Bill Bruford's Earthworks Summer Tour 1999

Bill Bruford: drum kit
Patrick Clahar: tenor and soprano saxophones
Steve Hamilton: grand piano, synth
Mark Hodgson: double bass

Bill Bruford's Earthworks played five nights in the intimate setting of the Soho Pizza Express Jazz Club. This marks the end of their 1999 summer tour before festival dates in July and August. We had a table crammed next to the stage with Clahar's microphone stand about to be shoved up my nostril. They were good when I saw them nearly a year ago (see Simon Barrow's review), but they are great now. Bruford has picked three really talented musicians in the 33-year old Patrick Clahar on saxophones, Steve Hamilton from the US on piano and Mark Hodgson on bass (replacing last year's Geoff Gascoyne).

The band mainly played material from the new album A Part, and Yet Apart (including the title track, "Some Shiver, While He Cavorts" and "Sarah's Still Life"), but also from If Summer Had Its Ghosts ("Never the Same Way Once") and earlier Earthworks pieces, the latter which work great in the acoustic setting of this new line up, including blistering performances of "Bridge of Inhibition" (from the first album) and "Pigalle" (from All Heave Broke Loose).

Bruford got in a bit of a dig at Yes and King Crimson fans towards the end, saying that he liked to check on how they were doing and whether they had become glassy eyed yet!

Henry Potts, 19 Jun 99

An earlier version of this review was originally posted to alt.music.yes and rec.music.progressive.

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