JACK BRUCE

This Jack Bruce album was rejected by the Polydor company for finding it uncommercial and released in 2003, being made in 1978 with the Jack Bruce Band, which included, among others, Simon Phillips on drums and Tony Hymas on keyboards. After his time in Cream, Bruce developed a solo career alternating between blues, jazz, rock fusion, and some atonal avant-garde element, hints of English vaudeville, supported by his particular singing. That almost theatrical and epic side merges here not with the extreme free jazz of Things We Like, but with the sophisticated funk and jazz that was beginning to filter through soul. That aura of mystery in his compositions and that powerful, resonant bass that guided the melody towards unknown terrain continues to make an appearance here, both in the syncopated rhythm of Head in the Sun, and in the exemplary recreation of Neighbor Neighbor. 1978 was not the time for Songs for a tailor or Harmony Row, however Jet Set Jewel shines as a magical and progressive jazz rock companion to Kate Bush, understanding the twist of pre-new wave English pop. The melodies here continue to be complex and changing, entering sinuous terrain as demonstrated by the homonymous song. It continues to be the album of a bassist, a singer, but above all a composer. All these facets coexisted in Jack Bruce, one of the most expensive exponents who prove the existence of a purely English jazz that is entirely possible. This sixth album represents a logical and coherent development with his previous work, the same influences and obsessions, presented with the honesty of an integral musician. The best is still to come closes the album and it seems ironic because that song is one of the gems of the album and his career. From histrionics to intimacy, Jet Set Jewel is unfairly underestimated due to its rugged editing, and deserves to be included alongside the solid classics of their discography.

Being a non- yet could-be future fan of Cream [even at sub-30, I feel I'm late to the party], it surprised me just a bit to see this: Jack Bruce's 1969 solo debut was recorded and released well enough after Cream's 1968 dissolution. The other thing I found interesting and noteworthy was the producer of Songs for a Tailor, Mountain bassist-vocalist Felix Pappalardi (yet another band I feel I should honestly know better by now... like numerous others). Three years prior to Mountain's own debut, Pappalardi had first produced the 1967 self-titled debut by The Youngbloods, then, apparently as his sophomoric production(?!), Cream's beloved Disraeli Gears that same year(!). Before I move on, of most notable claim here, Pappalardi later produced The Flock's third album, Inside Out (currently sitting at an unremarkable 3.23 Stars). To wrap up (final) first thoughts, unsurprisingly stacked, Songs features George Harrison (a.k.a. L'Angelo Misterioso), Dick Heckstall-Smith and Jon Hiseman (Graham Bond Organisation, Colosseum), Henry Lowther, John Marshall (Nucleus, Soft Machine), and Chris Spedding.

Now, getting right down to business, "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out Of Tune" introduces our album with an approach super foreign to Rock music up till this point; that is, until the verse enters in. Overall it's Rock 'n Roll, Ameri-Roots, Rhythm & Blues and a growling, angry sort of Jazz, all set to a strangely happy tune. It's cool hearing familiarity (sonically and popularly identifiable well into the next decade) presented in a most unfamiliar fashion. This is not what we think of as 'Progressive Rock', its status and significance still then unknown. And to consider it Jazz Rock, though I can't think of much better, seems like a stretch. It's avant-garde in certain aspects. Something particularly familiar to Progressive Rock of the late-60s is the Baroque-Soul of "Theme For An Imaginary Western". This sonically hearkens back most immediately, to my ears, to the signature sounds of Procol Harum. Delightful and equally as timeless as their best, most beloved material. Jack Bruce's strong vocals roll over light, emotional percussion with a great mix of piano and an almost Classical-sounding organ. These keys, throughout the album, are performed by Bruce.

"Tickets To Waterfalls" has an exotic sort of sound, but got me thinking of Van der Graaf Generator honestly. We are still in Psychedelic territory on this one, but the composition, in its relative simplicity, is actually quite interesting. There is absolutely no waiting here. Fantastic and exciting music! Entering mystica, "Weird Of Hermiston" continues on in the warm but forward-driving feel of the last. This has plenty of Creamy elements to it. Not even halfway through the album and I am thoroughly impressed. Acoustic guitar strums along over more solid percussion on "Rope Ladder to the Moon", and Bruce plays the cello to great effect! Awesome to hear this sort of Prog Folk. I shouldn't be so surprised. Either way, a lot of daring choices in arrangement and production, reminding me of the similar experimentations that Zep would make years later on Led Zeppelin III and IV.

Under a straighter, more Rootsy measure, "The Ministry of Bag" strolls right along, sort of like a gruff, British rendition of James Brown. Bruce's vocals at times made me think of Greg Lake, Lee Jackson(?), and. causing all sorts of internal confusion, Ozzy Osbourne. We return to smooth, funky English pasture on "He The Richmond", quite the peculiar title (I couldn't find anything on its origin with ease). Melodically super unusual and turning dark, the tone is just as mysterious as some tracks that preceded it. I like it quite a lot, but it's a classic case of guesswork when it comes to a site-wide assessment. To each their own. "Boston Ball Game, 1967" has quite the lilt, a strut far too complex to be drunken haha. Delicious funk and soul, whether or not Bruce's voice is to your liking. Hard to be honest about this'n, because the truly progressive elements it possesses are very cool and provocative (just "Good" then?).

With that earlier mention of Led Zep, it feels appropriate that Jack also wants us to dream a little, to slip into Middle Earth with him, specifically "To Isengard". With the interesting approach to the guitar, I'm unsurprised this is one of the few on the album where it's actually performed by him and not Spedding, for instance. Super pretty track. We get to hear his upper vocal register at the start; airy, heartfelt, even childlike. I'm more than pleased to report that "To Isengard" doesn't just stop at beauty, as we get a nice helping of intensity in the second half. If you don't know them, two very effective Tolkien homages that are coming to mind are Camel's three-parter, "Nimrodel / The Procession / The White Rider" (specifically to do with Gandalf), and Rush's "The Necromancer" (supposedly inspired by Saruman of Isengard). Our final track, "The Clearout", is a real rocker. Beefy bass and bright English idioms bring delight to these American ears haha. Super fun.

Highly digestible album, I was delighted at some of the ideas that were fleshed out by Mr. Jack Bruce. In a way, glad I waited. I was in the mood.

Trying to be more consistent, a natural round-up from a True Rate of 3.6/5.0.

A collaboration -- in fact one of the four collaborative albums -- of two legendary musicians rooted in legendary late 60's bands that hardly need an introduction. They are joined here by drummer Reg Isidore who was Trower's regular sideman together with vocalist-bassist James Dewar. Both Trower and Bruce have made a large solo career surpassing their former bands in quantity if not in appeal.

Blues-rock is not the kind of music that I listen. Obviously I'm not among the target audience for this album: frankly it's really boring to me. Plain old-school bluesy rock with hard rock, soul and funk elements. The reviewer in All Music Guide is very positive and even makes a conclusion that this album "ought to have been on the to-buy list of any fans of Cream, Procol Harum, or most any of the early metal bands of the '70s (e.g., Mountain)". I strongly disagree, especially for the Procol Harum part. Yes, guitarist Robin Trower played in PROCOL HARUM from the beginning to the year 1971 (and also on two of their comeback albums), but the important proto-prog band had both a pianist and an organist, and the guitar-oriented blues-rock was only one side of their eclectic approach in the early days -- and the least interesting if you ask me. When speaking of Trower, he's often mentioned as one of the inheritors of Jimi Hendrix's musical legacy. As for CREAM in which vocalist-bassist Jack Bruce was the main songwriter, well, that band has never been very important to me, but I'd rather listen to their vintage late 60's classics than this bore.

This album recorded in two days is quite short, a bit over half an hour, and contains nine songs. Most of them are pretty much similar to each other and have next to nothing to interest me as compositions or as performances. Two songs I find quite nice though. 'Take Good Care of Yourself' is more emotional as it is in a slower tempo, and it also features more audibly Bruce's organ playing than the album in general. By far the best track in my opinion is the slow, atmospheric and relatively mellow 'Shadows Touching' that sonically leans towards keyboards unlike the majority of the album.

Sad to say but Trower's guitar work throughout the album is terribly unvaried, and since the vocals dominate the songs there's not much of soloing either. So, unless you happen to be fond of blues-rock and are a fan of these musicians already, I daresay you won't find much to enjoy here.

This one is first and foremost a jazz effort and certainly not even close to fusion despite some promising names in the line-up. I like faster stuff better, such as the first and last dynamic (title) track. McLaughlin is less recognizable than the saxophone player who is the leader on the record. "Over the cliff" is a very busy galloping short track with a vivid saxophone solo and frenetic acoustic bass. Refreshment comes with McLaughling joining the board on the third track where saxophone takes some break; McLaughlin shows fast playing as well as more restrained chords. Saxophone playing is exquisite.

Acquired taste even for Jack Bruce fans since this is a large departure from straighforward blues rock but a great testimony of Jack Bruce skills.

I have to correct the low rating this excellent album has for potential 'prog' buyers. If you believe prog music can cover a wide range of styles and genres (not just Brit bands from the 70s with mellotrons and mini Moog) and include artists such as Ornette Coleman, Carla Bley or even Satie or Stravinsky under that description then this could be a 'prog' album that you might enjoy. Especially if you like jazz-tinged bands such as early Soft Machine, or early fusion inventors such as Tony Williams' Emergency, or the first excellent album by McLaughlin (Extrapolation) then you WILL certainly enjoy this album. I would not call it a bebop album but a precursor of the fusion wave that was starting to emerge (e.g. Extrapolation, Larry Coryell's early stuff, and of course Tony Williams pioneering jazz-rock invention). If any of these bands are to your liking then you need this album. The band seems to love Ornette Coleman but does not go as far and free as Ornette. Instead, they are entering the new ground that was to be the brit jazz-rock explosion of the late 60s and early 70s.

I'd say this album is pretty average in the solo discography of the ex-CREAM vocalist-bassist and songwriter. Among the 15 tracks there are a few revisitations of old songs such as the Cream classics 'Sunshine of Your Love' and 'White Room' (featuring Eric Clapton), but they actually feel rather lame and unnecessary for a listener remembering the powerful originals so well. The 62-minute album, co-produced by Kip Hanrahan who has also co-written several songs with Bruce, surely wouldn't have suffered from some harvesting. Overall this is slightly blues and Latin flavoured rock. No prog in sight, which is the usual case with Bruce anyway. The list of musicians is long, although most of them appear on a limited number of pieces. For example reeds & brass players are colouring only the short and, in my opinion, uninteresting 'Boston Ball Game 1967'. Other songs I don't much care about tend to be the bluesiest ones such as 'The Angel's Liar', which is the other of the two tracks guesting Dr. John on organ.

'52nd Street' -- not to be mistaken for the Billy Joel song of the same name -- is one of several songs featuring congas to give a (relatively mild) Latin flavour. Gosh, this monotonous song is plain boring. But let's deal with the songs I enjoy more. 'Heart Quake' is a fine low-tempo blues ballad with Jack Bruce's piano in the centre and featuring Gary Moore on guitar. As a composition per se 'Directions Home' is very monotonous but it has a lot of feeling, and the combination of the fast hand-clap rhythm pattern and the meditative nature of the song itself is personal. 'Milonga' is a slow, moody, piano-centred song with a gorgeous emotional effect. The short closing track 'Surge' doesn't seem to have anything else than the vocals and drums (there are two drummers playing on this album and both are present on all tracks) but at least that's a nicely unconventional way to end an album.

Well, how to rate a basically well done veteran musician's album with some great tracks and so many mediocre pieces in the overextended length? Which way to round my 2½ stars? Maybe I'll choose two stars only, as opposed to the sole previous review rating of four stars. This is not a bad album, just a little boring in my opinion.

At least right now this is the only Jack Bruce DVD in ProgArchives. This late great artist made a massive solo output after being bassist, singer and the central song-writer of the sixties' power trio CREAM. I have a few of his albums (originally received for reviewing) plus a compilation featuring also some Cream tracks, but frankly I'm quite far from being a dedicated fan or connoisseur. I probably wouldn't have bought this DVD, but I had enough interest for it to borrow it from a library. It falls firmly into the category of "one viewing is enough, thank you". In other words it was a bit boring to watch.

The DVD of approximately three hours' length features two separate concerts from the German "Rockpalast" series, Essen 1980 and Cologne 1990. The first one is a band effort. Jack Bruce sings and plays bass, Clem Clempson's on guitar, David Sancious on keyboards (and on guitar occasionally) and Billy Cobham on drums. I don't know Clempson, but Sancious and Cobham are excellent musicians of the fusion genre. Sadly Bruce's compositions are, from that point of view, of smaller calibre musically. Most notably Sancious offers some glimpses into that direction on this very song-oriented set. There are some Cream classics (such as 'White Room' and 'Sunshine of Your Love'), and of Bruce's solo output it was 'Theme for an Imaginary Western' from his excellent debut album Songs for a Tailor (1969) that most rang the bell for me. As a whole I personally didn't find the 15-piece set so impressive. Some songs were actually quite uninteresting. Visually the concert doesn't offer anything special, the light show is poor and the camera work concentrates on Bruce close-ups more than necessary. But don't take my negative remarks too literally: for a more dedicated Jack Bruce listener this is a pretty good concert.

Ten years later Jack Bruce gave an unaccompanied solo performance in Cologne, playing only piano. This wasn't the first time for me to notice how well his composition skills bend to the keyboards-only approach. If he's not a virtuoso à la Rick Wakeman, at least his piano playing is completely satisfactory in making the songs alive, bursting with emotion. Of course the set itself is also more emotional than the band gig in Essen. Intimate, down-to-earth light and camera work also suit better for this set.

There's a crowded band interview in which also German is spoken without subtexts. That's a pretty lousy extra. Despite the slight cheapie nature - and myself being occasionally a bit bored during the band gig - I regard this DVD worth 3 stars.

According to his own memories the album Somethin Els (1993) was JACK BRUCE's return to health. To celebrate his 50th birthday he gave a series of concerts in Cologne, which resulted as the live double album Cities of the Heart. His next studio album was unique in his output as it features only his voice and piano plus Bernie Worrell's Hammond B3 organ. To some listeners this may not sound so appealing, but I think it all works amazingly well. From the prog world for example PETER HAMMILL and ANTHONY PHILLIPS have done similar efforts, and JUKKA GUSTAVSON's Bluesion (1992) comes pretty close too. Among singer-songwriters and jazz vocalists it's perhaps not so unusual to make a "vocals & keyboards only" album. Bruce is a jazz oriented singer-songwriter, so it's not a big surprise that he handles this department so naturally.

Monkjack's strength is definitely in the excellent songs full of depth and emotion. No doubt many of them would sound great with a band setting too, but their characters go perfectly hand in hand with the arrangement. My least fave track is probably the instrumental 'Know One Blues' which isn't bad at all. 'Weird of Hermiston' originates from Bruce's debut Songs For A Tailor (1969) and 'Folk Song' from Harmony Row (1971). The latter is very beautiful, slow and introspective song. Other highlights - I indeed seem to prefer the most emotional ones - include 'David's Harp' and 'Laughing on Music Street'.

Here and there blues flavour comes audible, slightly gospel too. All in all this album doesn't fall into a specific musical genre. It's a very introspective collection of fine songs that are backed by piano and Hammond only. The playing is not trying to be the thing itself, even if the singing leaves pleanty of room for instrumental moments. Recommended!

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'.

This fascinating 1975 concert was discovered quite by accident whilst Polydor was going through its archives preparing for reissues of Jack Bruce's solo catalog. Although the recording had its share of rough spots, it was salvageable (though there's still some noticeable distortion in the louder parts), and in 2009 was released as a two disc set. It's a testament to the kind of respect Jack Bruce had in the musical community that his "backing band" contains not one but two people who I consider superstars in their own right: Mick Taylor, former Bluesbreaker guitarist and fresh from a stint with a little band called The Rolling Stones, and Carla Bley, author and mastermind behind one of the most incredible albums I've ever heard ("Escalator Over the Hill", 1971, see my review on ProgArchives). And this respect is deserved: in addition to being arguably the primary creative force behind the frighteningly star-studded cast of Cream in the late 60s, and guesting on several prominent jazz/rock efforts by other artists (including Bley's above), he had delivered a number of solo albums that contain some of the most creative and lasting music of its era. Its lack of commercial success could only have been due to its thrillingly eclectic nature, employing the kind of stylistic combinations that would surely make a radio programmer scratch his head in confusion. Whereas Eric Clapton simplified his approach and found success, Jack Bruce went more complex and remained a cult figure.

This live album is the only full concert recording in existence of this band, and that alone makes it worthy for release; luckily, it is also a creditable, solid performance of Jack Bruce the Solo Artist circa '75, with four great-to-amazing solo albums already under his belt. This band lineup plays the material with a jazzy twist, with a much looser beat than was found on the studio albums; I admit this took some getting used to. Jack himself often sings around the melodies as opposed to simply singing them, almost scat singing at times, which I found very frustrating at first, as I dearly love the vocal melodies as originally written. But this performance clearly isn't meant to be a direct reading of the "hits", and once I realized that I was able to swing along with their freewheeling spirit.

On to the songs: "Can You Follow?" begins the show, a short, solo piano/vocal piece that also opened his "Harmony Row" album. The band then slowly revs up the multi-faceted (a word that could describe almost every song here, truth be told) jazz rocker "Morning Story". Carla Bley shines on organ here. Jack sings the lyrics in an almost haphazard order, mixing lines from one verse with lines from other verses as if he's forgotten the whole song. He did that on "Can You Follow" too. A little unnerving, but if you're not a Jack Bruce fanatic like me you probably won't even notice. Next are two tracks from his then-current album "Out of the Storm": the straightforward blues rocker "Keep it Down", one of the few songs in the set that has anything to do with the blues; and the complex "Pieces of Mind". All these songs so far suffer a little from those unexpected setbacks and tentativeness a band often encounters on stage -- taking a while for the band to get comfortable in its surroundings and really hit its stride. By this time, I was thinking this might turn out to be merely a so-so show; thankfully, the band starts to hit its stride after this rocky start.

Pianist Ronnie Leahy begins a long, beautiful solo piano improvisation, floating easily into "Tickets to Waterfalls", its playful cha-cha rhythm a natural head space for this loose combo. The band stretches the outro into a band improvisation, before Leahy and Bley finish with a variation on the opening piano figure of "Weird of Hermiston", leading neatly into that piece, which leads to further improvisation, finally ending the medley with "Post War", one of the strangest songs in Jack's repertoire, and no less strange in this band's reading. In fact, the rhythm section seems to find a unique groove in this song's psychotic ska (apologies to Jack for this heavy-handed description) approach. The first CD ends with a surprise -- a cover of jazz/fusion legend Tony Williams' "Spirit" - and ironically enough, this sole "jazz" piece rocks twice as hard as anything else in the show! The whole band really seems to kick into a new gear here.

Disc Two begins with the jazzy ballad "One", and it's nice to hear Jack stick closer to the vocal melody a bit more than he'd done so far. The band, still sounding confident, play loosely but assuredly. Things start to rock again with "You Burned the Tables on Me", one of Jack's louder, more aggressive solo numbers, but with rolling, funky rhythms rather than stomping rock rhythms. The band makes the most of its "rolling" nature, and stretches the instrumental parts out for several minutes apiece. I chuckled a bit when I realized that some of these bits reminded me of listening to moe. (an eclectic "jam band" that started in the 90s). The set climaxes with the greatly elongated "Smiles and Grins", as complex and strange a song as Jack has ever written. As this epic piece (elongated to 23 minutes here) unfolds, I realized the band had finally arrived at that coveted space in a live performance when the music seems to play itself. After the bridge, Bruce goes into a quiet but intricate bass solo that held me transfixed for several minutes. Instinctually, the band slowly comes back to join him - first Bley (on Mellotron! did I mention she plays a lot of Mellotron on this? It's great!), then the rest of the band as it fires up the song's 7/8 groove and kicks back into the song. For the song's extended coda, Mick Taylor, who had been mostly quiet for the entire show so far, finally spreads his wings and plays a beautiful, delicate guitar solo that was totally worth the wait. The song comes to a gentle rest at the end, and several reverent seconds pass before the crowd applauds appreciatively, and the band leaves the stage.

As an encore, the band plays the crowd pleaser "Sunshine of Your Love", easily the most famous song Bruce ever had a hand in. The band has fun with it, sticking mostly to the script but adding their own flavor here and there. In the instrumental outro, Bley comes in out of nowhere with the most comical synthesizer solo since "Lucky Man", and it kicks butt as you might imagine.

If you love Jack Bruce's solo material from the late 60s and early 70s, there's no reason why you shouldn't grab this. It's an imperfect document, but of a very special moment in time, a moment you won't hear elsewhere. For more casual fans of this kind of thing, tread carefully - it's not the All-Star-Blow-Session you might expect, it's a mostly laid back, loose and mildly jammy (vocally and insturmentally) set of readings of extremely eclectic jazzy pop songs.