Bill Bruford - Presto Vivace And Reprise By UK (Salon de la Musique, Paris 2006)

The electric guitar is only a plank, a pickup or two, and six strings, but consider the differences in the sounds people like Howe, Fripp, Belew, Holdsworth, Watanabe and Torn get out of it. The bass has even fewer strings, but Squire, Berlin, Gomez, Harries, Wetton, Hodgson and Levin all approach the instrument hearing it done differently to the other guy. When these people play, it is a measure of their creativity that the part they contribute becomes instantly a defining factor of the composition such that you can hardly imagine the piece of music without it. Elephant Talk without Belew’s elephantine wailings? Fracture without Fripp’s moto perpetuo? Roundabout without Squire’s bass clanking along? Red without Wetton’s thunderous bottom end? I don’t think so. This set of choices is what the musician brings to the table, and constitutes his or her musical identity. It’s what gets you hired if you’re in a band that wants you to express that identity. You might, of course, be working for a leader or in a band or ensemble who wants the opposite – that you sublimate it. Nothing wrong with that, but just best to know what’s wanted. Sometimes there’s guesswork involved. Try King Crimson, for example. Britain’s ‘UK’ generally wanted scoops of identity; after all, expressing the country’s identity is a national pastime. So too with the band. This video is from a drum workshop / demonstration in Paris. The music was written by violinist Eddie Jobson, fresh from working with Frank Zappa, and you can hear how the composition twists and turns in a manner similar to Zappa. These sort of karaoke demonstrations were never my favourite sort of public appearance, but sometimes you take the rough with the smooth. The only UK album I was on – the eponymous first one – was a great success that we all could sign up to, even guitarist Allan Holdsworth, the other notoriously difficult-to-please guitarist with whom I shared many dressing rooms. #drummer #billbruford #tamadrums #drumsolos #paistecymbals #jazzdrummer #UK #yes #earthworks