Pete Roth Trio, with Bill Bruford on drums, Mike Pratt, left, bass guitar, and Pete Roth, guitar.

Legendary drummer Bill Bruford on the Jazz Hastings stage

A musician hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as the 16th greatest drummer of all time will be featuring in the Jazz Hastings session on 4 November. The great Bill Bruford of Yes and King Crimson will be appearing as part of the Pete Roth Trio on Tuesday 4 November 4. Julian Norridge reports.

Bill Bruford grew up with jazz and began his professional career in 1968. He was a guiding light in the so-called ‘Art Rock’ movement, first as a founding member of Yes and then touring and recording from 1968 to 1974 with King Crimson. He was to maintain an intermittent relationship with both bands until the late ‘90s.

There then followed several years spent observing and participating in the music-making processes of, among others, Gong, National Health and Genesis, until Bill felt ready to write and perform his own music with his own band Bruford, recording four albums from 1977-80.

It was, however, the reconstituted King Crimson of 1980-84 that provided the vehicle for his revolutionary use of electronics in developing the melodic side of percussion. Following an interim two year/two album stint improvising on acoustic piano and drums with Patrick Moraz, Bruford formed his electro-acoustic jazz group Earthworks in 1986, with Django Bates and Iain Ballamy, specifically to continue this work on melody from the drum set, but now in a jazz context.

Earthworks, the group’s first offering in 1987, was named the “third best jazz album of the year” by America’s USA Today; then came Dig? (1989), All Heaven Broke Loose (1991), and the summer 1994 live set, Stamping Ground.

King Crimson again proved itself a veritable percussion think-tank when it launched the double-rhythm team of Bruford and Pat Mastelotto in the 1994 double-trio incarnation. Through late 1994 and 1995, the band toured the world, giving 120 concerts, and producing studio and live CDs documenting its fresh and innovative use of two drummers. 1996 saw further King Crimson concerts, and the production of a CD Rom encapsulating Bruford’s approach.

In between all this, Bruford also found time to record and/or tour with a wide range of other bands, including the Buddy Rich orchestra. He continued being highly active in the first years of the new millennium, including recording more records with the second incarnation of Earthworks. In all he has made some 35 albums.

In 2009 he retired from public performance after 41 years as a musician. He studied for a doctorate from the University of Surrey, published his autobiography and wrote a second book called Uncharted: Creativity and the Expert Drummer. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes.

But in 2022 he ended his retirement. “I remember passing someone else’s kit one day, sitting down, and feeling exhilarated all over, urgently and violently keen to start all over again.”  He joined the Pete Roth Trio, a jazz group led by German-born guitarist Pete Roth, who had been his drum technician 20 years earlier. The trio is completed by bass-player, composer and producer Mike Pratt.

This session will be a unique opportunity to hear a legend all over again.

Pete Roth Trio with Bill Bruford Jazz Hastings, Tuesday 4 November, East Hastings Sea Angling Association (on the Stade behind the lifeboat station). Doors open 7.45pm for 8.30 start, tickets £15 on the door, £3 for under 18s.

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