Rebroadcast July 12, 2021.
When musicians talk about their “influences,” it’s not always about a harmonic or rhythmic choice that another musician made. Sometimes it’s their life choices, the stories they tell and the way they tell them. This is the bond between bassist Jack Bruce and our guest on this Deep Focus from 2014, guitarist Vernon Reid.
Sure, as a member of Cream, Jack Bruce was one of the biggest rock stars of all time. Cream practically invented arena rock and it put Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton in the pantheon. But the classically-trained Jack Bruce wasn’t content to ride his celebrity to classic rock comfort. He proved to be a seeker who spent the next 50 years smashing musical boundaries. It’s thanks to him that many of the doors that the guests of Deep Focus wander through are open.
One of Jack Bruce’s last great projects was the band Spectrum Road with Reid, John Medeski and Cindy Blackman Santana. Spectrum Road was a tribute to Tony Williams’ LIfetime, a band that, 40 years earlier with Bruce as a member, created an entire new genre of musical collaboration. Vernon Reid, in his band Living Colour, as well as countless other groups, collaborations, film soundtracks and multi-media work, frolics joyously in it.
Jack Bruce died October 25, 2014. Three weeks later, Vernon Reid joined us on Deep Focus to remember his great friend and inspiration.
It’s on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.
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Photo credit: Jack_Bruce – F. van Geelen, Omroepvereniging VARA, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL creativecommons.org/licenses/