''Feels Good to Me'' is the 1978 debut solo album by 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 ...

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 ...

. The band Bruford grew out of the line-up assembled for this album. The album features 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 ...

, 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 ...

, keyboardist Dave Stewart, and ECM 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 ...

on fluegelhorn. Bruford also enlisted singer-songwriter

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 ...

(who performs two of Bruford's lyrics, and contributes one of her own) 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 ...

guitarist

John Goodsall John Goodsall (15 February 1953 – 10 November 2021) was a British-American progressive rock and jazz fusion guitarist most noted for his work with Brand X, Atomic Rooster, and The Fire Merchants. Life and career Goodsall was born in Middlese ...

(who plays rhythm on the title track only). Dave Stewart was a pivotal figure in the music of the

Canterbury scene The Canterbury scene (or Canterbury sound) was a musical scene centred on the town of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Associated with progressive rock, the term describes a loosely-defined, improvisational styl ...

with groups like

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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 ...

and

National Health National Health were an English progressive rock band associated with the Canterbury scene. Founded in 1975, the band featured members of keyboardist Dave Stewart's band Hatfield and the North and Alan Gowen's band Gilgamesh, including guita ...

, but despite his strong playing (and co-writing) presence, the album does not sound much like the Canterbury bands, and is instead closer to contemporaries Brand X (whose keyboardist

Robin Lumley Robin Lumley is a British jazz fusion musician, keyboardist, record producer, and author who was a member of the band Brand X with drummer Phil Collins, guitarist John Goodsall, and bassist Percy Jones. He is a second cousin of the actress Joann ...

co-produced the album with Bill Bruford).

Reception

In a retrospective review for

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 ...

, Thom Jurek praised the way the performers handled the material, and opined that "Bruford has yet to issue a solo recording as powerful as ''Feels Good to Me''." The authors of ''

The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled by ...

'' stated: "The combination of Kenny Wheeler and Annette Peacock gives ''Feels Good to Me'' an obvious cachet, but it's Bruford's torrential drumming with its ringing snare drum sound that makes the record special." John Kelman of

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 ...

called the album "a landmark recording" due to "the sheer chemistry between the core members," and noted that "the kind of compositional depth and maturity of ''Feels Good to Me'' came completely out of left field." He commented: "what is so refreshing about ''Feels Good to Me'' is its complete lack of compromise; there's no question that this is the album Bruford wanted to make, and it weathers the test of time incredibly well." Writing for Progrography, Dave Connolly remarked: "Of the solo Bruford albums, this is the best... Bruford the band is as unique here as the people in it." Exposé Online's Jon Davis wrote: "These musicians were presenting a completely new way of blending jazz and rock that didn't sound like any of the previous 'fusion' groups... Every single track on the album brings something new to the table... the combination of these players at this moment in time is simply magical."

Track listing

Personnel

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

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. Exc ...

–

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

* Dave Stewart –

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 ...

– bass with *

–

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 ...

(on tracks 3, 7, 9) *

– lead vocals (2, 3, 10) *

– rhythm guitar (6) * John Clark – electric guitar ("Joe Frazier" live) ;Production * Produced by Robin Lumley & Bill Bruford * Tape operators: John Brand, Colin Green, Stephen Short * Engineer: Stephen W Tayler * Equipment technicians: Peter Revill, Mick Rossi

References

External links

''Feels Good to Me'' at discogs
{{Authority control Bill Bruford albums 1978 debut albums E.G. Records albums Albums recorded at Trident Studios