Jack Bruce -

Jack Bruce (1943— 2014) was a Scottish-born bassist, vocalist, and composer who played in a series of popular English bands during the 1960s, followed by a successful solo career over the following half-century. He first emerged in 1965 with a two-album stint in the Graham Bond Organization, followed with brief time in Manfred Mann and a three-album run in the super-trio Cream, which also made stars out of guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker.

As a solo artist, Bruce released three albums on Polydor between 1969 and 1971, followed by a two-album team-up with Mountain alumni in the super-trio West, Bruce & Laing. Between 1974 and 1977, Bruce released two albums on RSO, followed by more than 15 titles at sporadic intervals over the subsequent 37-year period, including back-to-back albums for Epic in partnership with guitarist Robin Trower in the early 1980s. During the life of Cream and through much of his solo career, the lyrics to Bruce’s songs were mostly penned by Battered Ornaments/Piblokto!-frontman Pete Brown.

Background

Jack Bruce was born John Symon Asher Bruce on May 14, 1943, to a musical family in Bishopbriggs, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He first played standup bass and won a scholarship to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where he studied cello and music composition.

At the start of his career, Bruce gigged with a sequence of jazz acts (Jim McHarg’s Scotsville Jazzband, Murray Campbell Big Band). In 1962, he joined Blues Incorporated, a revolving-door ensemble of young R&B/rock musicians led by elder bluesman Alexis Korner. Other players that coincided with Bruce’s stint included saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, organist Graham Bond, and drummer Ginger Baker.

Early Bands

In 1963, Bruce followed Bond and Baker into the R&B/post-bop Graham Bond Quartet with guitarist John McLaughlin. Within months, Bruce switched to electric bass, McLaughlin cleared way for Heckstall-Smith, and the band became the Graham Bond Organization. They signed to Columbia and released two albums in 1965. Due to an ongoing feud with Baker, Bruce left GBO for a brief stint in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, where he first played with guitarist Eric Clapton.

In early 1966, Bruce joined Manfred Mann and played on their UK No. 1 single “Pretty Flamingo” and the four-song EP Instrumental Asylum. Concurrently, he re-linked with Clapton in the ad hoc super-group Powerhouse, which also featured Spencer Davis Group organist Steve Winwood and departing Manfred Mann vocalist Paul Jones. They recorded four songs, three of which appear on the 1966 Elektra Records sampler album What’s Shakin’.

That July, Clapton invited the now-mended Bruce and Baker into a new power trio dubbed The Cream, due to the player’s stature as “cream of the crop” on their respective instruments. They shortened their name to Cream and released three albums to international fanfare between 1966 and 1968. Bruce functioned as their primary vocalist and co-wrote his contributions to the band with lyricist Pete Brown.

When Bruce went solo, Clapton and Baker cut a further album together in Blind Faith, a supergroup with Winwood and Family bassist Ric Grech. However, Bruce and Clapton both guested along with Free and Chicken Shack personnel on Fiends & Angels, the 1969 debut album by Puerto Rican-American singer Martha Velez.

Early Solo Activity

In December 1965, between stints in GBO and Manfred Mann, Jack Bruce cut a solo single: “I’m Gettin’ Tired (Of Drinkin’ and Gamblin’ Etcetera)” backed with “Rootin’ Tootin’,” both originals produced by Robert Stigwood for Polydor.

In August 1968, just as Cream dropped their third studio album, Wheels of Fire, Bruce recorded an instrumental album with backing by McLaughlin, Heckstall-Smith, and Jon Hiseman, the post-Baker GBO drummer. However, it remained unreleased as Cream completed their farewell tour and Bruce recorded his first vocal album.

Songs for a Tailor

Jack Bruce released his debut solo album, Songs for a Tailor, on August 29, 1969, on Polydor. On October 6, the album appeared in the US on Atco.

Songs for a Tailor contains ten Bruce compositions with lyrics by Pete Brown. Two songs, “Weird of Hermiston” and “The Clearout,” were originally demoed for Cream’s 1967 album Disraeli Gears but vetoed by that band’s US label, Atco.

Bruce plays bass, organ, piano, acoustic guitar, and cello on Tailor, backed by Dick Heckstall-Smith, Jon Hiseman, and guitarist Chris Spedding, Brown’s Battered Ornaments bandmate. The album also features saxophonist Art Themen and Keef Hartley Band trumpeters Harry Beckett and Henry Lowther. Select tracks feature Mike Westbrook Concert Band drummer John Marshall (“Rope Ladder to the Moon,” “He the Richmond”) and New Jazz Orchestra trombonist John Mumford (“Boston Ball Game 1967”). Beatles guitarist George Harrison made a then-uncredited low-mix cameo on the opening track, “Never Tell Your Mother She’s Out of Tune.”

Songs for a Tailor moves between brass-driven blues forms, acoustic settings, and abrupt dynamic shifts. “Never Tell Your Mother She’s Out of Tune” and “Boston Ball Game, 1967” push forward on tight horn arrangements, the latter weaving trombone bursts with doubled vocal lines in a clipped, off-kilter pace. “Theme from an Imaginary Western” unfolds in measured steps, Bruce’s piano and bass lines meeting Spedding’s restrained guitar figures, each phrase shaped with precision.

“Rope Ladder to the Moon” layers strummed acoustic guitar with bowed cello, its pulse steady beneath Bruce’s vocal and Marshall’s unobtrusive drumming. “He the Richmond” presents a dual acoustic-guitar pattern in a light, swinging motion. The closing “To Isengard” opens in slow 6/8 with interlaced acoustic guitars before breaking mid-song into jagged, free-tempo exchanges between electric guitar and bass over scattered drum rolls. The album’s brevity (31:32 duration) leaves each piece tightly framed, its shifts in pace and texture exact.

Bruce titled the album in tribute to Jeannie Franklyn, aka “Genie the Tailor,” Cream’s former wardrobe consultant and Richard Thompson‘s girlfriend who died in the May 1969 crash of Fairport Convention‘s tour van.

A1. “Never Tell Your Mother She’s Out of Tune” (3:41) – Refers to a post-show reaction by Spedding’s vocalist mother when Chris mentioned that one of her string players was out of tune.
A2. “Theme for an Imaginary Western” (3:30) – Uses Old West metaphors for the combustible cowboy-like camaraderie of the Bruce/Baker GBO lineup.
A3. “Tickets to Waterfalls” (3:00)
A4. “Weird of Hermiston” (2:24) – The title spoofs Weir of Hermiston, an unfinished 1896 novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson.
A5. “Rope Ladder to the Moon” (2:54)

B1. “The Ministry of Bag” (2:49)
B2. “He the Richmond” (3:36)
B3. “Boston Ball Game, 1967” (1:45)
B4. “To Isengard” (5:28)
B5. “The Clearout” (2:35)

Sessions occurred in April/May 1969 with Cream producer Felix Pappalardi, who made instrumental contributions on percussion (“He the Richmond”) and acoustic guitar (“To Isengard”). His involvement coincided with Mountain, the debut solo album by ex-Vagrants guitarist Leslie West.

Pappalardi and West promptly formed a band called Mountain and covered “Theme for an Imaginary Western” on their 1970 debut album, Climbing! Meanwhile, Hiseman and Heckstall-Smith recorded the song on Daughter of Time, the 1970 third album by their band, Colosseum, whose bassist, Tony Reeves, cut another version of “Theme for an Imaginary Western” with his subsequent band, Greenslade. Colosseum also recorded “Rope Ladder to the Moon” for The Grass Is Greener, the US version of their second album, Valentyne Suite.

Mumford guested on the title-track of Piblokto’s debut, Things May Come and Things May Go, but the Art School Dance Goes on Forever. Marshall and Spedding interacted on the 1970 Nucleus debut, Elastic Rock.

Songs for a Tailor reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 55 on the US Billboard 200. The album appeared in a gatefold with white-on-black liner notes (backside) and lyrical inner-gates. Bruce embarked on a transatlantic winter 1970 tour behind the album with Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, ex-Free Spirits guitarist Larry Coryell, and the latter’s future Eleventh House bandmate, keyboardist Mike Mandel.

Things We Like

Jack Bruce released his second solo album, Things We Like, in 1970 on Polydor. This was his first-conceived solo project, recorded prior to Songs for a Tailor in August 1968 when he was still a member of Cream.

Things We Like contains material that Bruce claimed to have written as a young teenager in the mid-1950s. As such, it stands as a tribute to that era’s post-bop jazz, Bruce’s favored music before and during the initial UK penetration of rock ‘n’ roll.

He plays standup bass throughout, backed by his guitarist (and onetime GBQ colleague) John McLaughlin, saxophonist (and recent GBO bandmate) Dick Heckstall-Smith, and the latter’s current Bluesbreakers bandmate, drummer Jon Hiseman.

Heckstall-Smith composed “Rill’s Thrills,” the second half of a medley with “Sam’s Sack,” a Milt Jackson cover. They also include an instrumental version of “Born to Be Blue,” a jazz standard originated by singer Mel Tormé. Later CD issues contain another Heckstall-Smith composition, “Ageing Jack Bruce, Three, from Scotland, England,” withheld from the original LP for time limits.

Things We Like moves in open, post-bop forms where Bruce’s double bass threads between free passages and tightly drawn sections. “Statues” shifts within a loose framework, Hiseman’s restrained drumming tethering sax and bass while inserting brief solo bursts between improvisational turns. “Rill’s Thrills” drives harder, Hiseman locking onto Heckstall-Smith’s sax lines with sharp, forward momentum. On “Over the Cliff,” Heckstall-Smith blows soprano and tenor together, his phrasing darting and jagged.

“Born to Be Blue” pares back into a subdued space, sax tracing long arcs over McLaughlin’s soft, harmonically dense guitar figures. “Sam’s Sack” builds on a stretched blues riff, McLaughlin’s lines turning angular before giving way to full-bodied bass and sax exchanges. “Hckhh Blues” surges with fractured guitar runs and a volatile pace, while “Ballad for Arthur” opens with sparse bass tones and understated guitar, gradually unraveling into freer interplay. The title track balances structure and release, its shifting three-part harmonies, nimble walking bass, and restless percussion propelling guitar and sax into simultaneous runs.

A1. “Over the Cliff” (2:49)
A2. “Statues” (7:21)
A3. “Sam Enchanted Dick (Medley)” (7:17)
— a. “Sam’s Sack”
— b. “Rill’s Thrills”
A4. “Born to Be Blue” (4:13)

B1. “HCKHH Blues” (8:54)
B2. “Ballad for Arthur” (7:28)
B3. “Things We Like” (3:28)

CD bonus:
8. “Ageing Jack Bruce, Three, from Scotland, England” (5:20)

Bruce self-produced the album in August 1968 at IBC Studio in London. Between this album’s completion and release, Hiseman and Heckstall-Smith appeared on Bruce’s second-recorded album, Songs for a Tailor, and cut two albums with their post-Bluesbreakers band, Colosseum.

Just as Things We Like appeared, Bruce and McLaughlin reunited on the 1970 Polydor release (Turn It Over), the second album by Tony Williams Lifetime. The two also appeared on Escalator Over the Hill, the 1971 jazz-opera by Carla Bley and Michael Mantler.

Harmony Row

Jack Bruce released his third solo album, Harmony Row, in July 1971 on Polydor and Atco.

The album contains ten Bruce compositions with lyrics by Pete Brown and one track (“Morning Story”) third-credited to Jack’s then-wife, Janet Godfrey.

Bruce plays bass, piano, harmonium, organ, cello, and harmonica on Harmony Row, recorded in trio configuration with guitarist Chris Spedding and drummer John Marshall, both Songs for a Tailor sidemen fresh from their Nucleus stint.

Harmony Row opens with “Can You Follow,” a brief voice-and-piano piece that swells from quiet phrasing into dramatic chords. “Escape to the Royal Wood (On Ice)” builds from piano and drums into quickened pacing, Bruce’s vocals cutting across shifting bass accents before a sharp rise two-thirds in. “You Burned the Tables on Me” pushes forward with taut rhythms, electric guitar strikes, and piano lines locked to the vocal phrasing. “There’s a Forest” draws back into a slow, harmonically rich piano setting. “Morning Story” layers complex changes over an expansive bass-and-drum foundation, its energy cresting before pulling into softer vocal passages.

“Folk Song” rests on understated guitar and restrained voice, its contours even and unhurried. “Smiles and Grins” alternates dense instrumental interplay with sudden vocal entrances, bass and drums tightening their pulse before brief instrumental breaks. “Post War” brightens with crisp guitar figures and fluid shifts in pace. “A Letter of Thanks” moves in sudden stops and starts, its vocal delivery edged with theatrical timing. “Victoria Sage” blends piano, organ, and steady percussion under clear, forward vocals. “The Consul at Sunset” takes a Spanish-tinged rhythm with guitar and percussion weaved into a final, swaying cadence.

The album’s title comes from Bruce’s childhood locale: a mile-plus row of side-to-side tenement housing in Glasgow; purportedly Europe’s largest low-income development before its demolition.

A1. “Can You Follow?” (1:27)
A2. “Escape to the Royal Wood (On Ice)” (3:38)
A3. “You Burned the Tables on Me” (3:41)
A4. “There’s a Forest” (1:42)
A5. “Morning Story” (4:46)
A6. “Folk Song” (4:06)

B1. “Smiles and Grins” (5:54)
B2. “Post War” (4:15)
B3. “A Letter of Thanks” (2:52)
B4. “Victoria Sage” (4:57)
B5. “The Consul at Sunset” (4:00) – Brown took inspiration from Under the Volcano, a 1947 novel by English author Malcolm Lowry about an alcoholic consul in Quauhnahuac, Mexico, on the Day of the Dead.

Bruce self-produced the album in January 1971 at Command Studios in London, where Spedding and Marshall recorded their parts live in single takes.

West, Bruce & Laing

In 1972, Bruce formed a powertrio with two-fourths of Mountain: guitarist/singer Leslie West and drummer Corky Laing. To emphasize the three player’s equal stature (ala Crosby Stills & Nash and Emerson Lake & Palmer), they named the unit West, Bruce & Laing. Their union mirrored a similar effort by Jeff Beck, who teamed with the Vanilla Fudge/Cactus rhythm section in Beck, Bogert & Appice.

Between October 1972 and July 1973, West, Bruce & Laing released two studio albums: Why Dontcha and Whatever Turns You On, each comprised of trio-credited originals with select lyrical input by Pete Brown. They folded before their 1974 concert release Live ‘n’ Kickin’, which includes their rendition of “Powerhouse SOD,” a group-credited song that Bruce performed earlier during the Harmony Row era.

For more on West, Bruce & Laing and their three albums, go to their page.

Out of the Storm

Jack Bruce released his fourth solo album, Out of the Storm, in November 1974 on RSO.

The album contains eight Bruce compositions with lyrics by Pete Brown, including one (“Running Through Our Hands”) with input by Janet Godfrey.

Bruce played piano, clavinet, organ, harmonium, and harmonica. He recorded the album in Los Angeles with American musicians: guitarist Steve Hunter (an Alice Cooper and Lou Reed sideman) and drummer Jim Keltner (Ry Cooder’s backbeat). “Pieces of Mind” and the last two tracks feature former Derek & The Dominoes drummer Jim Gordon. Hunter and Bruce interacted beforehand on Berlin, Reed’s 1973 album.

Bruce opens Out of the Storm with “Pieces of Mind,” singing in near-falsetto over harmonium as restless bass lines emerge beneath. “Golden Days” slows with female harmonies tracing over its measured frame. “Keep It Down” presents Hunter’s sharp guitar edges with phrasing reminiscent of Bruce’s heavier past work. “Into the Storm” turns inward with lyrics of personal imagery. “One” shifts between cabaret, blues, and soul inflections, anchored each step by Keltner. “Timeslip” stretches into an extended, partly instrumental drive, Hunter’s solo surging before the fade.

The album’s title stemmed from the impromptu Scottish forest setting of the cover, which Bruce selected after an unsuccessful search for inclement weather befitting the album’s working title, Into The Storm.

A1. “Pieces of Mind” (5:30)
A2. “Golden Days” (5:04)
A3. “Running Through Our Hands” (4:11)
A4. “Keep on Wondering” (3:08)

B1. “Keep It Down” (3:41)
B2. “Into the Storm” (4:38)
B3. “One” (4:54)
B4. “Timeslip” (6:29)

Sessions occurred at LA’s Record Plant, where English soundman Andy Johns co-produced and engineered the album in sequence with titles by The Rolling Stones, Locomotiv GT, Billy Preston, and Passport. Bruce added harmonica to one track (“She’s Just 14”) on the 1974 ABC release Locomotiv GT, the Hungarian band’s Western-aimed effort.

Live at Manchester Free Trade Hall ’75

In early 1975, Bruce assembled a touring band with keyboardist Carla Bley and guitarist Mick Taylor, fresh off his five-year Stones stint. Bruce and Bley reconnected during sessions for Michael Mantler’s 1974 WATT/Virgin release No Answer, which features Jack’s bass and voice alongside trumpeter Don Cherry.

Taylor’s early departure shortened the tour and nixed plans for a studio album. In 2003, Polydor issued Live at Manchester Free Trade Hall ’75, a document of a June 1975 performance by this lineup, which also featured Stone the Crows keyboardist Ronnie Leahy and Dr. John drummer Bruce Gary.

Manchester features renditions of three songs from Out of the Storm and five from Harmony Row, including one (“Post War”) added to a 25-minute medley of Songs for a Tailor numbers. They also perform the Lifetime number “Spirit” and the Cream chestnut “Sunshine of Your Love.”

1. “Can You Follow?” (1:45)
2. “Morning Story” (7:56)
3. “Keep It Down” (5:45)
4. “Pieces of Mind” (5:56)
5. “Tickets to Waterfalls/Weird of Hermiston/Post War” (25:08)
6. “Spirit” (10:44)
7. “One/You Burned the Tables on Me” (17:01)
8. “Smiles and Grins” (24:39)
9. “Sunshine of Your Love” (12:07)

In 1976, Bruce appeared on Helen 12 Trees, an MPS jazz-rock album by veteran American saxophonist Charlie Mariano, who also employed Czech keyboardist Jan Hammer, Polish violinist Zbigniew Seifert, and prior Bruce drummer John Marshall for the May 6–8 sessions at Union Studio Munich-Solln in Germany.

For his next album, Bruce formed a new band with three prolific session players: guitarist Hughie Burns (Cerrone, Prelude, Sophie’s Dream, Stealers Wheel), keyboardist/arranger Tony Hymas (Cirkus, Rogue, Paul Ryan, Lynsey De Paul), and teenage drummer Simon Phillips (801, Brian Protheroe, Gordon Giltrap, Metro, Mr. Big, Murray Head). Burns and Hymas interacted on the 1976 Mountain Records release Smoovin’ by the Martyn Ford Orchestra. At 18, Phillips partook in the 1975 Jet Records one-off Chopyn with singer/keyboardist Ann Odell and veteran jazz-rock guitarist Ray Russell.

How’s Tricks

Jack Bruce released his fifth solo album, How’s Tricks, in April 1977 on RSO, which bills the album to the Jack Bruce Band with Hughie Burns (guitar, vocals), Tony Hymas (keyboards, vibraphone), and Simon Phillips (drums, glockenspiel).

The album contains six Bruce compositions with lyrics by Pete Brown, who also lyricized the Hymas contribution, “Something to Live For.” Burns co-wrote “Times” and “Lost Inside a Song.” He sings his solo submission, “Baby Jane.”

How’s Tricks opens with “Without a Word,” its somber pace and mournful vocal lines setting an unexpected tone as Bruce, Phillips, and Hymas slip into breaks. “Johnny B’77” shifts to brisk optimism, Burns’ guitar keeping a restrained pulse while Bruce’s bass carries the primary melodic contour. “Times” leans on a blues-rock figure with a Coltrane-like undercurrent, Bruce and Hymas trading solos in tight succession. “Lost Inside a Song” moves between rousing swells and reflective passages. The title track moves with a shadowy, organ-led progression under surreal imagery. “Madhouse” mixes humor with intensity, while “Outsiders” drifts through spacious textures. “Something to Live For” closes out the album with a measured, steady cadence.

A1. “Without a Word” (5:20)
A2. “Johnny B’77” (3:20)
A3. “Times” (4:45)
A4. “Baby Jane” (2:35)
A5. “Lost Inside a Song” (4:02)

B1. “How’s Tricks” (4:10)
B2. “Madhouse” (5:42)
B3. “Waiting for the Call” (5:46)
B4. “Outsiders” (2:55)
B5. “Something to Live For” (5:13)

Sessions occurred in November 1976 at Manor Studio, a converted mansion near Oxford owned by Virgin co-founder Richard Branson. The album reunited Bruce with Wheels of Fire soundman Bill Halverson, whose interim credits included Blue Mountain Eagle, The Churls, Crosby Stills & Nash, and West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

How’s Tricks features cover art stylized after a 1930s poster to a Busby Berkeley musical. Polydor art director Ian Murray also oversaw 1976/77 label covers for Doctors of Madness, Popol Ace, and ex-Badger guitarist Brian Parrish.

Phillips also played on 1977 albums by Bonnie Tyler, David Coverdale, Judas Priest, and Peter Doyle. Hymas and Phillips both backed Ray Russell on the guitarist’s DJM jazz-rock effort, Ready or Not.

In response to the album’s coverage in Rolling Stone, Brown wrote the magazine a letter with favorable mentions of select US acts (Steely Dan, Parliament, Herbie Hancock, The Crusaders) in contrast to the current UK scene, which he described as “a jungle of phony middle-class punk music.” (Rolling Stone No. 250. October 20, 1977. Page 8.)

Jet Set Jewel

In 1978, Jack Bruce recorded material for his intended sixth solo album, Jet Set Jewel. This was the first time he recorded back-to-back albums with the same personnel: guitarist Hughie Burns, keyboardist Tony Hymas, and drummer Simon Phillips.

Pete Brown cut back his lyrics to five compositions: two each by Bruce (“Jet Set Jewel,” “The Best Is Still to Come”) and Hymas (“Head in the Sun,” “Maybe It’s Dawn”), plus the joint-written “Childsong.” Bruce also collaborated on three songs (“The Boy,” “Mickey the Fiddler,” “She’s Moving On”) with lyricist David Hart, a Sixties avant-garde filmmaker and subsequent anti-labor activist. Hymas submitted one lone-written number, “Please.”

Saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith — little heard since his 1972 album A Story Ended — resurfaced here on two songs, “The Boy” and “Neighbour, Neighbour,” a Sixties R&B standard that Jack and Dick covered first with the Graham Bond Organization.

1. “The Boy” (4:13)
2. “Head in the Sun” (4:32)
3. “Neighbour, Neighbour” (3:58)
4. “Childsong” (3:28)
5. “Jet Set Jewel” (5:22)
6. “Please” (2:40)
7. “Maybe It’s Dawn” (4:06)
8. “Mickey the Fiddler” (5:21)
9. “She’s Moving On” (6:23)
10. “The Best Is Still to Come” (4:14)

Sessions spanned August through October 1978 at studios in London (Trident) and Oxfordshire (Chipping Norton). Jet Set Jewel was produced by Dennis MacKay, a soundman on John McLaughlin’s concurrent Electric Guitarist and 1977/78 titles by Alphonso Johnson, Kayak, Pat Travers, Stomu Yamashta, and Brand X, whose Moroccan Roll also shared the same engineer, Steve Short, credited on contemporary titles by Bruford, Charlie, Cafe Jacques, Genesis, Narada Michael Walden, Peter Gabriel, Renaissance, and UK.

RSO blocked the release of Jet Set Jewel over commercial concerns and dropped Bruce from their roster. The album finally appeared as a 2003 CD on European Polydor with authentic Seventies-style fonts and rust-scale blend imagery.

In light of the album’s non-release, Bruce disbanded his group and toured with Rocket 88, a boogie-woogie band arranged by pianist and Rolling Stones co-founder Ian Stewart. Simon Phillips backed Pete Townshend on his 1980 solo album, Empty Glass. Hymas formed PhD with ex-Bandit singer Jim Diamond.

I’ve Always Wanted to Do This

Jack Bruce released I’ve Always Wanted to Do This in December 1980 on Epic. This was his sixth-released but seventh-recorded solo album, billed to Jack Bruce & Friends, a new group with drummer Billy Cobham, keyboardist David Sancious, and ex-Colosseum guitarist Clem Clempson.

The album contains five fresh Bruce originals with lyrics by Pete Brown, who also worded “In This Way,” a Sancious composition. Clempson submitted two songs (“Running Back,” “Out to Lunch”) co-written by Garry Bell, a colleague in the band Champion. Cobham bisects Side B with his contribution, “Wind and the Sea.”

I’ve Always Wanted to Do This blends rock, jazz, and art-pop textures, driven by Bruce’s operatic vocal phrasing and tightly meshed interplay with Clempson, Sancious, and Cobham. “Mickey the Fiddler” and “Running Back” push forward with assertive pace, while “Dancing on Air” moves with lighter rhythmic lift. Cobham’s “Wind and the Sea” brings a gentler sway, contrasting with the sharper vocal edges of “In This Way.”

Sancious plays guitar on “Living Without Ja” and “Out to Lunch.” Friends also tackle “Mickey the Fiddler,” a Bruce/Hart number from the unreleased Jet Set Jewel.

A1. “Hit and Run” (3:36)
A2. “Running Back” (3:51)
A3. “Facelift 318” (3:18)
A4. “In This Way” (3:58)
A5. “Mickey the Fiddler” (5:18)

B1. “Dancing on Air” (3:54)
B2. “Livin Without Ja” (3:12)
B3. “Wind and the Sea” (3:23)
B4. “Out to Lunch” (2:44)
B5. “Bird Alone” (6:55)

Sessions occurred at the House of Music in West Orange, New Jersey, where Bruce self-produced the album; engineered by staffer Stephan Galfas, a concurrent soundman for Roy Harper and Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes.

Columbia graphic artist John Berg designed the cover for I’ve Always Wanted to Do This, which shows a sleeping geisha floating above a velvet burgundy sofa in a deep-blue room where florals leap from the wall paper. Bruce appears on the backside in a color-enhanced photo, seated next to his bandmates in a bright green outfit.

On January 10, 1981, Jack Bruce & Friends performed “Dancing on Air” and “Livin Without Ja” on the sixth Season 6 episode of the NBC sketch comedy Saturday Night Live, hosted by Idolmaker actor Ray Sharkie.

Bruce also appeared on 1981 albums by Soft Machine (Land of Cockayne) and Trevor Rabin (Wolf).

Collaborations With Robin Trower

Between February 1981 and January 1982, Jack Bruce released two collaborative albums with Robin Trower, the onetime Procol Harum guitarist and eight-year Chrysalis solo artist.

The first, B.L.T., contains one Bruce composition (“Life on Earth”) and nine Trower songs. Bruce handled bass, keyboards, and vocals on the album, recorded as a trio with Bill Loudan, Trower’s longtime drummer (formerly of Gypsy and Sly & The Family Stone). Though billed to the three men, the cover emphasizes Trower’s name due to his songwriting presence.

Their second album, Truce, contains four Bruce/Brown songs amid five by Trower and his non-performing lyricist, Keith Reid. Bruce’s presence as bassist/singer (and occasional keyboardist) broke Trower’s chain of work with James Dewar, another Scottish singing bassist who appeared on Robin’s complete prior solo output (they reunited once more on Trower’s 1983 album Back It Up).

For more information on their two collaborative albums, see Robin Trower’s page.

Automatic

Jack Bruce released his eighth solo album, Automatic, in January 1983 on Intercord, a medium-sized German label.

Automatic contains nine Bruce originals with lyrics by Pete Brown, an otherwise retired figure from the music world. Bruce self-performed the music on bass, keyboards, programmed drums, and the Fairlight CMI digital sampling synthesizer.

Automatic emphasizes hi-tech arrangements. “Make Love” opens in a slow, reggae-leaning soul pulse, his voice rising clean over synthetic textures. Ballads like “New World,” “Traveling Child,” and “Encore” move in compact forms, their vocal lines tracing contoured turns against sparse settings. “E. Boogie” follows a programmed funk rhythm, while “Swarm” layers jazz-leaning figures in dense, overlapping patterns. The set closes with a brief blues for harmonica and voice, its unadorned delivery standing apart from the surrounding electronic textures.

A1. “A Boogie” (4:26)
A2. “Uptown Break” (4:29)
A3. “Travlin’ Child” (5:10)
A4. “New World” (3:22)

B1. “Make Love (Part II)” (3:38)
B2. “Green & Blue” (5:11)
B3. “The Swarm” (3:59)
B4. “Encore” (4:08)
B5. “Automatic Pilot” (1:01)

Sessions occurred in 1982 at Brittania Row in London, where Bruce co-produced the album with Ike Nossel.

Automatic appeared in Germany only with a green pixelated computer-screen image of Bruce. In 1987, the album appeared in the UK on President Records with new cover art.

Discography:

Songs for a Tailor (1969)
Things We Like (1970)
Harmony Row (1971)
Out of the Storm (1974)
How’s Tricks (1977 • The Jack Bruce Band)
I’ve Always Wanted to Do This (1980)
B.L.T. (1981 • Jack Bruce, Bill Lordan & Robin Trower)
Truce (1981 • Jack Bruce & Robin Trower)
Automatic (1983)
Inazuma Super Session Absolutely Live with Anton Fier & Kenji Suzuki (1987)
Theme (1988 • Leslie West)
A Question of Time (1989)
Somethin’ Els (1993)
This That (1994 • Dick Heckstall-Smith, Jack Bruce & John Stevens)
Monkjack (1995)
Shadows in the Air (2001)
The Works for Piano 5: Four Walls; Soliloquy; 3 Easy Pieces (2003 • John Cage • Haydée Schvartz / Jack Bruce)
Jet Set Jewel (2003, recorded 1978)
More Jack Than God (2003)
Seven Moons (2008 • Jack Bruce & Robin Trower)
Silver Rails (2014)