Jack Bruce

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John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – October 25, 2014) was a Scottish musician, singer, and songwriter best known for his contribution to the British supergroup Cream, which also included guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker.

In March 2011, Rolling Stone readers named him as the eighth greatest bass guitarist of all time.

"Most singers will have a difficult time identifying themselves if they were in a band with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker," the magazine said at the time, "but Jack Bruce was so talented on the bass that he did it with ease." Bruce had a solo career that spanned many decades, as well as being active in several musical ensembles.

Despite being known as a vocalist, bassist, and composer, he also performed double bass, harmonica, piano, cello, and guitar.

He was trained as a classical cellist and considered himself a jazz performer, but a large number of his compositions and recordings tended toward rock and blues.

Personal life

Bruce married Janet Godfrey, the Graham Bond Organisation's secretary, who had collaborated with Bruce on two songs written for the band. Jonas (Jo) Bruce, who grew up to play keyboards in his father's band and played with Afro Celt Sound System, and Malcolm Bruce, who grew up to play the guitar with his dad and played with Ginger Baker's son, Kofi. Jonas died in 1997 due to respiratory difficulties.

Margrit Seyffer, his second wife, married him in 1982. Natascha, also known as Aruba Red and Kyla, and a son Corin were his two children with her.

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Life and career

Bruce was born in Bishopbriggs, Scotland, on May 14th, 1943, to Betty (Asher) and Charlie Bruce, who migrated often, resulting in the young Bruce attending 14 different schools before ending up at Bellahouston Academy. He began playing jazz bass in his teens and received a scholarship to study cello and musical composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama while playing in Jim McHarg's Scotsville Jazzband to support himself.

He toured Italy after leaving school and performed double bass with the Murray Campbell Big Band. Bruce became a member of the London-based Blues Incorporated, led by Alexis Korner, in which he performed the upright bass. Graham Bond, saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, and drummer Ginger Baker were among the band's members. Bruce, James Bond, Baker, and guitarist John McLaughlin formed the Graham Bond Quartet in 1963, breaking up in 1963. They performed a variety of musical styles, including bebop, blues, and rhythm and blues. Bruce went from the upright bass to the electric bass guitar as a result of session work. McLaughlin was dropped from the band, and the band pursued a more concise R&B sound and changed their name to the Graham Bond Organisation. The group released two studio albums and a few singles, but not in a commercially profitable way.

Bruce and Baker were notorious for their hostility toward each other during the time when they were with the Graham Bond Organisation. Several reports of the two men sabotaging each other's equipment and combating on stage were common. Bruce left the band in August 1965 after the two boys' ties became so bad. Bruce's single "I'm Tired" was released by Polydor Records after he departed. He appeared with John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers band, which also featured guitarist Eric Clapton. Bruce's time with the band was short, and he did not participate in any of the company's launches at the time, but recordings of him were later released, first on Looking Back and Primal Solos.

Bruce had his first commercial success as a member of Manfred Mann in 1966, including "Pretty Flamingo," which hit number one on the UK singles chart (one of two top-one hits of his career), as well as the freewheeling and pioneering jazz rock of Instrumental Asylum. Bruce had been lured away by Manfred Mann's lucrative commercial success, according to Mayall, who remembered that Bruce appeared at his first gig with the band without a rehearsal, playing the songs straight through without fail, possibly suggesting that Bruce's chord changes seemed obvious to Bruce.

Bruce worked with Clapton as a member of Powerhouse, which also included Spencer Davis Group vocalist Steve Winwood, who was also known as "Steve Anglo" while Manfred Mann. On Elektra sampler album What's Shakin', three tracks were included. "Crossroads" and "Steppin' Out," two of the bands' live set, became staples in his new band, Cream.

Bruce, Eric Clapton, and Ginger Baker formed the power trio Cream in July 1966, which gained international recognition for playing blues-rock and jazz-inflected rock music. Bruce performed the majority of the lead vocals, with Clapton supporting him and eventually assuming some leads himself.

Bruce made a name for himself in rock, winning guitarist's polls and instilling the next generation of bassists, including Sting, Jim Shaw, Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler, and Jeff Berlin with his Gibson EB-3 electric bass. Bruce co-wrote most of Cream's single releases with lyricist Pete Brown, including "Sunshine of Your Love," "White Room," and "I Feel Free." Cream cream was first invented in 1968.

As a focus of Bruce's career, collaborating with musicians in many genres – hard rock, jazz, blues, R&B, fusion, avant-garde, third stream classical – all of which have remained. He also produced a long line of highly regarded solo albums in addition to this. The solo albums often follow a similar theme: melodic songs with a complex musical framework, songs with lyrics often written by Pete Brown and a select group of world-class musicians. This system was loosened on his live solo albums and DVDs, where extended improvisations similar to Cream's in live performances were sometimes still used.

Bruce recorded a semi-acoustic free jazz album in August 1968, before Cream's officially disbanded. Things We Like, Bruce's second solo album, was released in 1970. The album was a precursor to the jazz fusion boom in the early 1970s, and hip hop artists like Artifacts and Smif-N-Wessun have included it in their collection.

Songs for a Tailor, Bruce's first solo album, was released in September 1969; it also included Heckstall-Smith and Hiseman. It was a worldwide success, but Bruce joined the jazz fusion band Lifetime, with drummer Tony Williams, guitarist McLaughlin, and organist Larry Young, for its second album, Turn It Over (1970). Ron Carter replaced Bruce on bass on his third album, Ego (1971), but Bruce contributed a guest vocal. Bruce released his third solo album Harmony Row in 2004, but it wasn't as popular as Songs for a Tailor. Harmony Row's "The Consul at Sunset," which was based on Malcolm Lowry's book Under the Volcano, was released as a single in 1971, but it did not chart.

West, Bruce & Laing, a 1972 Bruce formed a blues rock power trio. The group included guitarist Leslie West and drummer Corky Laing, both of the Cream-influenced American band Mountain, in addition to Bruce. Why Dontcha and Whatever Turns You On, Bruce and Laing's second studio album, as well as one live album, Live 'n' Kickin'.

Bruce released his fourth solo album Out of the Storm shortly before Live 'n' Kickin's debut in early 1974. He appeared on Frank Zappa's album Apostrophe ('), released in November 1972. On the revived track, Bruce was credited with bass and co-authorship. Bruce attempted to change the topic in a 1992 interview and boasted that he had only played cello parts. On the anniversary of the session, The Crux Of The Biscuit was a collection of outtakes from the session. Bruce recorded bass guitar for Lou Reed's Berlin album in 1973, appearing on only two tracks.

In 1975, a 1975 tour was booked to promote Out of the Storm, featuring legendary Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor and jazz keyboard player Carla Bley, who had collaborated on Escalator over the Hill. On Live at Manchester Free Trade Hall in '75,'000, but it came to an end with Taylor's departure, and recording of a studio album was postponed. Bruce Resurfaced to Play on Charlie Mariano's Helen 12 Trees album for the next year.

Bruce formed The Jack Bruce Band in 1976 with drummer Simon Phillips and keyboardist Tony Hymas. How's Tricks is the group's debut on an album. A world tour was followed, but the album was a commercial failure. Bruce's debut album, Jet Set Jewel, was rejected at the time by Bruce's record label RSO as not being marketable, and RSO eventually dropped Bruce from their roster. He toured with members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1979, reuniting him with John McLaughlin and introducing him to drummer Billy Cobham. Spirit, a 3-CD collection of his 1970s BBC recordings, was released in 2008.

Bruce's heroin use by 1979 had hit such a high that he had lost the majority of his money. Bruce contributed as a session musician to Cozy Powell, Gary Moore, and Jon Anderson's albums in order to raise funds. Jack Bruce & Friends, which consisted of drummer Billy Cobham, guitarist Clem Clem Clempson, and keyboardist/guitarist David Sancious, was back on track with his new band, Jack Bruce & Friends, by 1980. They embarked on a long tour to promote the album after releasing an album titled I've Always Wanted to Do This at the end of 1980, but it wasn't a commercial success and disbanded. Bruce appeared on the album of the same name in 1980, when he joined up to play with friends from Ian Stewart's days in Rocket 88, the back-to-roots band that Ian Stewart arranged, in the early 1980s. For the German audiophile record label Jeton, they also recorded a "live in the studio" album titled Blues & Boogie Explosion. Land of Cockayne (1981), his uncle also appeared on the Soft Machine album that year (1981).

Bruce met guitarist Robin Trower in 1981 and released two power trio albums, B.L.T. Truce and Truce, the first of which was a minor disaster in the United States, were two separate events. Bruce was no longer a member of a major recording company by 1983, when he unveiled Automatic, his next solo album on a minor German label Interna. Bruce Gary from Bruce's 1975 band, enlisting Bruce Gary from the Knack family, on drums and Sancious from his 1980 band (Jack Bruce & Friends) on guitar and keyboards was followed by a European tour. Bruce was a member of A Gathering of Minds, a short-lived ensemble formed of Billy Cobham, Allan Holdsworth, Didier Lockwood, and David Sancious at Montreux in 1982. Bruce performed on tracks 5 and 6 of the Allan Holdsworth album Road Games in 1983.

Bruce began collaborating with the Latin/World music producer Kip Hanrahan in 1983 and released the joint albums Desire Develops an Edge, Vertical's Currency, A Few Short Notes from the End Run, Exotica, and All Roads Are Made of Flesh. They were all very popular, and Hanrahan's legendary Cuban rhythm section helped him form his own band in 2001. Bruce's musical friendship with Hanrahan was the most consistent and long-lasting of his career, other than his collaboration with lyricist Pete Brown.

On Anton Fier's Golden Palominos' song "Silver Bullet" in 1985, he sang lead and played blues harp. It appears on the album Visions of Excess. In 1986, he re-recorded "I Feel Free" on Cream and released it as a single to promote a Renault 21 motor car's ad campaign.

Bruce gained his first big name in a decade with Epic and A Question of Time in 1989. Ginger Baker was on drums for two tracks on this, their first collaboration since Cream. Baker later joined Bruce's live band and toured the United States at the turn of the decade.

Bruce appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1990 and was invited by Rory Gallagher (who had long-served Bruce and having accompanied Cream's farewell concert in the band Taste in 1968) to perform a few songs together on stage. In 1991, he was one of Vivian Stanshall's supporting musicians, but he had to leave early due to a lack of good rehearsals.

Bruce performed with Uli Jon Roth, Simon Phillips, Randy Hansen, John Wetton, Zeno Roth, and others at E-Werk in Cologne, Germany, on April 25, 1991. "The Spirit of Jimi Hendrix Live in Concert" in Japan was included in this performance, as well as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix.

Somethin Els, a solo album, reunited him with Eric Clapton in 1993 and has received blasted, but widespread, critical acclaim.

Ginger Baker and a group of former Bruce band members joined him in Cologne, Germany, hosted by the TV show Rockpalast later this year. Selections from this series were first available as the live double CD Cities of the Heart and a few years later as the DVD set Rockpalast: The 50th Birthdays Concerts later. Gary Moore, an Irish blues-rock guitarist who performed for Bruce and Baker for a series of Cream hits, was one of our special guests. The three formed BBM and Around the Next Dream, their follow-up (and only) album, was a top ten hit in the United Kingdom, inspired by this appearance. The old arguments between Bruce and Baker arose again, but the tour was cut short and the band broke up. Monkjack, a low-key solo album, was followed in 1995 by Bruce on piano and vocals, accompanied only by Funkadelic organist Bernie Worrell.

Bruce started composing and arranging the soundtrack to the independently produced Scottish film The Slab Boys, starring Lulu, Edwyn Collins, Eddi Reader, and the Proclaimers. In 1997, the soundtrack album was released. He returned to touring in 1997 as a member of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band, which also featured Peter Frampton on guitar. The band was onstage with Ginger Baker, and Bruce, Baker, and Frampton performed a short set of Cream hits at a Denver, Colorado, show. Bruce continued to tour with Starr through 2000.

Bruce Worrell, Vernon Reid of Living Colour on guitar, and Kip Hanrahan's three-piece Latin rhythm section appeared in 2001. Hanrahan also released Shadows in the Air, a compilation of "Sunshine of Your Love" that featured a reunion with Eric Clapton. In 2003, Hanrahan produced more Jack than God, as well as a live DVD, Live at the Canterbury Fayre.

Bruce had been in the midst of declining health after many years of heroin use that he finally beat with medical therapy, and in 2003, he was diagnosed with liver cancer. He underwent a liver transplant in September 2003, which was almost lethal, because his body had discarded the new organ before. He recovered and performed "Sunshine of Your Love" at a Rock Legends concert in Germany hosted by singer Mandoki in 2004.

He and his former Cream bandmates Clapton and Baker reunited for a series of well-received concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall, which was released on May 2-3-6, 2005, and Madison Square Garden in New York.

In between the United Kingdom and the United States, the UK shows a significant difference. He performed live with Gary Moore and drummer Gary Husband at the Dick Heckstall-Smith tribute concert in London, in addition to cream dates.

Bruce's subsequent concerts were largely postponed due to his recovery after the transplant, but he returned to the live arena with a display of Cream and solo masterpieces performed by the German HR (Hessischer Rundfunk) Big Band in 2006. In 2007, this was first issued on CD in Germany. He made a brief concert appearance in 2007 and opened a new rehearsal hall dedicated in his honour at Glasgow's Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Ronnie Leahy and Husband, a keyboard player, performed in Clem Clempson.

Bruce collaborated with guitarist Robin Trower on the album Seven Moons in 2008. Husband was also included in this film.

Can You Follow?

Bruce performed a series of live outdoor concerts around the United States beginning in July 2008 as part of the Hippiefest Tour. He was aided by members of the late Who bassist John Entwistle Band, and the John Entwistle Band was on hand to pay their respects to the bassist at a memorial concert.

In November 2008, he appeared in Birmingham, England, for Radio Broadcast with the BBC Big Band, where he performed the Big Band arrangement of his classic songs once more. At the drummer's Lifetime Achievement Award concert in London in December, he was reunited with Ginger Baker. They performed jazz classics with saxophonist Courtney Pine, and the Graham Bond-Cam classic "Traintime" was played in 40 years for the first time in 40 years.

Bruce, guitarist Vernon Reid, drummer Cindy Blackman, and organist John Medeski appeared in a string of Blue Note Club tribute concerts in Japan last month. On television in Japan, these shows were shown in high definition.

Bruce appeared in a series of concerts with Trower and Husband in Europe in 2009. Because of a second bout of ill health in the United States in April, tentative dates were postponed. During 2009, Bruce recovered and the band appeared in Italy, Norway, and the United Kingdom. This was the first video of the Seven Moons live CD and DVD recording made in February during the European leg of the tour in Nijmegen, Netherlands.

During the 2009 tour, Bruce was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Glasgow Caledonian University for contributions to Glasgow's history and music in general.

The 1983 Bruce solo album Automatic was re-released in August 2009, making his entire solo catalog available on CD. In addition, all of the discs up to and including How's Tricks contain previously unreleased content.

Bruce performed at the Ronnie Scott's Club's 50th anniversary of Ronnie Scott's Club in October 2009 with the Ronnie Scott's Blues Band.

Composing Himself: Jack Bruce's Authorized Biography by Harry Shapiro was published by Jawbone Press in February 2010. Alexis Korner, Graham Bond, and Eric Clapton had all written biographies of Bruce collaborators. (Hellraiser, 2009): The book was based on Clapton's memoirs (Clapton, 2007) and Baker's memoirs. In September 2010, Pete Brown's biography, White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns, was released by his songwriting partner. They all have differing memories of being cream, playing, and writing together.

Bruce became only the third winner of the International Bassist Award, a lifetime achievement award for bassists, after Jaco Pastorius and Nathan Watts on January 14th.

Live at the Milky Way, Amsterdam 2001, his first solo CD release in Amsterdam, starring The Cuicoland Express, his Latin-based band of the time, was released in October 2010. In February 2011, the double album was released worldwide by EMI. Bruce Scott's Blues Experience Tour in London, followed by a further ten dates with the band throughout the UK. Bruce appeared at the Royal Festival Hall in London on June 4, 2011, commemorating its 60th anniversary. Bruce performed with his Big Blues Band and special guest Joe Bonamassa in the evening to mark the blues' 50th anniversary in the United Kingdom.

Bruce began in 2012 with the Gerry Rafferty tribute concert in Glasgow, followed by a date with the traditional Celtic band Lau. A one-hour special on Bruce was also included on BBC Scotland, which also included a performance by Lau. BBC Scotland broadcast in February 2012, Jack Bruce – the Man behind the Bass. It featured new interviews with Bruce, Clapton, Baker, and Brown. On September 9, 2014 on BBC2 Scotland, and on November 17, 2014 on BBC4 in the United Kingdom, it was broadcast again.

Bruce and guitarist Phil Manzanera appeared in Havana, Cuba, on February 2012, supporting the Augusto Enriquez mambo band. The Big Blues Band, Ronnie Scott's in London, had another residency in March, followed by a UK tour. On March 18, the concert at the Stables, Milton Keynes, was supposed to be released as an Instant Live CD, but technical difficulties prevented this. Instant Live's recording of the following evenings' performance at the same venue was shot and a 2CD version was released by Instant Live.

Specta Road, a joint project between Vernon Reid, Cindy Blackman, and John Medeski in honor of The Tony Williams Lifetime, was released in June 2012 by the US jazz record label Palmetto Records and was followed by a string of dates at major jazz festivals in North America and Europe between June and July.

Bruce on the Esoteric Antenna label released Silver Rails in March 2014, his first solo studio album in over a decade. Silver Rails was shot and mixed at Abbey Road Studios in London, produced and mixed by Rob Cass, and it includes contributions from Cream lyricist, Pete Brown, Kip Hanrahan, and wife Margrit Seyffer, as well as actor Robin Trower, Helen Blackman, Eli Jon Roth, John Medeski, and Bernie Marsden. The Deluxe Version of the album included a behind-the-scenes documentary "The Making of Silver Rails," directed by Bruce's daughter Kyla Simone Bruce and shot on location at the studios and directed by Bruce's daughter Kyla Simone Bruce. Bruce's son Malcolm Bruce co-produced the album and performed guitar on several tracks, while Bruce's daughter Aruba Red appeared on "Hidden Cities" singing backing vocals.

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