Blues you can't lose (Jack Bruce) (LP 750 - 752)

The Jack Bruce Band  How's Tricks (Vinyl, RSO, 1977) ***

Jack Bruce and Friends: Clem Clempson, Billy Cobham, David Sancious  I've Always Wanted To Do This (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1980) *** 

Jack Bruce  A Question Of Time (Vinyl, CBS, 1989) ***

Genre: Blues rock 

Places I remember: Chaldon Books and Records, Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Flying 

Gear costume: How's Tricks

Active compensatory factors: I picked up How's Tricks from Chaldon Books and Records - a great little shop in Caterham-on-the-hill when we lived in Caterham. I miss walking up that hill and thinking about what records I'd buy this time. I managed to get some Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce records at various times. 

The other two are promo copies that came from Real Groovy.

All three have their respective charms, but they wouldn't be considered essential purchases in the canon. Nice to haves, not must haves.

How's Tricks (sic) is a transitional record. It was Jack's last record for RSO as the company refused to release the next album - citing it as not commercial. Hello! Did they listen to the back catalogue? I think not.

Jack and the band sound good (Tony Hymas, Simon Phillips, and Hughie Burns round out The Jack Bruce Band) but it's fairly restrained and doesn't quite fire on all cylinders. Maybe they were trying to be too commercial?

Jack Bruce and Friends is commercial on Jack's terms. It sounds amazing - again, with musicians of this calibre it's hard not to make a great sounding record. Jack and Billy Cobham fuse together particularly well, his singing is terrific and the songs are quirkily Jack sounding songs. Unfortunately they don't linger long in the memory but this album isn't as bad as critics would have you believe.

A Question Of Time is another quality effort. Jack surrounds himself with a large number of musician (even including Ginger on a couple of tracks - Obsession is noteworthy). I like the album - it's pretty heavy in places (No Surrender) but poetic and delicate in others (Flying).

Where do they all belong? A lot more to come from the greatest bassist of all time.