Jack Bruce

Albums

• Shadows in the Air
  
  Released: 2001
  Songs: 15
  Genre: Jazz-Rock
  

Biography

Jack Bruce was born on 14 May 1943 in Glasgow, Scotland. His parents,who were both musicials, travelled all the time, as a result of which he attended more than 14 schools, finishing up at Bellahouston Academy. From there he won a scholarship to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, studying cello and composition, but left at the age of 17 because he thought he knew better than the professors teaching him. But soon he left college because academy disapproved of its students playing jazz.

While he was travelling to Italy and England, he played bass in a succession of jazz and dance bands. In 1962, he joined Alexis Korner’s Blues Inc. At the time, Charlie Watts (you know him from the legendart group Rolling Stones) was the drummer. In 1963, Jack left to form his own band with guitarist John McLaughlin, organist Graham Bond and drummer Ginger Baker. Finally named the Graham Bond Organisation, Jack was compelled to leave after 3 years at the insistence of Ginger Baker, who complained that his bass playing was 'too busy'. At this time, Bruce switched from double bass to electric bass.

After that leaving , Bruce then joined the John Mayall Bluesbreakers group, which featured Eric Clapton, but later had his first business success with Manfred Mann in 1966. When interviewed on the episode of the television show, Classic Albums, which featured Disraeli Gears, Mayall stated that Bruce had been lured away by the lucrative commercial success of Manfred Mann. Mann mused about having had someone of such talent playing bass for the group, and reminisced that Bruce would attend the recording sessions without having rehearsed but would play the songs straight through without error, opining that perhaps the chord changes seemed so obvious to Bruce.

In July 1966 Bruce moved on to his most famous role as bass player, main songwriter and lead vocalist with Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton in the power trio Cream, considered the first super group. While with Cream, Bruce changed his electric bass for a Gibson EB-3. He wrote most of Cream's original material, with lyricist Pete Brown, including, "Sunshine of Your Love", which they co-wrote with Clapton, "White Room", "Politician", and "I Feel Free". Bruce also wrote a number of compositions by himself, including "N.S.U." and "We're Going Wrong".

After Cream split up in November 1968, he began recording solo works, including Songs For A Tailor. In the suceeding years, Jack joined or fronted several bands including Lifetime (with John McLaughlin, Tony Williams, and Larry Young), West, Bruce & Laing (with Leslie West and Corky Laing) and Baker Bruce & Moore (with Ginger Baker and Gary Moore). Jack would occasionally accept session work for artists like Lou Reed (Berlin) and Frank Zappa (Apostrophe). He continues to tour as a solo act. In 1997 and 1998 he joined Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band where he worked with Gary Brooker, Peter Frampton, Todd Rundgren, Dave Edmunds and others.

In 1992, Eric joined Jack in the studio. The session resulted in two tracks, “Willpower” and “Ships In the Night”. They can be found on Jack’s 1992 solo album Something Else as well as his career retrospective, Willpower. In 2001, they re-recorded “White Room” and “Sunshine Of Your Love” from their Cream-days for Jack’s album, Shadows In The Air.

Composer, singer, multi-instrumentalist, Jack Bruce's free-spirited approach to both writing and performing changed the face of electric music forever and paved the yellow brick heavy metal way for bands like Led Zeppelin to follow. His freewheeling, improvisational style on the electric bass entirely redefined the use of the instrument and influenced the playing of a whole new generation of bassists, from Sting to Jaco Pastorius.