Bill Bruford's Earthworks

[Erik Mandaville]

Thought I'd mention a great contemporary jazz album from one of the former drummers of YES, Genesis, and King Crimson.

This is Bill Bruford's Earthworks: A part and yet apart. Outstanding recording, and great music. I'm sure some of you may have heard of this or perhaps own it, but IMO very good. As always, Bruford stitches and rivets the fabric of notes together with incredible precision and unexpected time signatures. I have my system set up where one can switch between two channel (Moth and my own quad 6SN7 preamp) and multi-channel mode with the Lexicon and other amps and speakers. It's fun to listen to stereo once in awhile, and this album is particularly good sounding in stereo.

Erik

[Duke Spinner]

new pix ...where's yer suit, and tie .......???

saaay, looks like you've gained a bit'o weight, too .....

[Erik Mandaville]

Mr. Spinner:

"new pix ...where's yer suit, and tie .......???

saaay, looks like you've gained a bit'o weight, too ....."

Is there something you would like to say? The statement above seems rather incomplete.

Erik

[bkrop]

Welcome back, don't stay away so long!

[Born2RockU]

I have always missed Erik !

Erik,

You don't know how happy I am to see you posting again.

~ Welcome back.

( ps- I bought a Jolida JD 100a Tube cd player w/ the Performance Mod 1 upgrade today... to go w/ my new VRD's ! )

[Bonzo]

Hey Erik, thanks for the info., Bruford is in my top 10 of favorite drummers. I will surely ad that to the collection!

Oh, Alan White can't carry his sticks!!!

Cheers

[RichardP]

Thought I'd mention a great contemporary jazz album from one of the former drummers of YES, Genesis, and King Crimson.

:

Erik

Erik: I have always liked Bill Bruford too, but have not heard Earthworks. Can you tell me what type of jazz it is, what other jazz artists do they sound like, etc.? I'd like to know a bit before I buy it. Thanks.

[AndyKubicki]

Hi Erik and all!

I love ANYTHING that da Bruf has touched musically. Not that this has

much of Bruf in it, only a little bit on one cut, but if you like

female vox, check out Voices of life. It was produced by Eddie Jobson.

It's all choir music sung by the Bulgarian Women's Choir. My fav two

cuts are Utopia (not to be confused with Utopian Heights, a tune I

wrote, hehe) which features the choir with Tony Levin's Stick playing

aand Jobson on electric violin, and Zavesata Pada, also by Jobson with

a haunting refrain-beuatiful, especially on the Horns! The rest is

mainly Bulgarian Classical music.

http://www.bulgarianwomenschoir.com/

edit: The above link seems to end, try this

http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Voices%20of%20Life:1921477711;_ylt=AiY2AM3PY41veI3SRvZmc.VUvQcF;_ylu=X3oDMTBzZTVhM3RqBF9zAzk1OTUxMTEzBGx0AzQEc2VjA2FydHByb2Q-

[J M O N]

Erik: Glad to see you back. Hope you stick around. We need more people like you around here.

[AndyKubicki]

Hey Richard, just go to http://www.billbruford.com/bill/audio.html and

sample more than just one album, well, parts of albums anyway...

[Duke Spinner]

Mr. Spinner:

"new pix ...where's yer suit, and tie .......???

saaay, looks like you've gained a bit'o weight, too ....."

Is there something you would like to say? The statement above seems rather incomplete.

Erik

i was comparing this avatar ...to your previous one .....[]

[dubai2000]

Hi, Erik

good to see you posting again.....you have indeed been missed [<)].

Wolfram

[Erik Mandaville]

Spinner:

That's clear. You will have to pardon me -- I'm pretty slow on the uptake sometimes!

Just briefly: I guess I just needed some time off from this place to sort of put some things into better perspective. I've also done some work on my electronics, mainly to get the Moth amp working as well as it might with the Lexicon processor. I think I've achieved that, but the amp is a 'Moth' only in terms of its 'house' (I'm referring to the chassis). The power supply and input and output stages were completely rebuilt and fine-tuned by listening. In terms of the math things work out fine, but the only test equipment I have are my ears and my system -- especially headphones, which have enabled me to sort of put the thing under a microscope. The Teac has been flawless, almost to a fault! But it also provided some of the very best sound we've had here. However, it did help confirm the fact that I will never be able to just leave things alone. I have another idea for the Moth, for example, but enough is enough -- at least for the next couple of weeks! IOW, every speaker in the system is connected, by way of an output transformer, to a 2A3 triode (AVVT Meshplates/KR Enterprise/NOS RCA -- thanks again Wolfram!). Poor speakers, right?[]

Andy: I have to check out that info. you included. Jobson was awesome with U.K., and I am interested in getting that music. These guys show up in curious places! Craig/Born2 -- hey, Craig -- of course knows all about this! I actually preferred Bruford with U.K. than Bozzio, although I think that might have just been because I like Bruford's style better for the music. Terry Bozzio is a REALLY good drummer, who can do more things with two feet than lots of drummer can with feet and arms combined. Craig/Born2 played an album for me by Jordan Rudess (or is it 'Rodiss' -- how is that spelled, Craig?), and Bozzio is incredible, as is the whole album.

So, I'm off for a bit-o-soldering. I'm going to bypass the volume control on one of the three inputs on the Moth, so that it can be used strictly as a power amp for surround-sound mode. The potentiometer on it is not the best. It was an old one I grabbed out of my parts bin when the wiper lifted off, during play, of the supposedly better-quality one I got. Ouch!!! It's one reason to stop using those carbon strip pots, and go for fixed resistors in a switch. I've asked Santa for the stepped attenuator kit from Transcendent sound. Very well made, good price, fun to build.

Take it easy,

Erik

[Born2RockU]

Erik,
You were correct on Jordan's last name spelling, ...it is indeed Rudess.
He is the keyboard player for the famous Prog Rock band...Dream Theater.
Bozzio did an incredible job on this one. Rudess just put out another cd
that follows up that cd I played for you.

Here are some links for ya, if ya haven't been keepin' up on Jordan's releases :

http://www.jordanrudess.com/home.shtml

Feeding the Wheel - CD

Jordan's most aggressive solo project to date! Take a journey
to intense new worlds of musical expression. Join Jordan on a magical
journey of a radical emotional and progressive adventure!

Special guests include Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa, Missing Persons),
Mark Wood, John Petrucci (Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment) and
Steve Morse (Dregs, Deep Purple).

Track Listing:
Click on the linked song titles to hear an MP3 clip of the song
1. The Voice (Intro)
2. Quantum Soup
3. Shifting Sands
4. Dreaming in Titanium
5. Ucan Icon
6. Center of the Sphere
7. Crack the Meter
8. Headspace
9. Revolving Door
10. Interstices
11. Feed the Wheel

Jordan Rudess - Rhythm of Time

Jordans newest solo rock album
release featuring guitarists Joe Satriani,
Steve Morse, Greg Howe and Vinnie Moore
as well as drummer, Rod Morgenstein and
other guest artists.

[Erik Mandaville]

Craig:

Those look interesting! thanks for the lead on that.

Erik

[Born2RockU]

I am really loving "progressive" music.

It's aggressive but not sloppy ; snappy rhythms with great chord progressions.

Ya can't go wrong w/ Rudess.

[Erik Mandaville]

BKrop: Thanks for the welcome back -- I appreciate that!

Richard: I'm sorry I didn't respond to your question. Earthworks is really a sort of mix of very progressive/modern jazz, with moments of fairly traditional sounding swing thrown in here and there for contrast. Bruford is a very versatile drummer, and he seems to be able to play anything -- very well. I can say that the money on any of the Earthworks stuff would be well spent. Moreover, the recording is exceptional, I think.

It's fun, very lively and energetic music. Just lots of fun, with great musicianship. I've got some other recent work of his if you're interested. One is an album he did with 12-string virtuoso, Ralph Towner. Amazing stuff. I think you might like Ralph Towner without Bruford. I still have all his former albums carefully stored in our vinyl collection. Speaking of which, I'm in the process of building a dedicated two-channel vinyl listening area in my workroom. It's an attic build-out I did for myself a couple of years ago, and has plenty of space for my Lowther horns, probably a pair of 45 monoblock tube amps, and a tubed phone stage (if I can get it quiet enough!) If not, I'll buy a quiet SS one! There just isn't too much more I can think to do to the main rig to improve it, so working on another system for analog only playback will be a blast. I've got lots of Bruford's work on records, too.

Erik

This new forum format is great!!!

[RichardP]

Thanks Erik. I only know BB from Yes and KC, but from that knew that he was not your run-of-the-mill muscle-head drummer. I asked about the style of jazz, because I have been burned in the past when a non-jazz artist ventures into the jazz domain; many end up with those syrupy styles/selections of "jazz" that sound more or less like KennyG [:'(]

[AndyKubicki]

Thanks Erik. I only know BB from Yes and KC, but

from that knew that he was not your run-of-the-mill muscle-head

drummer. I asked about the style of jazz, because I have been burned in

the past when a non-jazz artist ventures into the jazz domain; many end

up with those syrupy styles/selections of "jazz" that sound more

or less like KennyG [:'(]

If you heard Bruf being interviewed, you would hear him talking about

how as a kid, he listened to guys like Joe Morello (sp?), drummer for

Dave Brubeck. He talks about Earthworks and jazz as a return to his

roots. Hard to believe watching him play with KC, eh?

His earlier Earthworks days had more electronic equipment, like hitting

a pad and a chord would play...very creative stuff. His music will

definately take you places musically. Go back even further if you like

kindof a jazz-rock-fusion mix where he plays with Jeff Berlin (a very

hot bass player), Dave Stewart (hot keyboard player). Check out One of

a Kind, or Gradually Going Tornado on that link I gave. That's another

flavor of Bruf.

One of the best prog albums was UK. Saddly, there was only one with

Bruf and Holdsworth, though the other UK album, Danger Money is also

quite good, but the absence of Holdsworth is evident. Bozzio was quite

good there.

Happy listening!

[Erik Mandaville]

Andy:

Thanks for mentioning that other work; those are the albums I was thinking about. I really liked Holdsworth's work, as well. I went to clinic/demo Bruford did here for Simmons Drums (think I've got that spelled right), and he was playing an enormous, all electronic kit -- cymbal triggers, high-hat, everything. Maybe the snare was acoustic....can't remember now. I went to the advertisement (which is really what it was) hoping he would talk about some of the things Andy mentioned from other interviews, but there was nothing like that. He played very well, though, and that was fun to watch.

Richard: I know what you are saying about Kenny G. and syrupy 'jazz.' I also don't thing his music really qualifies the jazz classification, but I suppose that ascription is partly the result of a lack of a better way to categorize it. Bruford's Earthworks is nothing like that. I don't have a single album of Mr. G, although I have everything Pat Metheny has done. Eberhard Weber is another long-time favorite contemporary jazz composer for me.

Erik