Earthworks is the first album by Bill Bruford's Earthworks, a

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 jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

band led by 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 ...

with keyboardist and trumpeter

Django Bates Django Bates (born Leon Bates, 2 October 1960) is a British jazz musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, band leader and educator. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. Bates has been described as "one of the most talented musici ...

, saxophonist

Iain Ballamy Iain Ballamy (born 20 February 1964) is a British composer and saxophonist. He is considered one of the greatest modern jazz saxophonists. Career Ballamy was born in Guildford, Surrey, and educated at George Abbot School, Guildford, from 1975 ...

, and acoustic bassist Mick Hutton. It was released in 1987 on

EG Records E.G. Records was a British artist management company and independent record label, mostly active during the 1970s and 1980s. The initials stood for its founders, David Enthoven and John Gaydon. The pair signed on as managers of King Crimson in ...

and reissued on Summerforld in 2005. The album was co-produced by Bruford's former bandmate Dave Stewart.

Reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, critic Chris Kelsey gave the album three-and-a-half stars out of five. He wrote, "The best thing about this band is its refreshing ingenuousness; they make intelligent, sophisticated instrumental pop music that doesn't pander in the least." Writing for

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

, John Kelman noted that "Bruford's attraction to the juncture of strict form and freer improvisation, took a giant leap forward with ''Earthworks''," and commented that the group "was unquestionably an ''improvising'' band; more than just a soloist playing over a fixed rhythm section, Earthworks has always been a looser affair, as much about interplay as adhering to any compositional form." A reviewer for Moving the River wrote: "Some musicians have a unique touch – you can identify them within a few notes. In Bill Bruford's case, his snare drum is his main audio imprint. But he also always had a highly-original composing style before his retirement in 2009, and both are very much in evidence on the excellent ''Earthworks'' album."

Track listing

# "Thud" (

) – 4:10 # "Making a Song and Dance" (Ballamy,

) – 5:52 # "Up North" (Ballamy,

, Bruford) – 5:19 # "Pressure" (Bruford) – 4:57 # "My Heart Declares a Holiday" (Ballamy, Bates, Bruford) – 4:35 # "Emotional Shirt" (Bates) – 4:45 # "It Needn't End in Tears" (Ballamy) – 5:14 # "The Shepherd Is Eternal" (Bates, Bruford) – 1:50 # "Bridge of Inhibition" (Ballamy, Bates, Bruford) – 4:15

Personnel

– drums, electronic drums, percussion, producer *

– alto, soprano, and tenor saxophones *

– tenor horn, trumpet, keyboards * Mick Hutton – bass * Dave Stewart – keyboards, sampling, producer Source:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Earthworks (Album) 1987 debut albums Bill Bruford albums Earthworks (band) albums E.G. Records albums