Trivia Quiz 16

Quote:

Jack Bruce was born John Simon Asher Bruce in Bishopbriggs, Lanarkshire, Scotland on 14 May 1943. While his parents travelled extensively in Canada and the U.S., Jack attended 14 different schools. From childhood, he wanted to be a musician. His parents bought him a piano to encourage his interest while at school. He started off as a choir singer before becoming a boy soprano soloist, entering Scottish music festivals and winning a few competitions. "I used to get very nervous, though, and almost throw up beforehand," Jack recalls. "I still do get stage fright, but as a kid I couldn't handle it. It would be just me and a pianist, and they'd be marking me while singing Schubert. It was very competitive because the sme half a dozen kids entered. My mother ensured that I had vocal training, which has stood me in good stead over the years. I knew how to project from the abdomen as opposed to pop singers who sing from the throat, which is why a lot of them have vocal problems."

At age 16, Jack won a scholarship to study the cello at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow. At 17, he left the Academy due to his professors' lack of interest in his ideas. Jack recalls: "When I was a young school boy I always wanted to play the bass, but was put on the cello because I wasn't big enough to handle the monster. At 15, having grown, I realised my first ambition and played bass in the school orchestra. I then went to music college but didn't stay very long. They didn't dig what I awas doing and I didn't particularly think what they were teaching me was going to help me very much. I got quite frustrated at college, because it was very old fashioned. I was very interested in modern composers like Stravinsky, and the teachers were very old - almost Victorians! A lot of them thought that music had died with Richard Strauss. I was also getting into modern jazz and trying to get them to take it seriously was very hard . . . It was a question of either staying at college or gigging. I was getting great experience playing in jazz clubs and learning Thelonius Monk tunes, which for me was just as important as studying classical harmony. The college didn't agree, so I left."

Jack returned and went to London for the first time, going straight to Archer street. "I went down The Street, and got a gig at an American base - in Italy." He was just 17. The deal was that he had to go to France, then drive the band to a town near Venice. "I had a driving license - but only just. I'd lied about my age, and had to drive this 1940s Mercedes with a trailer on the back carrying a Lowry organ - over the Alps! I'd never really driven before."

On his return to the UK, Jack joined the Jim McHarg Scotsville Jazz Band. Jim was the bassist, but got fired by his own band. Jack got his gig. While playing in Cambridge, he saw Ginger Baker play for the first time with tenor sax player **** Heckstall-Smith. **** and Ginger tried to discourage the young Jack from sitting in - they thought he wouldn't be able to play or cope with the changes. But Jack made an impression. **** tracked him down later and the two joined Alexis Korner's Blues Inc. There, they discretely campaigned to replace drummer Charlie Watts with Ginger Baker. He left Alexis' band in 1963 to form a group with Graham Bond, guitarist John McLaughlin and drummer Ginger Baker. This became the "Graham Bond Organisation" after John left, and **** Heckstall-Smith joined. Three years later, Ginger fired Jack from the Organisation because his bass playing was "too busy". Jack refused an offer to join Marvin Gaye's U.S.-based band because of an impending first marriage, then joined John Mayall's Blues Breakers, where he met Eric Clapton. He briefly left to join Manfred Mann, then was asked by Ginger Baker to form a trio with Clapton, who insisted that Jack be the singer.

CREAM, as the trio was called, went on to sell 35,000,000 records and were awarded the first platinum album in history for "Wheels of Fire". Jack wrote and sang most of the songs, including hits such as "I Feel Free", "White Room", "Politician", and what is perhaps the world's most performed riff, "Sunshine of Your Love". His composing was done with lyricist Pete Brown, with whom he continues to work to this day. By now, Jack had switched from double bas to electric, and in the process revolutionised the way the instrument was used. Soon, he was recognised as the lone bass-great of his time, and his free-wheeling style continues to influence bassists to this day. CREAM curdled in 1969 at the height of their popularity. Jack felt that he had strayed too far from his ideals and desired to explore his musical and social roots.