A LIVING TRAGEDY… THE WORLD’S GREATEST DRUMMER RETIRES FROM PLAYING LIVE

by Jeff Boule in Editorials, Honoring Lives, Industry News, Musician Reviews, News, Opinion Posts, Reviews

With each day, more and more disparaging news comes across our collective desk.  This could have been titled The Death Of Progressive Part Two.  The world’s premiere drummer, Bill Bruford, announced on his website his retirement from public performance effective the first of this year.  Before you all get bent out of shape about who the best drummer in the world is, remember, at the top of this post it SHOULD say “opinion” or “editorial”.  Remember, you don’t have to agree with my opinion.  But let’s examine what, in my opinion, makes Bruford the best.

There are several factors that one must determine when considering what makes a good drummer.  You can determine factors such as speed, power, accuracy, degree of difficulty, execution, tone, inventiveness, taste, and most importantly a keen sense of knowing when NOT to play.  I could go into a whole big schpiel about the psychological and mental approaches one could take towards a most Zen approach to the instrument.  Bruford claims to be able to see the musical staff move in front of his eyes (or his mind’s eye) as he’s playing the part, he plays a flam, he sees a flam.

But Bruford is one of those percussive savants in that he is able to play four separate time signatures with his four different limbs.  His right foot on a bass pedal playing a pulse beat, we’ll say 4/4.  Let’s put the left foot on a different bass pedal, we’ll make it electronic for different timbre, say in 5/4.  Every 20 measures they meet up for a quick bit.  Let’s put the right hand on a higher-pitched drum playing an articulate line with accents in 21/8 and cap it all off with the left hand playing a tight snare, a different articulate line with alternate accents also in 21, creating an interplay between both hands.

For those of you who can understand the above paragraph, you know what Bruford is speaking of.  Yes, that’s a paraphrase from Bruford from somewhere.  I know I couldn’t have come up with that on my own, and I sort-of understand it, (I do play drums, I can read some sheet music, and some drum music as well) and I definitely know I can’t play that complicated part.

We will take a look at this definitive drummer, his musical associations, releases and more.  Additionally, I will proffer apologies to Anthony Medici, as I will find myself brazenly delving into this territory (Jazz).  Bruford left performing life as a jazz drummer.  His lifelong ambition was to be a jazz drummer.

But the things he did on his way to that goal are nothing less than astounding!

Now it is not my job to tell you about his entire life story, there are websites, and even an autobiography coming out (I pre-ordered my personalized autographed copy from his website, I suggest interested parties do the same) but rather my job is to tell you about some of his contributions to modern music overall.

Bruford played with such bands as Genesis, Yes, King Crimson (where he contributed most in the research and development area of drumming) as well as releasing several solo albums in conjunction with musicians such as Patrick Moraz, Alan Holdsworth, Jeff Berlin, and the main topic of my last post, John Wetton, Eddie Jobson, Tony Levin and the names just keep on coming.

.Bruford was a founding member of Yes, but felt more comfortable with the minor chordal, diminished, instrumentally focused music of King Crimson.  That is opposed to the major chordal, vocal harmonizing of Yes.  Once he found his home in King Crimson, his work alongside Jamie Muir of the 1972 King Crimson was wonder-inspiring.  But soon Muir would move on, leaving Bruford to additionally add off-beat cacophonous interjections into the beat.

Not a problem.

By this time, Bruford and Wetton have formed a meaty rhythm section, one that would survive the second (or so) dissolution of King Crimson.  Once this version of KC bagged, Bruford took one-off work with bands like Gong and National Health.  Bruford even took some temp work with a little outfit called Genesis.

For you Genesis fans out there, you need to find an import copy of Three Sides Live.  The import copy is technically four sides live as instead of the new studio tracks that were on Three Sides, there were three more live tracks, the last being a two song medley.  On the US release, side four consisted of “Paperlate”, “You Might Recall”, “Me And Virgil”, “Evidence Of Autumn” and “Open Door”.  The UK release features live versions of “One For The Vine”, “Fountain Of Salmacis” and “It/Watcher Of The Skies” on which Bruford plays alongside Chester Thompson and Phil Collins.

Wetton and Bruford reunited and went on with Eddie Jobson and Alan Holdsworth to form UK.

This music is not for the faint of heart.

Music that was more to the liking of every one was the band Bruford formed  under his own moniker, with Jeff Berlin, Dave Stewart (NOT of Eurythmics) and Alan Holdsworth.  They put out four albums and a greatest hits, and I recommend each and every one to every one of you.  You like jazz, jazz fusion, progressive, this is the stuff!!!

Then a little band got together in Dorset, in 1981, called themselves Discipline.  That band was short lived, at least under that name (it would soon prove to be short lived overall).  This band consisted of Bruford, Tony Levin, Adrian Belew and the guy from King Crimson, Robert Fripp.  They only played a few gigs as Discipline before Fripp realized, “This is what King Crimson should be!”

This lineup of KC released three groundbreaking albums, again, heavily, heavily suggested to each and every one of you (I happen to know, the PREX KC bin is overflowing, you can find something really tasty in there…).

It was on these three albums that Bruford was given certain parameters to work within, no high-hats during one particular tour as Fripp felt it was stealing his accents, also having to integrate electronic drums into modern progressive music (while I am not 100% certain this was levied or his own concept), and basically was given carte blanche to experiment within acceptable parameters of the music.  I suggest you get the remastered version of Three Of A Perfect Pair and give the “Industrial” tracks a good listen.   At one point, you can hear Bruford hit the mic with the drumstick.  Something so bush league sounds good when he does it.

But as King Crimson is apt to do, another split loomed and Bruford found himself doing something out-of-the-ordinary, a piano/drums duet with Moody Blues (among others) keyboardist Patrick Moraz.  While the first of these two albums is acoustic piano and drums, the second allowed the duo to delve into electronics, where Bruford makes his Simmons kit come alive with rebound and triggering euphoria.

So it would only seem natural for Bruford to initiate a jazz ensemble that would, by definition, press the boundaries of current-day jazz.  Earthworks tested the mettle of all those jazz magazines that my collegue Anthony Medici has protested about here on the PREX blog.  Using electronic drums triggering chordal structures?  Harumph!!!

In 1989 Bruford spent some time with a Yes derivative band, Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe (ABWH).  He also spent time in a reformed Yes in 1991, all throughout touring and recording with Earthworks.

Then again in 1993, this KC band got together for the chawillionth time, this time with six members, two guitarists, two stick players, two drummers.  When four people can’t get along, throw two more innocents into the mix.  But some inner Crim whisper of this line-up being formulated in order to find a brain-picker for Bruford to pass the torch.  That brain picker turned out to be Pat Mastelotto, formerly of Mumble Mumble.  The hands that guide the crimson beast now will be those of Mastelotto, to this day.  Most recently in co-chair with Porcupine Tree’s Gavin Harrison.

Once that torch had been passed, Bruford returned to the Earthworks fold.  But this time more in the traditional sense, he wanted to go out a jazz drummer.  I expect we will see more recordings by Bruford such as the one with pianist Michiel Borstlap.

But sadly in this day and age of programmed drum beats, lack of demand for quality drumming has shaken the confidence of this once mighty artist.  The fact that the world’s greatest drummer would retire as opposed to die behind the kit, “the-show-must-go-on” attitude was bullied out of Bruford by today’s ignorant youth, disinterested accountants and the rhythmically challenged.

I still have many Bruford products to buy, ingest and appreciate.  I say ye Mr. William Bruford!!!

EDITOR’S NOTE: The views expressed by Mr. Boule do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of Princeton Record Exchange, PREX Newsletter, PREX Blog, or anyone else for that matter.