Bruford, Bill / Earthworks - Earthworks CD (Mega Blowout Sale)
SKU
23-BBSF 009 CD
“Bruford was able to snag two young English jazz prodigies from the band "Loose Tubes", Iain Ballamy (saxophones), and Django Bates (keyboards and 'peck horn') to be his partners, along with Mick Hutton (bass). Ballamy and Bates, who were known for their offbeat and humorous sensibilities, co-wrote much of the music with Bruford. Bruford was just out of a stint in King Crimson, and he brings electronic drums, heavy industrial beats, and a plethora of world music flavors to "Earthworks". This is music too heavy to be called jazz; it's a hybrid, and the solos and egos are kept in good check.
Still, the music is everything you expect from good jazz. It's agile, playful, and endlessly inventive. In tunes like the opener, "Thud", and others that follow like "Up North", "My Heart Declares a Holiday", and "Emotional Shirt", the global music influences ping and pong and turn on a dime. There are hooks a-plenty and the playing is impeccable. Every track is a self-contained universe and the music always follows its own logic. It's hummable and danceable and it moves (although there is one sedate piece of reflection, Ballamy's lovely ballad "It Needn't End in Tears".)”-Peter Baklava
- LabelSummerfold
- UPC5060105491351