The Progzilla Files Episode 22.1 – The Music and Words of Bill Bruford

“If you had to pick one musician whose career spans some of the best moments with the most important progressive bands of the classic era and beyond, and one musician who constantly tried to reinvent himself and his instrument, my money would be on Bill Bruford — a drummer who consistently defied expectations, who was never content to stick with the tried-and-true.”

In this show, Mark Foss traces Bruford’s 41-year career as it revolves around progressive rock, including Yes, King Crimson, Genesis and U.K. We’ll also hear from his jazz fusion band Bruford, various duets and ensembles and some session work. And we’ll end with a piece from his jazz band, Bill Bruford’s Earthworks.

Apart from playing music, Mark reads from his words — taken mostly from Bill Bruford: The Autobiography. This is a truly insightful and compelling memoir of a drummer who was too rock for the jazzers and too jazz for the rockers. Of a musician who marched to his own beat.

  1. YES Beyond and Before (Yes)
  2. YES South Side of the Sky (Fragile)
  3. YES Five Per Cent for Nothing (Fragile)
  4. YES Siberian Khatru (Close to the Edge)
  5. KING CRIMSON Improv [extract] (Live in Guildford, 1972)
  6. KING CRIMSON Trio (Starless and Bible Black)
  7. STEVE HOWE Break Away from it All (Beginnings)
  8. YES The Fish (Fragile)
  9. CHRIS SQUIRE Hold Out Your Hand (Fish out of Water)
  10. GENESIS Cinema Show [extract] (Seconds Out)
  11. BRUFORD One of a Kind, Parts 1 and 2 (Bruford)
  12. U.K. Presto, Vivace and Reprise (UK)
  13. KING CRIMSON Discipline (Discipline)
  14. KING CRIMSON Indiscipline (Absent Lovers)
  15. ABWH Brother of Mine (Live in the Inca Valley)
  16. YES Evensong (Union)
  17. KING CRIMSON Thrak (ThraKaTTack)
  18. KING CRIMSON B’Boom (Vroom Vroom)
  19. KING CRIMSON Biker Babes of the Rio Grande (Vroom Vroom)
  20. BRUFORD LEVIN UPPER EXTREMITIES Etude Revisited (Bruford Levin Upper Extremities)
  21. MORA-BRUFORD The Drum Also Waltzes (Live in Maryland)
  22. WORLD DRUMMERS ENSEMBLE Conundrum (A Coat of Many Colours)
  23. BRUFORD/BORTSLAP Conference of the Bees (In Two Minds)
  24. EARTHWORKS My Heart Declares a Holiday (Random Acts of Happiness)