Bruford were a band assembled and led by British drummer

Bill Bruford William Scott Bruford (born 17 May 1949) is an English former drummer and percussionist who first gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes. After leaving Yes in 1972, Bruford spent the rest of the 1970s recording ...

(former

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * YES (Your Extraordinary Saturday), a learning program from the Minnesota Institute for Talente ...

and

King Crimson King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...

), originating in the late 1970s. Bill Bruford formed the

jazz-fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyb ...

band for his debut solo album '' Feels Good to Me'', with keyboardist Dave Stewart (formerly

Hatfield and the North Hatfield and the North were an experimental Canterbury scene rock band that lasted from October 1972 to June 1975, with some reunions thereafter. Career In mid 1972 the band grew out of a line-up of ex-members of blues/jazz/rock band Del ...

), American virtuoso bassist

Jeff Berlin Jeffrey Arthur Berlin (born January 17, 1953) is an American jazz fusion bassist. He first came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the band Bruford led by drummer Bill Bruford. Musical career Berlin was born on January 17, 1953, in Queen ...

and guitarist

Allan Holdsworth Allan Holdsworth (6 August 1946 – 15 April 2017) was a British jazz fusion and progressive rock guitarist and composer. Holdsworth was known for his esoteric and idiosyncratic usage of advanced music theory concepts, especially with respe ...

(formerly

Soft Machine Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge (keyboards, 1966–1976), Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals, 1966–1971), Kevin Ayers (bass, guitar, vocals, 1966–1968) and Daevid Allen (guitar, 1966–196 ...

and

Pierre Moerlen's Gong Pierre Moerlen's Gong was an instrumental jazz fusion band led by French drummer Pierre Moerlen which developed as an offshoot of the psychedelic progressive rock band Gong founded and led by Daevid Allen. It was notable for the prominent use ...

). This first album also featured

Annette Peacock Annette Peacock is an American composer, musician, songwriter, producer, and arranger. She is a pioneer in electronic music who combined her voice with one of the first Moog synthesizers in the late 1960s. Biography Annette Peacock was writing ...

on occasional vocals and British jazz stalwart

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he was also active ...

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

. Bruford and Holdsworth then joined the progressive rock group

U.K. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

After Bruford and Holdsworth left U.K., a second album '' One of a Kind'' enlisted the same line-up as the first album (minus Peacock and Wheeler) and was all instrumental. On the live album ''

The Bruford Tapes ''The Bruford Tapes'' is a live 1979 album by the British band Bruford, only issued in the United States, Canada and Japan. It was recorded on July 12, 1979 in Roslyn, New York State and originally broadcast on WLIR radio. Shortly before the tou ...

'' (a show originally broadcast for

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

WLIR WLIR was a radio station that played a new music/modern rock format on the frequencies 92.7 FM, 98.5 FM, and 107.1 FM from the 1980s into the 2000s. Bob Wilson, longtime WLIR employee and historian, created the website WDARE (Dare FM), which m ...

), guitarist John Clark (formerly of

Quasar A quasar is an extremely Luminosity, luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is pronounced , and sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. This emission from a galaxy nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole with a m ...

) replaced Holdsworth. Clark remained and bassist Berlin sang vocals for the first time on the third album, '' Gradually Going Tornado'', which also featured "Joe Frazier", Berlin's first composition for the group. Bruford were active at the end of a vibrant decade for fusion music, with groups like

Mahavishnu Orchestra The Mahavishnu Orchestra were a jazz fusion band formed in New York City in 1971, led by English guitarist John McLaughlin. The group underwent several line-up changes throughout its history across its two periods of activity, from 1971 to 1976 a ...

Return to Forever Return to Forever was an American jazz fusion band that was founded by pianist Chick Corea in 1972. The band has had many members, with the only consistent bandmate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report, The Headhun ...

and

Brand X Brand X were a jazz fusion band formed in London in 1974. They were active until 1980, followed by a reformation between 1992 and 1999, and were active following a 2016 reunion until 2021. Members have included John Goodsall (guitar), Percy J ...

getting much attention. Though Bruford followed in the tradition of these bands, the ensemble was unprofitable and were dropped by EG Records in 1980. A complete boxed set of Bruford recordings was released by Bill Bruford's own Winterfold records label in October 2017. The unreleased material comprises a complete show at London's The Venue and 18 demos for Bruford's intended fourth studio album. These tracks are rough "works in progress" that were never properly finished and recorded when Bruford were dropped by EG Records. The CD remixes were completed by

Jakko Jakszyk Michael "Jakko" Jakszyk (born Michael Lee Curran, 8 June 1958) is an English musician, record producer, and actor. He has released several solo albums as a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist and has been the lead singer for King Crims ...

Band members

– drums, percussion, vibraphone (1976–1980), piano (1980) *

– bass (1978–1980), vocals (1979–1980) * Dave Stewart – keyboards, piano, synthesizers (1976–1980) *

– guitar (1976–1979) *

– vocals (1977) * John Clark – guitar (1979–1980) Timeline

Discography

Studio albums

*'' Feels Good to Me'' (1978 E.G. Records) *'' One of a Kind'' (1979 E.G. Records) *'' Gradually Going Tornado'' (1980 E.G. Records)

Live album

*''

'' (1979 E.G. Records)

Compilations

*''Master Strokes 1978-1985'' (1985 E.G. Records) *''

Rock goes to College ''Rock Goes to College'' (RGTC) was a BBC series that ran between 1978 and 1981 on British television. A variety of up-coming rock oriented bands were showcased live from small venues and broadcast simultaneously on television and radio during ...

'' (2006

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

br>Winterfold Records

External links

*
Bill Bruford homepage
English rock music groups {{UK-band-stub