 23, 2008. With one of the most powerful voices in modern music and a composer of some of the most original and influential music of the past forty years, Jack Bruce is perhaps one of the greatest popular musicians Britain has ever produced. A supremely talented instrumentalist and vocalist, as ...

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Video / DVD

Legendary Vocalist/Bassist Jack Bruce Performs His Hits On Live DDV "Jack Bruce And Friends - Live" From Classic Pictures

Legendary Vocalist/Bassist Jack Bruce Performs His Hits On Live DDV "Jack Bruce And Friends - Live" From Classic Pictures

Source: All About Jazz

Special Features Include Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound And Photo Gallery

Vocalist/bass guitarist Jack Bruce secured a place in rock 'n' roll history (and, thus, in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) in the 1960s with the short-lived but groundbreaking power trio Cream with vocalist/guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker.

But Bruce's importance and long-lasting influence does not rest solely on his significant accomplishments with Cream. After Cream, he embarked on a solo career in which he further explored ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Black & White Raga

Jazz In Britain
2021

buy

Trio, Quartet &...

Ezz-thetics
2021

buy

Goodbye Tour Live 1968

Universal Music Group
2020

buy

Things We Like

Polydor Records
2016

buy

Videos

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