Jack Bruce can play jazz in different styles (I once saw him sit in with a Dixieland group in a Chalk Farm pub) but these 50th birthday concerts feature his singing more than anything else, mostly of material he produced in collaboration with Pete Brown.
As a blues singer Bruce is rather effective and on the blues-based tracks either Themen or Heckstall-Smith indulges in some idiomatic blowing, but the only tracks which seem to categorise themselves clearly as jazz are the third and fourth on the first CD. These are played by Heckstall-Smith, Bruce (on bass) and Ginger Baker and are avant-garde enough to worry any customers who thought they’d come to hear hits from the past. Most of what follows, however, would have kept such customers very happy.
Discography
Can You Follow?; Running Thro’ Our Hands; Over The Cliff-Statues; First Time I Met The Blues; Smiles & Grins; Bird Alone; Neighbour, Neighbour: Born Under A Bad Sign (53.55) – Ships In The Night; Never Tell Your Mother She’s Out Of Tune; Theme For An Imaginary Western; Golden Days; Life On Earth; NSU; Sitting On Top Of The World; Politician; Spoonful; Sunshine Of Your Love (63.00)
Jack Bruce (v, b, p) with varied accompaniment including at times Henry Lowther (t); Dick Heckstall-Smith, Art Themen (ts); John Mumford (tb); Ginger Baker (d). Cologne, November 2 and 3, 1993.
(CMP CD 1004/1)