BILL BRUFORD

One of the most talented and technically skilled drummers in the world of prog, 1949-born English drummer Bill Bruford had a long and prolific career during the 70's with Yes and King Crimson, before joining Genesis to replace Phil Collins behind the drum kit, when he was the lead vocalist of the band in the 76' tour.In 1977 he found his own project Bruford, when he joined forces with famous keyboardist Dave Stewart, guitar virtuoso Alan Holdsworth and jazz bassist Jeff Berlin.The first Bruford album ''Feels Good to Me'', originally released in 1977 on EG Records, featured also Annette Peacock on vocals, Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn and John Goodsall on rhythm guitar.

With ''Feels Good to Me'' Bruford prooved to be not only a great drummer but an excellent composer as well, as he wrote or co-wrote all of the album's tracks.The style is a mix of fiery NATIONAL HEALTH-like Canterbury Prog and complex Jazz/Fusion with Holdsworth shining on the guitars and Stewart performing another excellent show with his work Minimoog and Polymoog synths.There is a certain charm hidden in the compositions, which turn from rhythmic Fusion to complicated Progressive Rock in a blink of an eye, highlighted by the incredible solos of Holdsworth, a man who set up an entire guitar school around his style.Stewart's keyboards are fantastic, often having this NATIONAL HEALTH lovely and andventurous vibes or simply bursting a breezy jazzy atmosphere.Little to be said about Bruford's playing, his performance is just so confident and infallible.All tracks contain well- measured material of more atmospheric moments blended with powerful interplays and solos, while Peacock's ethereal female vocals are another reason why the album is so nicely balanced.

Fantastic first release by Bruford and co., this is a great example of complex still fairly enjoyable jazzy Progressive Rock with strong Canterbury leanings.Not to be missed by all fans of trully well-crafted proggy adventures.

The 'problem' with Bill Bruford is that his playing is too rock for jazz purists, whilst at the same time too jazzy for (progressive) rock fans. This dichotomy is very apparent on Feels Good to Me.

Whilst some tracks are very much in the jazz rock/fusion vein, similar to the later Soft Machine and Brand X, others are more rock orientated. The vocals by Annette Peacock are more akin to cocktail lounge jazz , a much smoother sound than will would expect of a band featuring Bill Bruford.

Another problem for me is the meandering guitar style of Alan Holdsworth. He can veer from an almost heavy metal shredding to jazz stylings, often in the space of the same track! I find his playing difficult to listen to and this album certainly suffers as a result.

Despite some good tracks, on balance, I feel this is a 2 star album.

— First review of this album —

Is it just me, or were Bruford and Borstlap treading water when they recorded this? Compared to their first album together, a miracle of instant composition, IN TWO MINDS is lacking in excitement. The general principle is the same as before: a drummer and a pianist/keyboardist take the stage without having the faintest idea what they are going to play. All of their music evolves spontaneously. But the problem is that little actually EVOLVES in this case. I'll admit it, I'm a dedicated Bruford fan, I admire most of his jazzy material (including virtually all the Earthworks stuff), not to mention the rock bands BB formed part of, and for me there's no more enjoyable drummer in all of popular music... It pains me to admit it, but on IN TWO MINDS his music (and Borstlap's) comes dangerously close to "aimless noodling". Especially on the first half of the album, where virtually everything sounds just like a bridge between two PROPER tracks on some half-forgotten live album... (With the exception of "From the Source, We Tumble Headlong", which is a pastiche of Joseph Zawinul at his most frenetic.) On the second half (from "Duplicity" onwards) there's some improvement. Tension increases and there are moments of magical interplay between pianist and percussionist. Unfortunately, any excitement dies out soon, and there's nothing here that equals Earthworks or King Crimson at their best. Of course Bruford completists can't afford to be without this album. There will never be another drummer like Bill, so in a sense every beat he lay down was sacred. (Except, perhaps, the horrible electronic drum rolls with which he ruined "Close to the Edge" on that ABHW live album...)

Picked this up almost by accident as I was trying to find an album download that would enable me to take advantage of a 2 for £10 offer. As it turned out it was not part of the offer but I got it anyway.

The appeal here is two fold. You have a couple of the best musicians in prog and in addition you have something highly original. I suppose this could easily be filed under 'jazz' and totally forgotten but these two greats are able to rise to the challenge and create something interesting and at times quite special.Moraz is one of the most fluid players I know of while Bruford's command of rythmn and 'feel' is legendary. Words like delightfull and delicate spring to mind but also there is an intensity that is pleasing. Nothing is too forced and the semi improvisational stylings are ever so smooth. Does it get boring? Not really. They know just when to pick things up and they are not averse to pushing each other. At times its reminescent of Emerson and Palmer doing their jazz thing during the unplugged section of Welcome Back My Friends. Beyond that it is hard to draw any comparisons with any prog.

My version also includes the three 2004 bonus tracks where Bruford uses some electronic percussion and Moraz a little light use of synth (or maybe sampling). It still retains the acoustic feel avoiding anything that could be termed 'heavy' . The last 3 tracks are recorded live btw.The extra tracks brings the length to a healthy 60+ minutes. If you fancy something a bit different then could be just the ticket for you.

Drifting Toward Muzak

I should love this album. The all-star lineup includes my favorite prog key player, one of my favorite fusion guitarists, and a monster rhythm section. Alas, the date (1979) dominates this record's sound and we are left with a toothless, dated record that shows some hints at what could have been but ultimately disappoints.

In 1979, the aesthetic of music was in full transition mode. Synthesizers were changing to a computer age goofiness, production techniques were getting glossier, reverbs were getting huge. Jazz fusion in general was getting softer, more brainy, and less dangerous. ONE OF A KIND is an enormous victim of these trends. The primary victim is Dave Stewart, whose monster contributions in the Canterbury scene had a distincitve set of tones including a distorted organ sound that was nasty and organic. Here, his tones are so processed and white washed that you can barely tell it's him. Similarly, the drum and bass are occasionally effected into complete cheese. Sadly, this was a trend. Allan Holdsworth's later work is very muzaked and his mind-boggling heir apparent Shawn Lane would play almost exclusively in this defanged sound. Some of jazz's best players like Pat Metheny and Bela Fleck / Victor Wooten have records that are almost unlistenable unless you tolerate 80's elevators.

There is indeed some great playing on this record. The late tracks actually have some menace here and there. There are some nice riffs, and the musicianship is at a very high level. Holdsworth is very comfortable in his element here, maybe too much so. Bruford is solidly slippery as always. Berlin is a madman. Stewarts playing is actually quite nice, when you listen for the note choices and block out the tone.

But the fact is that tone is the first thing that leaves an impression on the listener. The timbre of a singer's voice, the sing of a guitar note. The snap of a snare. And of course the sound of a keyboard. Here it's just unpleasant. As I listen to Stewart's solo on "Travels With Myself..." with it's faux steel drum, I yearn for the nasty Khan organ.

As I'm forcing myself to listen to the album for this review, the playing does come through. But in general, I never make it through the album. The fact is that all of these players have so many examples of great playing elsewhere, in more palatable settings.

Huge disappointment.

This was Bill Bruford's first solo album released in 1977. The core of the band features Jeff Berlin on bass, Allan Holdsworth on guitar, Dave Stewart on keyboards, Annette Peacock on vocals and Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn. Neil Murray adds some extra bass and John Goodsall adds guitar to one track. I like the liner notes which were written in 1977. Here's a sample. ""Someone suggested I should get Dave Holland to play on the record", said Bill Bruford referring to the expatriate British bassist who, plucked from obscurity by Miles Davis a decade ago, is now one of the most respected forces in contemporary improvised music.The look on Bruford's face bespoke the very natural awe in which he holds Holland's musicianship and creativity". Well as most will know, Jeff Berlin ain't bad either (haha). In fact this is simply a killer lineup. After KING CRIMSON broke up Bruford played in many bands, mostly live appearances including GONG, Roy Harper, NATIONAL HEALTH and GENESIS. It's interesting that late in 1976 he got together with Rick Wakeman and John Wetton to record an album but it was canned due to the politics of the music business. In rehearsal though this trio came up with two of the songs that are featured on this debut in "Beelzebub" and "Back To The Beginning". I have to mention Annette Peacock. The lady can sing and I like the description of her voice in the liner notes. "Her voice is unsettling : it whispers, croons, cajoles, and threatens...".

"Beelzebub" is a top three for me. The drums are intricate as the sound builds just before a minute. The guitar comes in a minute later as it settles some.Excellent track. "Back To The Beginning" is another top three and it makes me wonder how good that Bruford / Wakeman / Wetton band would have been. It's mellow with flugelhorn to open then it kicks in hard before a minute with guitar. Female vocals join in.This is great ! It settles with male spoken words then the guitar solos as the bass and drums continue. It's building before 5 minutes. Nice. She's back singing a minute later. "Seems Like A Lifetime Ago (Pt. 1)" is a relaxed tune with vocals and flugelhorn.

"Seems Like A Lifetime Ago (Pt.2)" has more bite to it than part one and some good guitar too. Great sound before 3 minutes then it settles late. "Sample And Hold" is my other top three. A good beat to start as other sounds join in. An amazing instrumental. "Feels Good To Be Me" is a bright uptempo instrumental. It's more intense after 2 minutes with the guitar standing but it's too brief. "Either End Of August" is fairly laid back with flugelhorn arriving around 1 1/2 minutes. "If You Can't Stand The Heat..." is an intricate instrumental with the guitar coming in just before a minute. "Springtime In Siberia" is mellow with flugelhorn and piano. "Adios A La Pasada (Goodbye To The Past)" is a good closing number. It gets better as it plays out too. Female vocals in this one as well.

Feels like 4 stars to me.

The first album by Bill Bruford and Patrick Moraz was a welcome release. It was three years since the Bruford band had broken up, and while King Crimson was back (at the time), it was a less than powerful edition, passing off layered fingered exercises as innovative music (well, I suppose it was, in a way). Hearing Bruford in his own setting is always rewarding. And with Moraz, no slouch in his own right, along on piano, this album had to be great. And it is.

As the title says, the album is only piano and drums. No synths, no drum pads. And by nature, because of the instruments, and the musicians' inclinations, it's an album mostly of jazz. However, Moraz, with his classical training, brings a bit of classical style as well. As for Bruford, the worlds' greatest drummer is just that.

I don't really understand why this album is rated so low on this site. The performances are very good, as you would expect from these two prog veterans. My only guess is the variations in style may be off- putting to some. No matter. We all can't like everything.

Personally, I enjoy this album a bit more than Bruford and Moraz' first album, which tended to stay closer to the jazz realm. Here, Moraz adds a Kurzweil synth to his Steinway grand piano, adding more depth (and more prog) to the sound.

The first side of the LP is split between prog and jazz. Temples Of Joy, a piece from Moraz' 3rd, self titled solo album, opens the record. It is a pure symphonic prog piece. Impromptu, Too! and Flags, both with piano & synth, are also on the proggy side. Split Second and Karu are jazzier, but both fine works.

The second side is much more experimental, but even better than the first side. Machines programmed By Genes begins with spacy synth sounds, but develops into an almost hip-hop rhythm, while keeping the adventurous sound.

After a drum solo based on a Max Roach solo, the album concludes with three fusiony songs, where the synths keep the sound firmly in a prog realm.

Very nice. And very underrated.

Bruford started getting into diminishing returns on their second album - in retrospect, it might have been an idea to wait a little longer to develop more strong material before issuing another product. Half the songs sound like rejected UK pieces (particularly with the Wetton-lite vocal style adopted by Jeff Berlin on those tracks he sings on), the other half sound like Dave Stewart's National Health off-cuts (the closing track, Lands End, even includes extracts from compositions on Of Queues and Cures). Though the album starts off strong, it lacks staying power, and sounding like a collection of rejected tracks from better albums by other bands honestly doesn't help its cause. The Bruford project would dissolve after this one and I can't say that its time hadn't come and gone.

Blending the Canterbury-influenced style of Feels Good to Me with the more straight-ahead fusion of the first UK album should have resulted in a dynamite hit. However, One of a Kind is hampered from being better than merely "good" by several factors. First off, Dave Stewart's keyboards - it's not the way he plays them, which is as competent and skilled as ever, but some of the digital synths used sound horribly dated nowadays - even compared to keyboards he played on the first Egg album a decade earlier! Secondly, the production job on the album is smooth, polished, professional and inoffensive - and castrates the album just when it needs to rock the hell out, as on the should-be-foreboding closing track The Sahara of Snow. On balance, not as good as its predecessor.