Jack Bruce
On October 25, 2014, Scottish bassist, singer, and songwriter Jack Bruce passed away!
(Photo: Christian Sahm)
He was one of the most influential, daring and versatile musicians in the history of modern rock, the man who freed the bass guitar from its traditional role as an accompaniment and transformed it into a leading melodic solo instrument, and the voice and creative heart of the first supergroup in history, "Cream." Here are 35 interesting facts about his life and immense musical legacy.
1. He was born on May 14, 1943, as John Symon Asher Bruce in the town of Bishopbriggs in Blennershire, Scotland, to music-loving parents who worked in factories.
2. His family frequently moved between Scotland, England, and Canada in search of a livelihood, which forced young Bruce to attend no fewer than fourteen different schools during his childhood, an experience that he said shaped his independent and uncompromising character.
3. He began singing in church choirs at the age of seven, and later attended Houston High School in Glasgow, where he first discovered his deep love for classical music and composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach.
4. As a teenager, he emerged as a musical prodigy and won a prestigious scholarship to study cello and composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.
5. To finance his studies at the academy, Bruce began playing double bass at night in local jazz and dance bands throughout Scotland.
6. The conservative Royal Academy administration forbade its students from playing jazz, and when his teachers discovered his nightly performances and gave him an ultimatum to stop playing jazz or leave, Bruce chose to leave the institution in favor of the creative freedom of the stage.
7. At the age of eighteen he left Scotland and went on a whirlwind tour of Italy as a double bass player in Murray Campbell's Big Band.
8. In 1962, he settled in London and joined the pioneering blues band "Blues Incorporated" led by Alexis Korner, which was the central incubator where the stars of the British Invasion of the 1960s emerged.
9. As part of "Blues Incorporated", he played alongside saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, keyboardist and organist Graham Bond, and drummer Charlie Watts, shortly before Watts joined the band "The Rolling Stones".
10. At the end of 1962, he joined the fiery red-haired drummer Ginger Baker, who replaced Watts, and together with Bond and the young guitarist John McLaughlin, in 1963 they formed the avant-garde jazz quartet that became "The Graham Bond Organisation".
11. During that time in the band "The Graham Bond Organisation", Bruce made the historic switch from acoustic double bass to electric bass guitar, an instrument that gave him new mobility and power against Baker's thunderous drums.
12. The personal and musical rivalry between Bruce and Baker became a veritable legend. The two constantly clashed on stage, damaged each other's equipment, and in August 1965, after Baker pulled out a knife during a heated argument and informed Bruce that he was fired, Bruce left the band.
13. Immediately afterwards, Bruce recorded his first solo single, "I'm Getting Tired", which was released on the Polydor record company in the fall of 1965.
14. In November 1965, he joined John Mayall's band "John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers" for a short but fateful period, where he first met the brilliant young blues guitarist Eric Clapton on stage.
15. In December 1965, he moved to the "Manfred Mann" band after receiving a tempting financial offer, and with them in the spring of 1966 he reached number one on the British singles chart with the huge hit "Pretty Flamingo", in which his melodic bass playing stands out.
16. In March 1966, he participated in the short-lived underground studio project "Powerhouse" with Clapton and the young singer of "The Spencer Davis Group" Steve Winwood, a session in which three songs were recorded that appeared on the compilation album "What's Shakin'".
17. In July 1966, the big bang of the rock world occurred, when Clapton suggested to Baker that they form a new power trio, but set one uncompromising condition: the bassist and lead singer must be Jack Bruce.
18. Bruce and Baker agreed to put aside the past, and the trio formed "Cream", considered the first supergroup in the history of rock music, a name chosen because all three were considered the cream of the British blues and jazz scene.
19. While Clapton and Baker gained fame as virtuosos on their instruments, Bruce was the creative heart of "Cream", singing almost all of the band's songs and composing most of its original material in collaboration with poet Pete Brown, who became his constant creative partner throughout his life.
20. Around the release of "Fresh Cream" in December 1966, Bruce composed and sang tracks such as "Dreaming" and "N.S.U." and played harmonica on "Four Until Late". The first single, "Wrapping Paper", was released separately in October 1966, while "I Feel Free" appeared on the US edition of the debut album.
21. For the recordings of the second album, Bruce adopted the bass guitar he is most associated with, a cherry red Gibson EB-3, which had a short neck and a powerful neck pickup that gave it a deep, distorted sound similar to an electric cello through Marshall amplifiers.
22. On the psychedelic masterpiece "Disraeli Gears" from November 1967, produced by Felix Pappalardi at Atlantic Studios in New York, Bruce created the most immortal bass riff in rock history in the song "Sunshine of Your Love", written in the early hours of the morning after the band's trio witnessed an electrifying Jimi Hendrix concert in London.
23. Alongside "Sunshine of Your Love", Bruce composed and sang "SWLABR" and "We’re Going Wrong". He also sang "Tales of Brave Ulysses", which was written by Eric Clapton and Martin Sharp.
24. On the 1968 double album "Wheels of Fire," which was the first double album in history to achieve platinum status, Bruce led the dark masterpiece "White Room", which opens in five-quarter time, the heavy protest anthem "Politician", and the song "As You Said", in which he played cello and acoustic guitar.
25. The enormous decibel levels at which "Cream" played live with walls of Marshall amplifiers, along with improvisations lasting twenty minutes and the constant tension between Bruce and Baker, led to the band's breakup in November 1968 with two historic farewell shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
26. In August 1969, Bruce began an extensive and uncompromising solo career with the release of his successful album "Songs for a Tailor", which reached number six on the British charts and included one of the most moving and beautiful compositions he wrote in his life, "Theme for an Imaginary Western", a song that also became an anthem when performed by the band "Mountain" that Pfaelardi founded with guitarist Leslie West.
27. On that first solo album, guitarist George Harrison of The Beatles played the opening song "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune" under the mysterious pseudonym L'Angelo Misterioso to circumvent contractual restrictions between record companies.
28. In the early 1970s, Bruce joined legendary jazz drummer Tony Williams and guitarist John McLaughlin in the pioneering fusion supergroup "The Tony Williams Lifetime", on the groundbreaking 1970 album "Turn It Over", and in 1971 released his complex and acclaimed solo album "Harmony Row".
29. In 1972, he returned to the world of hard rock when he formed, together with guitarist Leslie West and drummer Corky Laing from the band "Mountain", the powerful power trio "West, Bruce & Laing", which released two studio albums and a live album.
30. During the 1970s, Bruce contributed his one-off bass playing to two of the decade's most famous albums, in 1973 he played bass on Lou Reed's tragic and somber concept album "Berlin", and in 1974 he played the instrumental theme song to Frank Zappa's album "Apostrophe", for which Bruce was also given a co-composition credit.
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
31. In 1981, he joined forces with British blues-rock guitarist Robin Trower and drummer Bill Lordan to form the band "B.L.T.", and in 1994, he formed the supergroup "BBM" with Ginger Baker and Irish super guitarist Gary Moore, which released the successful album "Around the Next Dream," which reached number nine on the British charts.
32. In 1993, Bruce was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the band "Cream", and in the late 1990s and early 2000s he went on several world tours as a regular member of Ringo Starr's All-Stars.
33. In the summer of 2003, Bruce was diagnosed with liver cancer and in September of that year underwent a complex liver transplant surgery, during which his body initially rejected the transplanted organ and he came close to death, but against all odds he recovered and returned to performing.
34. In May 2005, he fulfilled the dream of millions of fans when he reunited with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker for four historic performances of "Cream" at the Royal Albert Hall in London and later for three performances at Madison Square Garden in New York, and a year later the trio was awarded the prestigious Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
35. In March 2014, a few months before his death, he released his fourteenth and final studio album, "Silver Rails", which was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London with guest artists such as Phil Manzanera, Robin Trower, Uli Jon Roth and his daughter, singer Aruba Red, and received critical acclaim worldwide.
On October 25, 2014, Jack Bruce closed his eyes at his home in Suffolk at the age of seventy-one, leaving behind a vast legacy that was a direct inspiration to bass giants such as Geezer Butler from "Black Sabbath", and Geddy Lee from "Rush", alongside Sting and Jaco Pastorius.
"Face/Off" - Israel's Rock Blog
Comments