Double Bass Jack Bruce on upright - oh yeah!

CaseyVancouver

CaseyVancouver

Nov 4, 2012
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#1
Jack Bruce, before he got famous with Cream, was a great upright bassist.
More than a few electric players may be surprised to hear him on upright.

There are recordings out there (I heard an old BBC one years ago) of him on upright.
He had a great sounding bass, and really knew how to play.

Here is a vid of him with a drummer and sax. It is 'modern' jazz and chaotic.
The BBC recording that is out there somewhere has him on a ballad.

 
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#3
On the video he sometimes plays pizzicato with only third finger of right hand - f.e. on 2:07
Any ideas why he used that technique? It's strange and new to me, never seen something like this.
 
#4
Michal Herman said:
On the video he sometimes plays pizzicato with only third finger of right hand - f.e. on 2:07
Any ideas why he used that technique? It's strange and new to me, never seen something like this.
Click to expand...

He switches frequently between repeatedly using the first finger and repeatedly using the third finger. My guess as to his purpose is to avoid fatigue(?)

Interesting clip. Would have loved to hear him play upright more with Cream, but I suppose the technology then was insufficient to keep up with those kinds of volumes.
 
#5
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A bit off topic & I know this is the double bass house room (!) but interesting that he went to short scale fretless electric for the rest of his career. Seduced by fame and fortune? As much as I love my fretless electric, I cannot imagine it totally replacing an upright.
 
#6
Lee Moses said:
He switches frequently between repeatedly using the first finger and repeatedly using the third finger. My guess as to his purpose is to avoid fatigue(?)
Click to expand...

Well, thanks for keeping me up until four in the morning. That clip led into a whole bunch of others of his.

In one he was talking about the challenges of keeping the sound full in a three person group like Cream. He couldn't expect the guitarist to be playing chords all of the time against his lead so he developed a technique based on his early experience with a sitar like instrument which required wearing plectrums on your fingers and the fingers going back and forth rapidly on the string like a mandolin. So when the guitarist would go off on a soloistic line, Jack would play the bass line with his thumb while fluttering on a higher note with what looked like his second or third finger.

Maybe some of that transferred to what you see going on.

I saw Cream at a sports stadium in Philly when I was a young teen, and then Jack with his band shortly after Cream at a more intimate venue where I was just feet from the stage. Hope I'm not a turncoat to my profession but so many symphony concerts have faded in my memory but those concerts of his left an impression so vivid it's like it was yesterday.
 
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#7
Jack recorded on DB a fair amount and recorded even more often on cello. That video clip is a piece that was on an album called "Things We Like" that featured the same trio plus a handful of tracks with guest John McLaughlin, just before he left for the USA to play with Miles. It was held up for release for over two years because his label wanted a rock record, not a jazz record. He's also featured on DB on a live album by the band Rocket 88 from 1979.



Don't blink to see Jack in this clip



With Blues Incorporated, 1962

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Mick Jagger sits in with Blues Incorporated, 1962

A-425700-1224347589.jpeg.jpg
 
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#8
That London scene was really deep. You find so much cross-over between rock, jazz, free jazz and prog. Pink Floyd and Paul McCartney were influenced by the British sound improv band AMM. Great free jazz players played in Soft Machine and King Crimson. There are even connections between modern classical and Eno and others.
It was fertile time and place!
 
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#10
CaseyVancouver said:
Jack Bruce, before he got famous with Cream, was a great upright bassist.
More than a few electric players may be surprised to hear him on upright.

There are recordings out there (I heard an old BBC one years ago) of him on upright.
He had a great sounding bass, and really knew how to play.

Here is a vid of him with a drummer and sax. It is 'modern' jazz and chaotic.
The BBC recording that is out there somewhere has him on a ballad.

Click to expand...

 
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#13
The amazing thing about Jack Bruce is — for me, no matter what instrument he was playing, his personality always poured through with every note.

Electric bass, piano, upright bass, cello, organ, harmonica, acoustic guitar… his individuality and approach is always so strong and recognizable.

(oh yeah, then add in his five octave vocal range…. ;)
 
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#14
Admiral Akbar said:
He played cello before upright bass. Claimed his teachers at the Royal Scottish Music Academy said he was “too small” for bass initially.

His recorded cello parts are classics unto themselves:



(Of course White Room too!)

One of my favorites — I had to learn this on cello myself:

Click to expand...

I always liked the Brian Auger and Julie Tippets version of Rope Ladder to the Moon. No cello, though.
 
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#17
damonsmith said:
He was in this trio:

There is a nice reissue here:
Squidco: Taylor, Mike: Trio, Quartet & Composer, Revisited
Click to expand...

I don't think Jack plays on this track though (track 1):

PERSONNEL, DATES & TRACKS:
  • MIKE TAYLOR TRIO
  • Mike Taylor - piano
  • Ron Rubin - double bass on tracks 1 to 6 & 8
  • Jack Bruce - double bass on tracks 3,5,6 & 7
  • Jon Hiseman - drums
  • 01.All The Things You Are
  • 02.Just A Blues
  • 03.While My Lady Sleeps
  • 04.The End Of A Love Affair
  • 05.Two Autumns
  • 06.Guru
  • 07.Stella By Starlight
  • 08.Abena Recorded in London, July 12 & 13, 1966
  • _
He does play on this though:

 
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