Latest News from Bill Bruford, Earthworks, and The Bruford-Borstlap Duo
All About Jazz is featuring a lead track from the Lockett / Bruford CD 'One' for free download here.
Good news for all our Italian friends who've been asking about an Italian language edition of Bill's autobiography - such a thing is now available here and in all good Italian bookshops. It was published (with different cover) on February 25th.
Bill will be addressing the York University (UK) Music Department on Wednesday March 17th, and attending a concert of music by Stravinsky and Elgar by the University Symphony Orchestra afterwards.
Look out for a brand spanking-new fresh website soon. Currently under construction by leading design agency Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw Limited of London, it will replace the one you're looking at. As you can tell, our much-loved existing site is creaking a bit under a decade's worth of content additions, and is beginning to look its age!
For all you gamers out there, 'Footloose and Fancy Free' - a long-standing favourite track from Earthworks - has been accepted by Microsoft's servers and will officially be a launch track on the soon to be released on the Rock Band Network. The track has been announced on the official Rock Band forums. If you want to follow the thread, it is located here. There is also a video showing off the gameplay here.
New release from Summerfold: Pete Lockett's Network of Sparks featuring Bill Bruford : 'One' . BBSF 024CD available January 25th 2010. Pete Lockett is one of the world's leading multi-percussionists. An authority on Indian percussion and an expert on tablas, kanjira, and bongos, he has played and recorded with countless artists including Björk, Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, Jeff Beck, David Torn, Vikku Vinayakram, Selva Ganesh, Ustad Zakir Hussain, The Verve, Steve Smith, Nitin Sawhney, Afro Celt Sound System, the BBC Concert Orchestra, and David Arnold for the James Bond movies. 'One' has been out of print for several years, and Summerfold Records is delighted to bring it back to its rightful prominence as one of the earliest and best percussion quintet albums, joining The New Percussion Group of Amsterdam and The World Percussion Ensemble, also on the label. More here.
Free Video and Audio downloads available from All About Jazz!
If you're new to Bill's material, you may like to get started with a free downloadable podcast, like this one from Voiceprint Web Radio at iTunes
The signed, limited edition, 180gm vinyl Winterfold re-issues of 4 classic Bruford LPs are now available here. The albums are Feels Good to Me, Gradually Going Tornado, One of a Kind, and Rock Goes to College. Please note there are only 100 SIGNED COPIES of each so don't hesitate if you're of a mind to snag one of these long out of print albums.
Unsigned copies are available here..
Please be advised Bill has no profile on Facebook. Any profile you may see is bogus.
Contribute to our rolling Guestbook at the Forum, and you may get a personal response from Bill in his Blog.
The joy of being footloose & fancy free Posted by Sid; Monday, 8th March, 2010 The recent appearance of the Earthworks’ track, Footloose and Fancy Free on Rock Band Network initially caused a few raised eyebrows in a “but jazz isn’t rock!” kind of way. However, it seems the track has been very popular with users of RBN and I particularly liked this comment from one of the RBN forums. “I am by no means a huge fan of jazz but Bill Bruford's Earthworks might change that. I haven't had a better time playing RB than Footloose and Fancy Free.” Click here to take a peek.
Bill was recently giving a talk on creativity at the offices of Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw. New Age Media - the digital marketing industry ‘bible’ - was on hand to cover the event. Bill apparently also shared his favourite drummer joke: a drummer, tired of being ridiculed by his peers, decides to learn how to play some ‘real’ musical instruments. He walks into a music store and says to the salesman, “I’ll take that red trumpet and that accordion.” The salesman looks at him a bit funny and replies, “Okay, you can have the fire extinguisher but the radiator has to stay.” You can read the account in the online version of NMA.
Earthworks alumni Tim Garland (saxophones) and Django Bates (keyboards, peck horn) seen together above with Bill at the 'Music Learning Live 2010 Conference' in Manchester U.K., recently. Django was presenting the music to his 'Interval Song' to a room full of educationalists, Tim played the previous night with the Storms / Nocturnes Trio, and Bill was in attendance on two Q & A panel discussions. Tim and Django were not in Earthworks at the same time, so it's unusual to get a shot of the co-founder Django with last-man-standing Tim.
Finally, Bill’s talk to students in Newcastle last year is the subject of this glowing report.