Tickets sold out rapidly for November’s Pete Roth Trio concert at Watermill Jazz. It was the band’s first appearance at the Dorking club and drummers were out in droves to see iconic musician Bill Bruford, whose long career playing drums with prog-rock outfits included spells in Yes, King Crimson and Genesis, plus his own band Earthworks.
After downing sticks for 15 years, Bill recently felt the urge to play again, and is resurrecting his drumming career alongside guitarist Pete Roth, who was previously Bill’s tour manager!
The buzzing crowd didn’t know what to expect and from the first note it was clear that this would not be a rock gig, but would it be out-and-out jazz? From the start, surprisingly familiar tunes sublimated out of group improvisations and stretched in adventurous directions.
Sensitive drums on Jobim’s ‘How Insensitive’ gave way to down-a-dark-alleyway funk and electric fuzz while Pete Roth’s guitar simulated a Hammond organ on ‘Billie’s Bounce’.
The band’s version of ‘Summertime’ was far from a jam session staple, with the theme for this and for Dvorak’s New World symphony emerging from deep within the trio’s free-improv.
Every piece saw Bill Bruford using the whole palette of sounds available to him, from tiny taps and rustles to out-and-out funk and rock grooves, and he and Mike Pratt’s bass guitar were beautifully in synch on Charlie Parker’s ‘Donna Lee’.
Bass and drums were in cahoots again on ‘Full Circle’ – a driving funk original with plenty of effects pedal over a bass-drum groove, and it was here rather than in the jazz tunes that the band sounded as though they had found their natural habitat.
A Watermill Jazz regular brought along a pristine copy of ‘Sound International’ magazine dated July 1978, featuring an interview with Bill Bruford from his King Crimson days. In it, the young Bill Bruford says ‘as a musician, I’m interested in longevity. I want to be around for a while’. Going back on the road in his 70s, albeit to jazz clubs and not to stadiums, he has certainly fulfilled that dream.
One Response
A very nice review of a great evening’s music. Bill has been in the audience a number of times at the Watermill so it was good to hear him playing again.