Wandering around the Internet (as one does), I discovered yesterday that Bill Bruford and his eponymous group from 1979 have a dvd of one of their concerts about to be released. More details are available here . The dvd will be signed by all the participants (Annette Peacock - vocals; Alan Holdsworth - guitar; Dave Stewart - keyboards; Jeff Berlin - bass; Bill Bruford - drums, percussion), and is limited to 500 copies. When I ordered my copy, there were 172 left; checking the page today, I see that only 53 copies are left, so obviously the word is getting around.
I bought their "Feels good to me" album whilst on a trip to Britain in 1982 and very much liked most of the album. The tracks which I didn't like so much are the speedy vibraphone tunes of Bruford, like "Beelzebub" and "Sample and hold"; naturally these are on the dvd. I preferred the slower, dreamier tracks which of course aren't necessarily good concert material. On most of my preferred tracks, Kenny Wheeler played flugelhorn, adding a lovely tone to an exciting base. Wheeler doesn't appear on the dvd, which is probably why the selection is what it is. Incidentally, anybody who wants a transcription of the metrically diverse "Either end of summer" can find it here, along with transcriptions of "Beelzebub" and "Hells Bells".
At the time, I was in mail contact with Dave Stewart, mainly because of his work with Hatfield and then National Health. Since his excellent "Spin" from 1991, he's completely disappeared off the radar, although he was involved with the "new" Hatfield disc from about two years ago which contained live performances from 1973/4. His website hasn't been updated for a long time, and I always wonder what such a talented musician and performer is doing these days to make a living. Hopefully it's not by giving piano lessons (not that this is such a bad thing, but Dave deserves more). It's almost certainly not from royalties.
I have just checked that site's visitors book, and people are still posting entries (the latest is from three days ago), saying how wonderful DS was and why has it been so long since "Spin". DS himself replies to one query (dated 7 April 2006), but limits himself to explaining a "C major 7 over D bass" chord (wouldn't that be an inversion of CMaj9? I like playing such a chord, but with the D on top, not at the bottom). It's fascinating reading that address book - plenty of people write and say how wonderful the music was from the 70s (I quite agree) - but not a peep from Dave himself.
Other than this, not much has been happening in my neck of the woods. It's still very hot and I come home very tired each day from work, even though I haven't necessarily been doing very much.
No comments:
Post a Comment