''Bruford Levin Upper Extremities'' is a self-titled album by the band

Bruford Levin Upper Extremities Bruford Levin Upper Extremities (B.L.U.E.) was a musical group consisting of drummer Bill Bruford, bassist Tony Levin, guitarist David Torn, and trumpeter Chris Botti. The group's origins can be traced to Torn's ECM Records album ''Cloud About ...

. It is their only studio recording, released on

Tony Levin Anthony Frederick Levin (born June 6, 1946) is an American musician and composer, specializing in electric bass, Chapman Stick and upright bass. He also sings and plays synthesizer. Levin is best known for his work with King Crimson (since 1 ...

's independent label Papa Bear Records. Formed by bassist Levin and 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 ...

(who had worked together as the rhythm section of

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 ...

), the group also included guitarist

David Torn David M. Torn (born May 26, 1953) is an American guitarist, composer, and producer. He is known for combining electronic and acoustic instruments and for his use of looping. Background Torn has contributed to recordings by artists as diverse ...

and trumpeter

Chris Botti Christopher Stephen Botti ( ; born October 12, 1962) is an award-winning American trumpeter and composer. In 2013, Botti won the Grammy Award in the Best Pop Instrumental Album category, for the album ''Impressions''. He was also nominated in ...

. Torn, Bruford and Levin had recorded together on Torn's album '' Cloud About Mercury'' ten years before this.

Reception

In a review for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', Mike Joyce described the album as "an unusually large and colorful musical mosaic," stating that it "alludes, intentionally or not, to a lot of pop, rock and jazz musicians and bands." He concluded: "for all the album's obvious reference points, the musicians are too stubbornly willful to fall into any groove for long." S. Victor Aaron of Something Else! praised the track titled "Cracking the Midnight Glass," calling it "a mash-up of contrasting styles that's like the cherry on a sundae for those who like these collisions of genres. I know ''I'' do." Writing for ''Exposé Online'', Jeff Melton called the album a "remarkable work led by possibly one of the best rhythm sections in modern music," and commented: "Although not as dark as any Crimson recording, B.L.U.E. is a shining ring on the challenging clasp where rock meets jazz."

Track listing

# "Cerulean Sea" – 7:03 # "Interlude" – 0:23 # "Original Sin" – 4:55 # "Etude Revisited" – 4:57 # "A Palace of Pearls (On a Blade of Grass)" – 5:33 # "Interlude" – 0:19 # "Fin de Siècle" – 5:22 # "Drumbass" – 0:54 # "Cracking the Midnight Glass" – 6:06 # "Torn Drumbass" – 0:54 # "Thick With Thin Air" – 3:28 # "Cobalt Canyons" – 3:53 # "Interlude" – 0:27 # "Deeper Blue" – 4:12 # "Presidents Day" – 6:22

Personnel

;Bruford Levin Upper Extremities *

— drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

—

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

—

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

Chapman Stick The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and is used to play bass lines, melody lines ...

—

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

s, loops ;Production *Tony Levin – producer *Tom Mark – engineer *Bill Bruford, Tony Levin, Tom Mark – mixing * Bob Ludwig – mastering *Megan Denver, Tony Levin – artwork, photography

References

{{Authority control 1998 debut albums Bruford Levin Upper Extremities albums Discipline Global Mobile albums