Drummer Bill Bruford recorded Feels Good To Me - his debut album as a leader - in 1977, but it wasn’t until the conclusion of an 18-month spell with the band UK that his vision of a more permanent outfit bore fruit. Joining Bill and guitarist Allan Holdsworth in ‘Bruford’ were bassist Jeff Berlin and keyboardist Dave Stewart, both of whom had also made key musical contributions to Feels Good To Me.
Bill describes the band as being “designed as a powerful instrumental rock-group with fancy harmony - we didn’t consider ourselves a jazz group”. ‘Bruford’ produced a further two studio albums, One of a Kind and Gradually Going Tornado. Intelligent, intricately crafted, and technically impressive, One of a Kind in particular caught the public imagination, and 30 years later is regularly cited as being among the best fusion records of all time. The final album The Bruford Tapes is a live direct to two-track ‘beat the bootleggers’ session recorded in the summer of 1979 for a radio broadcast in Long Island, New York. The Bruford Tapes perfectly captures the raw atmosphere of the gig, whilst sacrificing none of the instrumental dexterity, which, as ever with Bruford, is off the scale.
