23 December 2007
Jack Bruce wishes all a very happy holiday season and
most specifically a safe and peaceful 2008.
5 October 2006
Further to my words on the death of Bruce Gary:
I first met Bruce Gary outside the Record Plant in Los Angeles during the recording
sessions of what eventually became "Out of the Storm." He stormed up to me
and Pete Brown and said, "Jack, I am your drummer. I know every song you've
ever recorded." He gave us a lift up the hill to the Riot House Hotel and didn't stop
talking for a second. This was typical of Bruce.
Anyway the upshot was that I told him vaguely to come and see me at my house in England,
never thinking he would. A few weeks after my return to England a knock on my front
door announced the arrival of Mr Gary. I was surprised and pleased and he stayed for
four months eating us out of house and home!
Musically it was a very fruitful time and we spent many hours and days in my studio
practising being a rhythm section.
Bruce's technique was amazing and he could play as much with one bass drum as most other
drummers could with at least two!
He remained my friend till the end of his life and it is difficult for me to believe he
won't be on the phone to me soon (usually when I was trying to finish a complicated sauce
or serve a meal for nine people!) We were talking just days before he died about
working together again and I wanted him to come to England to help me to archive my
recordings, something he had a great talent for. This won't happen now and I do
regret not spending more time with him.
Isn't it always the way.
I was very lucky that I was able to be with him at the Grammies and Simon Philips and
Brucie and myself had a great time.
26 August 2006
I am so terribly sad to have to announce the death of
my very close friend and colleague, fantastic drummer Bruce Gary. I have only just found
out today , Saturday August 26, as I am on holiday. He succumbed to cancer last Tuesday in
Los Angeles. I am in a state of shock and great sadness at this tragic news as I had been
speaking to him up until very recently and I beg your indulgence to allow me to
write a fuller, more appreciative piece, on my return home. For the moment just let me say
that I will miss him greatly.
18 December 2004
It is with a terrible sense of loss that I have to
announce the death of my great friend, Dick Heckstall - Smith who died last night in a
London hospital.
Dick was one of my very closest friends and when I first came to London in the early
sixties he took me under his wing. I looked up to him as an older brother and he
introduced me to many aspects of music that changed my whole life. Indeed it was Dick who
got me my first important job with Alexis Korner's Blues Inc. Dick it was who first played
me the early music of Bob Dylan and the Beatles He turned me on to great writers I had not
known as yet like Joseph Heller and Malcolm Lowry.
If it had not been for his encouragement and guidance, I might never have been a part of
the blossoming London scene. Dick introduced me to Ginger Baker and told me to check out a
brilliant new guitarist called Eric Clapton!
Dick never received the recognition he deserved. He was without doubt the world's foremost
blues saxophonist. His ability on tenor and soprano saxes (sometimes both at the same
time) was unsurpassed in his chosen field.
Goodbye Dick. It was a great honour to have known you and a great privilege to have played
with you. You will live in my heart forever. 18/12/2004
14 May 2004
It is so wonderful to be able to write to you on this
my 61st birthday. There were times in the last few months when quite a lot of my
medical people didn't think I would see this day. They didn't know me very well I don't
think, cos I never really had any doubts!
I do know that a great deal of the strength I have had was a result of all your prayers
and the good wishes that I actually felt directed towards me through the ether!
Again thanks so very much to all of you and I look forward to playing for you again. I
have a feeling that something very exciting will happen next year, and I am continuing my
revovery towards this end.
Jack Bruce
(For information about Jack's successful battle with liver cancer and his trasnplant
surgery in September 2003, see our Press Releases.)
30 November 2001
I am really shocked and saddened to hear of the death
of George Harrison. Along with the all of his contemporaries as well as millions
throughout the world I mourn the passing of a musician whose sensitivity and spirituality
touched all of us. Apart from his work with the Beatles and his important solo recordings
George was one of the first in the sixties to bring the influence of Indian culture to the
attention of the world thus changing the direction of western music for all time. He was
also almost single handedly responsible for the resurgence of the British film industry in
recent times through his Hand Made Films production company. Without his input it is
unlikely that films such as The Life of Brian, Brazil, Withnail and I, Mona Lisa, A
Private Function and many others would ever have been made.
I first had the privilege of working with him on the Cream Goodbye sessions and his
wonderful rhythm guitar work on Badge prompted me to ask him to play on Never tell Your
Mother She's Out of Tune on my first solo album, Songs For a Tailor. This he did superbly
using the name L'Angelo Misterioso for contractual reasons. He took the session so
seriously that he arrived at the studio an hour before anyone else in order to be prepared
for the live recording!
I always felt a special empathy with him, the "Quiet Beatle" as I guess I was
also the "Quiet Cream!"
Farewell George. I will miss you.
Jack Bruce
6 October 2000
Hello folks of world! How are ye? I haven't been in
touch for quite a while and a lot has been going on that may be of interest to you.
First regarding the album All Quiet in Cuicoland; it progresses well if a little
slower than I would like. In November I am planning to finish the recording with a little
help from some friends. We are in negotiation with a record company and all looks
promising on that front. I'll keep you posted.
Now at last I can break the news about the new band. I've been bursting to let you in on
this but it is only now possible to 'fess up!
Our name is HotFlash and we are Jack Bruce (bass, voc.) Andy Summers (gtr.voc.) and Dennis
Chambers (drs. voc.)
Andy and myself have already written more than twenty new songs and the band recorded
seven in one day!
As you can tell I am very excited about this. The band sounds great - very much the Cream
Police! and can't wait to get back to work. We plan our first release early next year and
then we want to hit the road bigtime. Around the world - at least around the world!
Finally a big thanks to all of you who check in to this site and a very special Hello to
all the great people "Down Under." It's folks like you
that make it all worthwhile.
Love and Peace. Until the next time - keep on listening!
Jack Bruce
29 May 2000
St. Louis Missouri
Hello folks of world,
Well i've finally gotten it together to write a little diary entry. I also have some cool
snaps which will appear on the site when I can find a connector cable. (Damn Mac.)
The tour has been going great guns so far and to me most if not all the gigs have been a
groove. My particular faves so far have been the Beacon in New York City (where my good
friend Andy Summers sat in on "Theme for an Imaginary Western," and last night
in a shed near St. Louis Missouri. But they've all had something going for them,
especially the great audiences. I get to play boogie woogie piano on Dave Edmond's tunes.
It was great to get to hang with our man Derek A. and his lovely friend, Blair, and Peter
Luger's in Brooklyn was a hoot. Oh the carnage oh the blood! (For those not in the know,
it's a famous MEAT restaurant.) Don't go there if you're a cow. It's almost as dangerous
as Chuck Berry's bathroom in this town. (If you're reading this, Mr Berry, I'm just
joking!)
But for me the most moving was the pleasure and privilege of meeting Marc & Lorraine
Wickert. You're the best - and thanks for the hat. I've changed my name to Crocodile.
Thanks so much for all the lovely things all you lovely people write to me. I read them
and it makes it all make sense somehow.
More (relatively) soon
Today's word is haddock. (I do miss them on the road.)
