SOMETHIN ELS

Esoteric Recordings have recently put out several re-releases of JACK BRUCE's albums. This song- writing bassist-vocalist (actually a multi-intrumentalist, playing keyboards and sometimes also cello and drums), and one third of the blues-rock legend CREAM of course, has a huge discography since 1969 and shows no intention to retire yet. For those totally green to Bruce's music I'd like to point out that it hardly can be identified as prog, seldom it's clearly jazz-rock/fusion either, no more than say STEELY DAN is; closer to truth he's a singer-songwriter making intelligent rock with jazz & blues flavour - and he does it well with a voice of his own.

Somethin Els isn't among his best works, but it's a satisfying mainstream album. At the time Bruce had lived in Germany for years, and the album was released via German label CMP Records. I think the music has an American feel. Most songs are co-written with his old collaborator Pete Brown. The list of musicians includes Eric Clapton and Maggie Reilly, who sings duet on atmospheric 'Ships in the Night'. There perhaps aren't any special highlights that one would remember right away, but not very weak songs either. The production is clean, but it avoids the sense of overproduction. Piano and synths are notably present. The bluesiest song 'G.B. Dawn Blues' features Dick Heckstall-Smith on tenor & soprano saxophones. The album closes beautifully with 'FM' for solo piano.

Esoteric's release contains an informative article (as usual - that's a notable reason to appreciate their re-releases), lyrics, and three bonus tracks taken from the album The Snake Music, a collaboration with percussionist Mark Nauseef and guitarist Miroslav Tadic. They are good, especially the slow- tempo Hendrix cover 'Wind Cries Mary'.