You won't regret it - a vivid glance  into a fertile period of one of the greatest:  https://musicaficionado.blog/2018/02/28/bill-bruford-sessions-and-tours-1975-1976/" rel="nofollow - BILL BRUFORD !

Ditto! Thanks!

Just started the article when this line popped up...

I take acceptation to this because ELP were the Kings of improv. I know it says "Usually" and for sure ELP are the exception to the rule on this. It was one of the reasons I think I was happy to see them 6 or 7 times live. Each show was unique. By comparison I saw Supertramp live and found the concert somewhat boring as it was a note for note presentation of the albums tracks.

So my question is...

Who do you feel ranks as one of the top Prog bands that relishes in improv?

And now back to the reading.

I think most of at least the better known bands did change a few notes here and there live with maybe only Genesis being particularly insistent on playing it exactly like the studio recordings.  The difference, I think, is Bruford wanted to be able to play every note differently every day and KC was probably one of the few bands who were comfortable with THAT.

Yeah I think of the British bands KC was on the forefront in terms of improv. Can was probably up there as one of the best at improvisation if you're taking worldwide. In the US Zappa had good soloists in early bands capable of good improv, and he was constantly re-arranging the old tunes in new ways.

:)

A lot of this material is talked about in his autobiography, although I think that he was much quieter about it, then, than the rest of the musicians that talked about things in this new piece.

Some things stand out, and one of my personal favorites to blast in the car (Roy Harper's The Game Pts 1-5), features Bill and also a tremendous guitar duet in the end ... all of which make for a massive piece of music to play SUPER LOUD! .... (got it?)!

All in all, his time with GONG was probably not a good one considering his own personal life, and while a lot is said about this and that and the "commune" style of living, you never heard Mike, or Didier, or even Pierre or Pip ... say much about it, although Pierre left it many times, though one gets the idea that his problem was the quality of the music and being able to improve it, rather than deconstruct it because folks were too stoned and out of it ... this is, however, a guess ... he did not speak "nicely" about the drugs, and him and Didier did not stay close to the joint'ers during the tour I was with them and took pictures.

I'm not sure that there is a lot of new stuff in there, except more words about GENESIS than otherwise, but I think I agree that most folks did not think that the group would go anywhere, and it only made huge sales after the PG break up, and most of it due to the singles and the new PC making it big.

One of my "criticisms", in Bill's Autobiography, is that it is a strictly personal book ... that talks about the drums as an instrument and how a musician feels about it, the whole time, specially with the newer changes into some of the electronic stuff around the drums, a lot of which failed in the early days of trying it, but Bill DID try them! In this sense, you learned a lot about the music itself, but rarely about the player, although he has some really nice compliments and appreciation for some folks, specially later in his musical career.

In some ways, when you read the book, Bill seems to be better suited to be a professor at some school, rather than a drummer in a band that would likely "dumb down" his ability to play just to maintain a rhythm or beat that did not, necessarily, make the song, or the band any better. In this matter, he says nice things about KC, and probably because he was able to do some little things, for which he is now famous ... and some drummers won't even try it ... because they are not musicians ... they are just basic time keepers!