JACK BRUCE

How can any bassist look past Jack Bruce, a true titan of the instrument who inspires multitudes of players to this day? This Scottish man needs little introduction. You can look him up on Wikipedia or any number of other places for information about him and his music, if you do need an introduction. His playing - not to mention his singing voice - speaks for itself. Many may credit Paul McCartney for his early role in broadening the melodic role of the bass guitar in rock, but Jack was doing much the same, in his own way, around the same time, although his earlier work was more in the realms of jazz, classical and R&B, so perhaps in terms of rock/pop Mr McCartney does take the torch. As much as I respect what he did - while not being much of a Beatles fan - Jack's playing had more of an impact on me and was one of the earliest people whose music inspired me to take up the bass as my chosen instrument.
Skipping past his classical training as a young man, and past his stints with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, the Graham Bond Organisation and others, he of course ended up as a key element in Cream, for which he has rightly been immortalised in music history. His fat, fuzzy, adventurous bass was hugely important to their sound, being used as much as a lead instrument as Eric Clapton's guitar and Ginger Baker's drums, being an equal partner in their mammoth live jams which, more often than not, were still propelled by his playing, showing a mastery of merging rhythm and lead responsibilities. Not only that, he wrote a lot of the songs (with lyricist Pete Brown) and handled most of the vocal duties with aplomb. Not bad for a day's work! Without Jack, Cream still would have been a pretty good band, but nowhere near as good as they were with him. As if to prove this point, his first solo album was stuffed full of first-rate songwriting and playing, with his own style developing over the years but always sounding like Jack Bruce Music.

Suggested listening:

CREAM - Fresh Cream (1966)
CREAM - Disraeli Gears (1967)
CREAM - Wheels Of Fire (1968)
CREAM - Goodbye (1969)
CREAM - Live Cream (1970) [highly recommended!]
JACK BRUCE - Songs For A Tailor (1969) [highly recommended!]
JACK BRUCE - Things We Like (1970) [Jack on double bass]
JACK BRUCE - Harmony Row (1971)
JACK BRUCE - Spirit: Live at the BBC 1971-1978 (2008; 3-CD box set; first 2 are my favourites)
TONY WILLIAMS LIFETIME - Turn It Over (1970) [highly recommended!]
CARLA BLEY - Escalator Over The Hill (1971)
MICHAEL MANTLER - No Answer (1973)
WEST BRUCE & LAING - Why Dontcha (1972)
WEST BRUCE & LAING - Live 'n' Kickin' (1974)