BFrank Posted October 16, 2003 Report Posted October 16, 2003 Just caught this little article on the web. I had no idea he was ill, let alone nearly died. I would hate to see him go. +++ Cream's Jack Bruce Recovers from Liver Transplant Thu Oct 16, 2:38 AM ET LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Scottish musician Jack Bruce (news), former bass player and vocalist with short-lived 1960s "supergroup" Cream, is recovering from a near-fatal liver transplant, his label said on Wednesday. Bruce, 60, underwent the transplant in an English hospital on Sept. 19 after being diagnosed with liver cancer during the summer, Sanctuary Records said in a statement. He almost died after his body rejected the new liver, his kidneys failed and an infection set in. "After being very critical for a period in which we almost lost him, Jack is now making a successful recovery," said the statement, attributed to Bruce's family. Bruce is best known for his two-year stint in Cream, the groundbreaking blues-rock trio he formed in 1966 with guitarist Eric Clapton (news) and drummer Ginger Baker (news). With lyricist Pete Brown, Bruce co-wrote such hit singles as "I Feel Free" and "White Room." Tension within the group contributed to its demise in 1968, after three studio albums and a farewell concert at London's Royal Albert Hall. Bruce continued to record and tour, and he reunited with Clapton and Baker in 1993 to play three songs at Cream's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Quote
mikeweil Posted October 19, 2003 Report Posted October 19, 2003 My very critical views on organ transplants aside, I send him my best wishes for recovery. Any news about his state? A real rock giant, IMO, and much more important than most in the business, underrated for sure. Real rock power without gimmicks. Saw his birthday celebration concert on TV, this guy has class! Quote
kinuta Posted October 19, 2003 Report Posted October 19, 2003 (edited) Get well soon Jack. I once spent an hour chatting with him in the students union bar at Sheffield University. He is a real music fan besides being a great bassist. I've seen him over the years in a variety of bands but first noticed him playing acoustic bass with the Graham Bond Quartet, with consisted of Bond on hammond and alto, Phil Seaman on drums and John McLaughlin on guitar. Quite a band. Edited October 19, 2003 by kinuta Quote
mikeweil Posted October 19, 2003 Report Posted October 19, 2003 ... Graham Bond Quartet, with consisted of Bond on hammond and alto, Phil Seaman on drums and John McLaughlin on guitar. Quite a band. I don't get it that Universal didn't reissue some of this stuff on CD at the occasion of his 60'th birthday .... Quote
BFrank Posted October 20, 2003 Author Report Posted October 20, 2003 I don't get that most of his early solo albums have recently been remastered with extra tracks and released in England, but not here in the US. Quote
kinuta Posted October 20, 2003 Report Posted October 20, 2003 I don't think the Graham Bond Quartet , in the McLaughlin/Baker/Seaman form recorded anything. The following band, the Graham Bond Organization does have a couple of cds available, if you can find them. The line up was-Bond-hammond and alto, Jack-electric bass, Dick Heckstall Smith-tenor and Ginger Baker on drums. Jack and Ginger later left the band to form Cream with Clapton. One of the cds was called ' There's A Bond Between Us' but I can't remember the other title right now. Quote
Tom Storer Posted October 20, 2003 Report Posted October 20, 2003 My very critical views on organ transplants aside Is it the very idea of organ transplants you criticize, or something about the way it's done? Quote
GA Russell Posted October 20, 2003 Report Posted October 20, 2003 Not to nitpick, but... My recollection is that Bruce joined Cream from his stint with Manfred Mann. He is the bass player on Pretty Flamingo, and about half the tracks of that album. Quote
mikeweil Posted October 20, 2003 Report Posted October 20, 2003 My very critical views on organ transplants aside Is it the very idea of organ transplants you criticize, or something about the way it's done? It is the idea itself I criticize. I'd rather accept the failure of an organ and death as a consequence than ask for a part of another human being's body, no matter if he died of an accident or donated - I cannot separate an organ from the whole person, see them as inseparable. Illegal organ trade as a possible consequence of the possibility is another ting. Basically I think we need not do everything we can do, technically, medicinally, musically .... Quote
BFrank Posted March 29, 2004 Author Report Posted March 29, 2004 Well, he seems to be doing OK. "Jack's health continues to improve after his successful liver transplant surgery. To receive so many kind wishes has helped Jack greatly with his recovery." Today I picked up an album called "The Jack Bruce Band Live '75". This is from a version of his group that apparently only lasted a few months and up until recently there were no known recordings of them. Fortunately, this concert showed up and it's really very good. They mostly play tunes from "Out of the Storm" and "Harmony Row", which is fairly unusual. The band is Bruce, Mick Taylor, Carla Bley, Ronny Leahy (kbds) and Bruce Gary. Too bad they didn't last longer. This is a surprisingly strong set. Here's AMG's take: Live '75 Quote
Pete C Posted March 29, 2004 Report Posted March 29, 2004 I for one am glad that Jack does not feel as mikeweil does. I think Bruce is one of the truly great voices of rock. Carla Bley & Michael Mantler used that voice in interesting ways too. Quote
king ubu Posted March 29, 2004 Report Posted March 29, 2004 ... Illegal organ trade as a possible consequence of the possibility is another ting. Basically I think we need not do everything we can do, technically, medicinally, musically .... Let's hope this problem gets smaller after May 1st! But it probably won't, as Ukraine, Turkey etc. still won't be part of the EU. ubu Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted March 29, 2004 Report Posted March 29, 2004 Today I picked up an album called "The Jack Bruce Band Live '75". This is from a version of his group that apparently only lasted a few months and up until recently there were no known recordings of them. Fortunately, this concert showed up and it's really very good. They mostly play tunes from "Out of the Storm" and "Harmony Row", which is fairly unusual. The band is Bruce, Mick Taylor, Carla Bley, Ronny Leahy (kbds) and Bruce Gary. Too bad they didn't last longer. This is a surprisingly strong set. Here's AMG's take: Live '75 I saw that band at a concert at the Crystal Palace Bowl in London that Summer...a sort of Lilliputian version of the Lost Angeles Bowl! Great concert from what I recall. Steeleye Span too. And Steve Harley who I didn't much care for! Quote
7/4 Posted October 25, 2014 Report Posted October 25, 2014 (edited) His web site announcing his death: RIP, what an amazing talent. Edited October 25, 2014 by 7/4 Quote
medjuck Posted October 25, 2014 Report Posted October 25, 2014 (edited) RIP I saw him playing acoustic bass with the Mike Gibbs band in Hampstead many years ago (though after his stint with Cream). I have a vague memory of his once being in a band with Carla Bley and Mick Taylor. Edited October 26, 2014 by medjuck Quote
clifford_thornton Posted October 25, 2014 Report Posted October 25, 2014 Such sad news - I really loved his music (and still do). Quote
mjzee Posted October 25, 2014 Report Posted October 25, 2014 RIP. A giant in the music; I can't imagine how many listeners he brought along to jazz. Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted October 25, 2014 Report Posted October 25, 2014 RIP Can't say I followed him beyond the 70s but Cream, those solo albums and his contribution to Escalator Over The Hill and some of the Mike Mantler records mean he gets played here regularly. Fascinating pre-Cream career too. Quote
Steve Reynolds Posted October 25, 2014 Report Posted October 25, 2014 RIP to *the* first great rock bassist First real improvisor I listened to on the instrument Deserted Cities of the Heart RIP, sir Quote
clifford_thornton Posted October 25, 2014 Report Posted October 25, 2014 RIP. A giant in the music; I can't imagine how many listeners he brought along to jazz. jazz brought me to him, actually. But yeah, what a big loss. Quote
Shawn Posted October 25, 2014 Report Posted October 25, 2014 He was also a master of ripping heavy rock.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZL32LAtVVA Quote
ep1str0phy Posted October 25, 2014 Report Posted October 25, 2014 (edited) I'm in mild shock, in part because I hadn't (in some time) evaluated precisely how much Jack's music meant to me. Nothing in the continuity of my career or the development of my musicianship within the realm of jazz would have happened had it not been for Jack and Cream. I recall Bruce referring to Clapton as "sort of our Ornette Coleman," referring to the nature of Creams rhythm section/frontline dynamic, and things took off from there. When I took the leap and found myself engrossed by the likes of Messrs. Coleman, Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Sharrock, and so on, I continued listening to Bruce's music--everything he did under his own name had a sort of weird creative purity that is more akin to, naturally, a jazz musician than a jobbing pop musician. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLtrg-3ahrUSongs for a Tailor and Harmony Row are still two of my favorite albums, and they most certainly rank among the more ambitious works by musicians emanating from the continuum of 60's blues rock. On a different level, they are baldly uncategorizable; like the greatest works of the Beatles, The Beach Boys, Dylan, Hendrix, etc. etc., these two albums simultaneously define the artist and transcend the milieu of the music. Tailor and Row have shades of Graham Bond-ian R&B, Who-influenced pop chaos, listless 70's singer-songwriterisms, angular proto-prog/fusion, florid, mock-operatic gestures ("Morning Story" on Harmony Row is a favorite), and, of course, shades of the aggressive free jazz that Bruce would often intersect with (the insane Chris Spedding/Jon Hiseman/Bruce freakout at the end of "To Isengard" is one of the earliest and most fully realized integrations of free music and power trio dynamics on record). Even if these two albums are the most iconic, I'm still astounded by how creatively focused Bruce's discography is. He essayed an important document in British freebop with Things We Like (drawing from a cast of Colosseum members + a still nascent John McLaughlin), and collaborated with both Dick Heckstall-Smith and John Stevens (of SME fame) on a later, deeply abstract album of songs and improvisations (This That). Bruce's work with Tony Williams's Lifetime (very scarce on record, though Bill Laswell's recreation of Turn It Over gives us a better picture of his Cream-inflected contributions), Michael Mantler (on the amazing No Answer, Don Cherry in tow), and Carla Bley comprises some of the most vital and valuable crossover work by someone ostensibly regarded as a "rock" artist. Bruce's own contributions to Cream, West, Bruce, and Laing, and his remarkable post-80's body of work--the piano/organ duo Monkjack, the truly strange "comeback" album Somethin Els, and the later victory Shadows in the Air--were diverse and never less than deeply committed. Although he often revisited the now well-trodden well of Cream-y blues rock, the bulk of his discography now reads like something more akin to a Canterbury artist's--seemingly dissatisfied with a career retreading his most popular work, Bruce has left us with one of the richest back catalogs among pop musicians of his generation. On a personal level, the fact that I haven’t deeply engaged with this music for some time serves as a bit of a reminder that Bruce’s very individual and dedicated evasion of genre conventions is something I’ve seen very much inherited by later scads of enterprising songwriters. I’ll always remember catching the Shadows in the Air band in person, standing right in front of Bruce and close to Bernie Worrell and Vernon Reid--I was still pretty young then, and he spent the concert playing not to the fans calling for “Fat Gut” (a Bruce/Trower tune), not to the women who were literally hurling $20 bills at Vernon Reid with requests for “White Room” (Reid took this in stride), but to my sister and me, marveling at his still dextrous bass playing, engrossed by music made by the sort of artist/warrior that I can still admire and appreciate as a much older and much more cynical professional. Thinking of Bruce keeps me optimistic, and I imagine that there are great works from those still “to come” that will bear the mark of Bruce’s strange but bold legacy. Edited October 25, 2014 by ep1str0phy Quote
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