Jack Bruce

Smiles & Grins: Broadcast Sessions 1970–2001 [Esoteric Recordings]

When I interviewed Jack Bruce for Bass Player in 1993, he summed up the path of his career by saying, “It’s nice not knowing what’s going to come next.” That unpredictability had carried him from early jazz gigs on upright to sideman work on electric before playing in Cream made him a star — and then onward to a lengthy career that eventually produced 22 solo albums, a half-dozen compilations, and more than 50 collaborative recordings before his death in 2014.

Now there’s another Jack Bruce album, released earlier this year on Esoteric Recordings: Smiles & Grins: Broadcast Sessions 1970–2001, a box set that brings together all of his surviving BBC radio and television appearances, plus a session recorded for German TV with the short-lived but legendary band Lifetime, led by drummer Tony Williams. There are six discs in all: four audio CDs and two Blu-Ray video discs, as well as an illustrated booklet with extensive notes by English music journalist Sid Smith. (It’s worth noting that all but three of the tracks on the audio discs were in a box set called Spirit, released on Polydor in 2008.)

This extensive set presents a great overview of Jack Bruce’s multiple talents: singer, songwriter, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and (especially) bass player. There’s a lot to take in, some of it forgettable but much of it exciting in the way that only strong live music, captured in the moment, can be. The production quality is quite good, given the varied sources, and there are some droll moments provided by the BBC announcers. The bulk of the music comes from the ’70s, and that’s a good thing — that era, I think, represented a creative peak for Jack Bruce as both a songwriter and performer.

Disc 1 is from an August 1971 BBC Radio One concert and leans heavily on Jack’s newest solo album at the time, Harmony Row. The band includes guitarist Chris Spedding, drummer John Marshall, and keyboard player Graham Bond, with whom Jack had a long association (and with whom he had once been a sideman). Jack’s bass, still the Gibson EB-3, has a raw, distorted edge that dominates the mix — and his voice is strong. The highlight here is “A Letter of Thanks,” the quirky blues with the Pete Brown lyric that Jeff Berlin says “makes me laugh to this day”: “I trace your name in spinach.” The set includes a simmering version of Cream’s “We’re Going Wrong” and culminates with an 18-minute workout on “Powerhouse Sod” that’s very much in the spirit of a Cream jam. After shouts of “more, more” from the audience, the band wraps up with an up-tempo 12-bar, “You Sure Look Good to Me,” with Graham Bond singing. All in all, it’s a terrific set featuring lots of energetic interplay on some of Jack’s best tunes.

The second disc, from a July 1971 BBC Radio One show with the same band, kicks off with what is probably my favorite of all the post-Cream Jack Bruce–Pete Brown songs, “Theme for an Imaginary Western.” Jack goes beyond the original from Songs for a Tailor, extending and embellishing his bass line and bringing more depth to his soulful vocals. It’s really a gorgeous version. After tight renditions of three Harmony Row songs (“You Burned the Tables on Me,” “Folk Song,” and “A Letter of Thanks”) the band crashes into “The Clearout,” from Songs for a Tailor, with its wild fuzz-bass fills and over-the-top vocal. Then the program shifts to a Jazz in Britain show from later in the year, where Jack is joined by saxophonist John Surman and drummer Jon Hiseman. The six pieces are, for the most part, free-floating modal improvisations; imagine, if you will, Cream with Ornette Coleman instead of Eric Clapton. Three of these tracks — “Baru,” “Oom Bham She Bam Bom,” and the 28-minute “Walkabout” — are the ones not included in Spirit.

The clock moves forward to 1975 for an Old Grey Whistle Test TV show on the third disc, with Jack leading a band that includes guitarist Mick Taylor, keyboardists Carla Bley and Ronnie Leahy, and drummer Bruce Gary. Bley, a talented composer and performer in her own right, is a marvelous foil for Jack, and it’s great to hear them together. After “Can You Follow” and “Morning Story” — both from Harmony Row — the set moves into three songs from the newly released Out of the Storm, all of them tightly and smoothly performed. After a fine version of the Tony Williams instrumental “Spirit,” they wrap up with one of Jack’s most ambitious tunes, “Without a Word,” and a 12-minute workout on “Smiles & Grins.” On the latter, Jack plays a classic bass solo, filled with strums, smears, and string bends — a gem. It’s unfortunate that this group never cut an album, because they have a great ensemble sound. But, according to Sid Smith, Jack Bruce and Mick Taylor had a “precarious relationship,” and that was that.

Disc 3 closes with two more Jazz in Britain tracks, this time from September 1978, once again featuring Surman and Hiseman. The three musicians sound as if they’re having a lot of fun, bouncing off each other and finding clever rhythmic and harmonic variations to the riffs that are their musical material.

Up next, on Disc 4, is an April 1977 BBC Radio One show featuring Jack with the band that recorded How’s Tricks: guitarist Hughie Burns, keyboardist Tony Hymas, and drummer Simon Phillips. Not surprisingly, the 11-song set features eight tunes from that album, including “Without a Word,” “Times,” and the moody “Lost Inside a Song.” While the sidemen may not be as accomplished as the Taylor–Bley band, they sound well rehearsed and are attentive to dynamics. Jack soars on their cover of “a very old song” — “Born Under a Bad Sign” — and there’s another version of “Spirit” before they close with “Out Into the Fields” and a hard-rocking “You Burned the Tables on Me.” The bonus track is one more improvisation from the 1978 Jazz in Britain show, “Twenty Past Four,” built around an odd-time bass riff that Jack thoroughly explores. The Jazz in Britain tracks, while not stupendous, are a nice nod to Jack Bruce’s jazz roots and a tribute to his desire to not know what’s going to come next.

And then it’s on to the videos. The Blu-Ray discs offer a great look at Jack onstage over the years, with close-ups of his different basses (and hairstyles) from 1970 to 2001. Disc 5 opens with what is probably the prize material in this set, an un-broadcast set of The Tony Williams Lifetime playing on the German TV program Beat-Club in November 1970. What a band that was: Jack Bruce with guitarist John McLaughlin, organist Larry Young, and virtuoso drummer Tony Williams. McLaughlin had worked with Jack in the Graham Bond Quartet in the early ’60s and played on Jack’s solo album Things We Like in 1969, and they already had a well-developed musical empathy. Williams, who had started playing with Miles Davis when he was only 17, was a visionary musician — and he was determined to shake up the jazz-rock scene with Lifetime. Young had an extensive R&B and jazz background and had also played with Miles Davis. As a trio, they had made a groundbreaking debut album, Emergency!, and adding Jack to the group as singer and bassist gave them a wider range of musical possibilities.

The credits for the Lifetime set list four compositions, beginning with “Smiles & Grins,” but the performance is one long, continuous fusion piece that combines those compositions. Jack is still playing his EB-3 and singing with authority, although his vocals are hard to hear in the mix, with Tony Williams’ fluid, explosive drumming dominating the sound. John McLaughlin’s “Dance of Maya,” which is touched upon here, would reappear a year later on the groundbreaking debut album of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Inner Mounting Flame. Another McLaughlin piece, “Devotion,” is drawn from, as well as Williams’ “Two Worlds” and “Smiles & Grins.” The video features good close-ups of the musicians in action and ends with a split-screen segment showing all of them playing. The performance is loud and intense if not entirely cohesive — a sign of the tremendous, if unrealized, potential of this short-lived lineup.

The rest of Disc 5 has the video for the 1975 Old Grey Whistle Test show that is on Disc Three. While the duplication is perhaps unfortunate, it’s great to see this band in action. Jack, wearing a ribbon-bedecked shirt and white pants, begins the set alone on piano for “Can You Follow” before he moves across the stage and straps on his Aria bass. There are lots of close-ups of him playing, providing a great look at his technique. Mick Taylor, wearing sunglasses, keeps his head down and looks intent on performing Jack’s music correctly. And there is some great interaction between Carla Bley and Jack, who are side-by-side onstage. As I said, it’s too bad that this group didn’t stay together.

Disc 6 jumps forward to 1981 and another show on The Old Grey Whistle Test. This time, Jack is leading the band that had recorded the album I’ve Always Wanted to Do This: guitarist Clem Clempson, keyboardist/guitarist David Sancious, and drummer Billy Cobham. The show kicks off with a sizzling version of “White Room,” with Jack wearing a jump suit and tearing it up on his Spector bass. The program features four tunes from the I’ve Always Wanted album, which was something of a commercial disappointment even though the songs seem to be more pop-oriented than much of Jack’s earlier material. “Dancing on Air” is particularly good, with a harmony vocal by Clempson and concise solos by Sancious, Clempson, and Jack. They close with “Theme for an Imaginary Western,” with Jack on piano and Clempson playing his bass, and a potent version of “Politician” that has a sizzling guitar duel between Clempson and Sancious before it moves into a full-on jam. Fun!

Up next is a segment from the TV show B.A. in Music featuring Scottish musician BA Robertson, filmed in 1982. Jack performs “Theme for an Imaginary Western” on piano, followed by a somewhat awkward, if amiable, interview by Robertson. Jack offers some good insights into his career, talking about his concept of “lead bass” and emphasizing that “I like to move on. That’s what I do.” The disc closes with two songs, a new one and an old one, from a 2001 episode of the TV show Later…With Jools Holland. Jack is on his fretless Warwick, leading the Cuicoland Express band with Vernon Reid on guitar, Bernie Worrell on organ, and percussionists Robbie Ameen, Richie Flores, and Horacio “El Negro” Hernández. First up is “52nd Street,” written by Jack and Kip Hanrahan and recorded on Jack’s solo album Shadows in the Air. It’s a funky rocker with a strong groove driven by the percussionists, who take a solo turn. And then it’s “Sunshine of Your Love” — of course. Reid plays a scintillating guitar solo and there’s some terrific guitar-and-bass unison riffing as this Cream classic roars to its conclusion. It’s a perfect ending to a long journey through more than 30 years in the life and times of Jack Bruce. –Jim Roberts

PAKT

No Steps Left to Trace [MoonJune]

For the past four years, bass icon Percy Jones has found the perfect vehicle for his spontaneous innovations in PAKT (with guitarists Alex Skolnick and Tim Motzer, and drummer Kenny Grohowski). This two-CD set captures the quartet’s boundless improvisational skills both in the studio and live around the northeastern U.S. On the studio side, “No Steps Left to Trace Parts 1 and 2” serve as an introduction to Jones and his return to his fretless Wal 5-string, as he issues singing melodies, rhythmic bursts, sliding harmonics, and pliant pedal tones. “On the Other Side Part 1” pivots around Percy’s doomsday low D, while “Spontaneous Combustion” rides a bright Jones walking line, with a combustible Grohowski stretching. On the live disc, “Ghost Express” simmers over an effects bass line as Skolnick and Motzer converse, with the band building to an exhilarating industrial frenzy. Elsewhere, “NYC III” is 18 minutes of leaving no sonic stone unturned. Expect the unexpected. –Chris Jisi

Butterfly Black

Black Pop [Bandcamp]

Jazz bass titan Ben Williams and Broadway and cabaret vocal star Syndee Winters form a potent modern R&B duo, drawing from jazz, hip-hop, Motown, and ’80s and ’90s soul on their highly stylized debut. The surging opener, “Everybody,” sets the pace, with Williams’ bass guitar driving the track through twisting changes and the two sharing complementary vocals. “God Bless My Eyes” lays back, with Williams’ bass basking in non-root tones and interesting intervallic moves. “Lifetime” is a cool, four-on-the-floor shuffle layered in production, while “I Just Wanna Love You” brings an updated Chaka/Gap Band vibe. Later bass highpoints are “So In Love,” with its Marvin and Tammi vocals and Williams’ ear-grabbing groove development, à la James Jamerson and Verdine White; and a clever hybrid cover of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” and Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones,” with the duo’s vocals supported only by Williams’ minimal chordal bass. –Chris Jisi

John Peña

Life, Legacy & Music, Part 2 [JP Records]

It’s been a banner period for L.A. session ace John Peña, who is in the midst of releasing his three-volume career retrospective. While Part 1 leaned toward powerhouse funk and fusion, Part 2 has a Latin hue, opening with the Chick Corea-nodding burner “Just in Time.” Elsewhere, Peña – who grew up in Puerto Rico and New York – handles the opening melody on the 6/8  “Imagenes,” takes an extensive, well-developed solo on the rock-edged “Zuul,” and has a slap stepout on the Spanish-sung “Rojo.” An additional highlight is a group-vocal led version of Michael Brecker’s “African Skies” with a solo by the late saxophone genius himself. (CJ)

Alicia Olatuja & Michael Olatuja

Olatuja [Whirlwind Recordings]

Raised in Nigeria and Britain, New York City-based Michael Olatuja is yet another African-rooted bass force, able to move effortlessly from deep world grooves that imply multiple feels to vibrant chordal and melodic spotlight moments. With his longtime talented partner, vocalist Alicia, the duo dials up their own brand of West African-tinged R&B, soul, and gospel. “Royalty” rides a bright Afrobeat groove with unison melody and slap stepouts from Olatuja on his Sadowsky 5-string. “Brightside” has a displaced verse bass line, bass chords in the B section, and a brief, blistering solo. “On and On” emerges from bass arpeggios to settle into a lilting gospel shuffle, while the transition track, “Leye’s Groove,” features some bass blowing with an envelope effect. The solemn, closing “Reflections” sports hip changes, a bass chord melody, and tasteful solos on both bass guitar and upright bass. –Chris Jisi