Bill Bruford's Earthworks - Bajo Del Sol (Live In Santiago, Chile 2002)
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2023
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This is from a great 2002 date in Santiago de Chile. Tim Garland wrote the song and is featured on bass clarinet, with Mark Hodgson on bass, Steve Hamilton on piano, and myself on traps. ‘Traps’ by the way is a diminutive of ‘contraptions’ which is probably what other musicians in the Vaudeville and Music Hall era of the early 20th century thought the guy with the sticks at the back of the ensemble was playing. Clanging cymbals, Chinese tom toms, blocks, bells, whistles, ratchets, thunder sheets and other contraptions were all part of his ever-changing traps set.
This video Bajo del Sol has a strong Spanish flavour, reminiscent of something pianist Chick Corea might have written. Jazz has always been a messy fusion of this with that, and has probably survived this long precisely because of its ability to absorb, appropriate and morph into something like something else, but not exactly. How I’m coming to resent the 20th century hangover of the terms jazz and rock; two of the principal music genres of that era, both now so devalued as to be more of a hindrance than a help.
But I needn’t worry. Now that the birth, meaningful existence, and ultimate demise of a genre has been sped up to warp speed, the concept is effectively redundant. Younger listeners tend to show little interest in them, and probably don’t recognise the word. Good for them. They’re too busy “relating to the singer and the song, not the era the music is associated with” as Gen Z singer Laufey succinctly puts it.
What’s a genre anyway? Usually, a bunch of musicians play something (they think) they have invented. Internally they give it a name - rock and roll, or perhaps rhythm and blues - which after a few years becomes further confirmed by outsiders. The name sticks, and the thing turns into a genre, or maybe a straight-jacket, depending on your point of view.
A genre is, or used to be, a whole body of similar music; its compositions, analysis, and performance traditions. It was a collective operation, and back in the day, you tinkered with genres at your peril. In the England of my youth in the 1960s everything was a sub-genre of ‘rock’ (previously rock and roll): blues rock, folk rock, heavy rock, psychedelia and, eventually, progressive rock and glam rock. As each new sub-genre gave way to the incoming one, there was blood on the floor. The ‘authentic’ blues-rockers didn’t much like the incoming progressives tinkering with the three-chords-and-a-backbeat formula.
Genre is continually reconstructed retrospectively, arising from the memory and overlapping experiences of individual performances or texts. After a few generations, (now a year or two), the named genre acquires an entirely different meaning. Rhythm and Blues now has little in it that Robert Johnson might recognise. Jazz, at the intersection of (triple / triplet) swing and (duple / straight eighth note) groove, bumps into House and Hip-Hop going the other way. This is the great space that drummer-thinkers like JoJo Mayer and Mark Guiliana occupy. They can play any genre but choose not to; they’re too busy trying to find a fresh, post-computer space in which they can feel comfortable. They’ve played with, without and against machine and/or computer-generated rhythm for decades. For sure, their new space will emerge from interaction with - and have large slugs of improvisation with - fellow global-music travellers.
Genres used to be heavily contested by performers and listeners alike; now, less so. Rock and its sub-genres now seem so hopelessly old-fashioned, as does jazz and its offshoots. I tend to describe myself as ‘near-jazz’ until my interlocutor wrinkles up her nose as if encountering a bad smell, at which point I usually shift to ‘near-rock’. Anything to avoid the expectations that are inevitably attached to any genre. If only we could get the audience to leave its expectations in the lobby. Lord knows, King Crimson tried.
#billbruford #earthworks #paistecymbals #drummer #electronicdrumkit #kingcrimson #musicimprovisation #tamadrums #drumsolos #jazzdrummer
I look forward to reading Bill's thoughts that accompany each video almost as much as the video itself....
Bill. I say this after over 50 years of listening to you and also emulating many elements of your music over the years on the 8 or so instruments that I play. Please come back and show the rest of the world one more time who was and is the most diverse, amazing drummer of all time. I have held this opinion for 50 years and will probably never change.
Mr. Percusión. De lo mejor que ha dado el progresivo y lo experimental .
I was there in the front row, the only chance i had to see bill performing live, the best concert i attended and of course a plasure to see your drum hero perform live.
Hello handsome, how are you doing?
Thank you for this post! Small wonder BB has been my favorite drummer for 50+ years.
M A G N I F I Q U E !
I love so much.
Bravo !!!
Phil from Dunkirk
So grateful to you for posting these videos, Bill...as a longtime fan of all your different projects, I enjoy these drips down a very virtuosic memory lane!
WOW this is fantastic. Thanks for sharing Bill!
🧯 This is on fire man,,, absolutely groovin
Love that drum solo. The opening doesn't even sound like a solo, more like you're just picking up where the tune left off before the brief pause.
I've been so into Bill throughout his career I feel like I know him personally. I guess that's my admiration shining through.
Hello 👋 handsome, how are you doing?
@@sarahwilliams6058
Good Sarah!
How are you doing
sweetheart?
@@bAgRiMoIrEsS.4 I’m doing great! Where are you from?
Hi!! It’s been a while now
Magical.
Hello dear! How are you doing?
Great video.
Gran versatilidad del maestro bruford, saludos desde Perú.
Bill at his best! 🥁
Hello gorgeous, how are you doing?
Seems any genre or variations/permutations i.e. sub-genres have a shelf life; they all seem to hold a resonant frequency which sounds and feels fresh upon its introduction, only to subtlety fade and wane within a window of linear time and space. They all eventually seem to lose a bit of steam after their initial impact, until maybe a new cross pollination/undiscovered hybrid is found and introduced to create a new sub genre with elements of the collective time tested sub genres it derives from.
This is great. Thank you so much!
Hello Kenny, how are you doing?
@@sarahwilliams6058 I have some health problems but I feel great!
@@kenneyk5260that’s great to be great! If you’d allow me to take care of you
Where are you from?
He certainly is one of Top 5 Drumers because he never gets stucked to tiny adictions, sort of speak. He always have been openmind.
I was there
👍👍👍
😊 ✨
Hello honey, how are you doing?
@@moonman6199 all of me is new
Where are you from?
@@moonman6199 hey honey! Hope you’re feeling good?
@@moonman6199 where else can we text I’d like to get to know you better
What you saying?
What’s that cymbal on your far right?
Is Mark Hodgson, Roger Hodgson's son? If so, that's awfully good company he's keeping.
Besides the intro- endless noodling- it’s a Jazz I can do without
Hello gorgeous, how are you doing?
Can't be "endless", can it? 🤣
What’s that cymbal on your far right?
It's a 20″ Traditional medium swish china by Paiste cymbals. Admin