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Bill Bruford: drums
Patrick Clahar: saxophones
Steve Hamilton: piano
Mark Hodgson: bass
#billbruford
#earthworks
The Bridge of Inhibition is the one you’ve got to cross to leave your fears of ridicule behind as you strike out into unknown spaces. All good performers have to find it, cross it and leave it behind if they are going to progress. The track was on the first Earthworks album, and has been recorded by the band several times since with different personnel, and indeed with different drum kit configurations.
The Eastern European aroma of the tune was tailor-made for this Bulgarian crowd. The further east you go in Europe the more interesting the rhythms become. I’ve seen Turkish housewives at the end of a lunchtime TV chat-show happily swinging their hips to the outgoing music in 7/4, no problem. A gig in Istanbul, Turkey led to the World Drummers Ensemble - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqhUKJPYVMU - recording a cover version of the (Turkish) Harem Percussion Group’s piece ‘Ritm Kompozisyon’ on our album ‘A Coat of Many Colors’.
If you can see anything through the poor stage lighting, check out the bass playing at 0’19”-0’30”. Mark is flying, and it always astonishes me how acoustic players have the strength to do that. On this occasion, the song turned out to be a feature for piano and drums, with Steve leading the way with some of the best playing I heard from him on that tour. The drum solo that follows is unusually long for me, and I make no excuses. The tubs were sounding sweet and like they really wanted to be played, but I concede 3’24” of unaccompanied drum set is a lot, even if you’re Bulgarian. Anyway, I was enjoying the gig like crazy. I’m pretty sure the large crowd enjoyed it too. #billbrufordsearthworks