Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish musician. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and bassist of rock band Cream. After the group disbanded in 1968, he pursued a solo career and also played with several bands.
For the Australian rules footballer, see Jack Bruce (footballer).
Jack Bruce
- Musician
- singer
- songwriter
- composer
- producer
1962–2014
5, including Natascha
Charlie Bruce, Betty Asher
- Bass guitar
- vocals
- guitar
- keyboards
In the early 1960s Bruce joined the Graham Bond Organisation (GBO), where he met future Cream bandmate Ginger Baker. After leaving the band, he briefly joined John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, where he met Eric Clapton. In 1966, after a short time with Manfred Mann, he formed Cream with lead guitarist Clapton and drummer Baker. He co-wrote many of their songs (including "Sunshine of Your Love", "White Room" and "I Feel Free") with poet/lyricist Pete Brown. After the group disbanded in the late 1960s, he began recording solo albums. Bruce put together a band of his own to perform material live and subsequently formed the blues rock band West, Bruce and Laing in 1972, with ex-Mountain guitarist Leslie West and drummer Corky Laing. His solo career spanned several decades. From the 1970s to the 1990s he played with several bands as a touring member. He reunited with Cream in 2005 for concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Bruce is considered one of the most important and influential bassists of all time. Rolling Stone magazine readers ranked him number eight on their list of "10 Greatest Bassists Of All Time".[1] He was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993,[2] and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006,[3] both as a member of Cream.
Life and career[edit]
1943–1962: Early life[edit]
Bruce was born on 14 May 1943 in Bishopbriggs, Lanarkshire, Scotland, to Betty (née Asher) and Charlie Bruce,[4] musical parents who moved frequently, resulting in the young Bruce attending 14 different schools, ending up at Bellahouston Academy. He began playing jazz bass in his teens and won a scholarship to study cello and musical composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama while playing in Jim McHarg's Scotsville Jazzband to support himself.[5]
1962–1966: Early career[edit]
Jack's playing in jazz combos was disapproved by his school and he was forced to leave.[6] After leaving school, he toured Italy, playing double bass with the Murray Campbell Big Band.[7]
In 1962, Bruce became a member of the London-based band Blues Incorporated,[8] led by Alexis Korner, in which he played the upright bass. The band also included organist Graham Bond, saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith and drummer Ginger Baker. In 1963 the group broke up.[5] In March, 1963, Bruce played in the Johnny Burch Octet.[9][10][11] Bruce would go on to form the Graham Bond Quartet with Bond, Baker and guitarist John McLaughlin.[5] They played an eclectic range of music genres, including bebop, blues and rhythm and blues. As a result of session work, Bruce switched from the upright bass to the electric bass guitar. The move to electric bass happened as McLaughlin left the band; he was replaced by Heckstall-Smith on saxophone, and the band pursued a more concise R&B sound and changed their name to the Graham Bond Organisation. The group released two studio albums and several singles but were not commercially successful.
During the time that Bruce and Baker played with the Graham Bond Organisation, they were known for their hostility towards each other. There were numerous stories of the two sabotaging each other's equipment and fighting on stage. Relations grew so bad between the two that Bruce left the band in August 1965.[12]
After leaving, Bruce recorded a solo single, "I'm Gettin Tired", for Polydor Records.[5] He joined John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers band, which featured guitarist Eric Clapton. Bruce's stay in the band was brief, and he did not contribute to any releases at the time, but recordings featuring him were later released, initially on Looking Back and Primal Solos.
After the Bluesbreakers, Bruce had his first commercial success as a member of Manfred Mann in 1966, including "Pretty Flamingo", which reached number one in the UK singles chart (one of two number one records of his career – the other being an uncredited bass part on The Scaffold's "Lily the Pink")[5] as well as the freewheeling and groundbreaking jazz rock of Instrumental Asylum. When interviewed on the edition of the VH1 show Classic Albums which featured Disraeli Gears, Mayall said that Bruce had been lured away by the lucrative commercial success of Manfred Mann, while Mann himself recalled that Bruce played his first gig with the band without any rehearsal, playing the songs straight through without error, commenting that perhaps the chord changes seemed obvious to Bruce.[13]
While with Manfred Mann, Bruce again collaborated with Clapton as a member of Powerhouse, which also featured Spencer Davis Group members Steve Winwood credited as "Steve Anglo", on vocals and Pete York on drums (Apparently, Ginger Baker was originally to have played the session), Ben Palmer on piano, and Manfred Mann vocalist Paul Jones on harmonica. Three tracks were featured on the Elektra sampler album What's Shakin'. Two of the songs, "Crossroads" and "Steppin' Out", became staples in the live set of his next band, Cream.
Personal life[edit]
In 1964, Bruce married Janet Godfrey, who had been the secretary of the Graham Bond Organisation fan club and had collaborated with Bruce on two songs written for the band.[7] The couple had two sons together, Jonas (Jo) Bruce, who grew up to play keyboards in his father's band and played with Afro Celt Sound System, and Malcolm Bruce, who grew up to play the guitar with his father and played with Ginger Baker's son, Kofi. Jonas died in 1997 from respiratory problems.[31]
In 1982, he married his second wife, Margrit Seyffer,[32] with whom he had two daughters, Natascha, known professionally as Aruba Red and Kyla, and a son, Corin.[33][34]
Influence[edit]
Steve Anderson, writing in The Independent said: "he became one of the most famous and influential bass players in rock."[38] Eric Clapton posted on Facebook about Bruce: "He was a great musician and composer, and a tremendous inspiration to me" and composed an acoustic song in his honour.[39] Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi said on Twitter that Bruce had been his favourite bass player, saying "He was a hero to so many" and Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler regarded him as his "biggest influence and favourite bass player".[40] Rush bassist and singer Geddy Lee wrote: "One of the greatest rock bassists to ever live and a true and profound inspiration to countless musicians. He was one of my first bass heroes and was a major influence on my playing and my music."[41]
Writing in The Sunday Times in 2008, Dan Cairns had suggested: "many consider him to be one of the greatest bass players of all time."[42] Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Neil McCormick said, "There was a time when Jack Bruce was synonymous with the bass guitar in rock history, when he was widely revered as the best there was on four strings."[43] Roger Waters of Pink Floyd described Bruce as "probably the most musically gifted bass player who's ever been."[31]
