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Bill Bruford

The Winterfold Collection 1978–1986

Winterfold BBWF010CD

The Summerfold Collection 1987–2008

Summerfold BBSF022CD

The Winterfold (single-CD) collection contains a selection of Bill Bruford's rock-based solo output; the Summerfold (double-CD) collection is taken from his subsequent jazz-based recordings, but both are quintessential Bruford: irresistibly buoyant, great-hearted, uplifting music, bristling with energy and delivered with considerable (but endearingly unassuming) virtuosity by all concerned.

Bruford has always had great ears, and his deployment of the likes of guitarist Allan Holdsworth and keyboardist Dave Stewart (to name two of the standount contributors to the Winterfold collection), and (to mention the saxophonists alone) Iain Ballamy, Patrick Clahar and Tim Garland on the Summerfield discs, is exemplary, Ballamy contributing fragile lyricism, Clahar and Garland tastefully bustling swagger, to Bruford's band sound as required. Django Bates, too, in the first Earthworks band alongside Ballamy and bassists Mick Hutton and Tim Harries, is sensitively deployed, his many keyboard textures (and his tenor horn playing) complementing Bruford's trademark 'chordal drums' perfectly.

The drummer/composer's more occasional collaborations are also documented, his duos with pianists Patrick Moraz (Winterfold) and Michiel Borstlap (Summerfold) providing intriguing contrasts, his recordings with guitarist Ralph Towner and bassist Eddie Gomez, and with sabar player Doudou N'Diaye Rose, drummer Chad Wackerman and conga player Kuis Conte touching an impressive number of stylistic bases.

At the heart of it all, though, is Bruford himself, either as composer or forceful but versatile and consistently intelligent drummer. His retirement from public performance is a great loss, the seriousness of which can be gauged by listening to these CDs – meanwhile, there is always his book, Bill Bruford: The Autobiography (Jawbone Press) to savour.