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Bill Bruford - If Summer Had Its Ghosts (with Ralph Towner And Eddie Gomez)

Artist:	Bill Bruford
Title:	If Summer Had Its Ghosts (with Ralph Towner And Eddie Gomez)
Label:	Discipline Global Mobile DGM9705
Length(s):	49 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1997
Month of review:	12/1997

Line up

Bill Bruford - drums, percussion
Ralph Towner - guitars, piano, keyboards
Eddie Gomez - bass

Tracks

1)	If Summer Had Its Ghosts	6.20
2)	Never The Same Way Once	5.04
3)	Forgiveness	5.15
4)	Somersaults	3.27
5)	Thistledown	4.11
6)	The Ballad Of Vilcabamba	5.00
7)	Amethyst (for Carmen)	4.18
8)	Splendour Among Shadows	4.52
9)	Some Other Time	3.01
10)	Silent Pool	3.35
11)	Now Is The Next Time	4.03

Summary

Bruford has now joined forces with Ralph Towner and Eddie Gomez. The first of these I know from some of his good albums that he made for ECM in the seventies. I'm not that familiar with Gomez. The fact that a few the tracks have been penned by Bruford with Ballamy and Bates (of his band Earthworks) might say something. The artwork is tasteful as always.

The music

The first of the tracks is the longest one: just over six minutes it starts out as reminiscent of the jazzy side of Sting, but then instrumental. The song is quite relaxed with zooming basswork. The next one is Never The Same Way Once with a large role for piano and tasteful, clear drumming. The sound is ever jazzier than on the previous track, but not the jazzrock of Brufords band, Earthworks. This brings us to the third track which was written by Bruford, Ballamy and Bates, all three members of Earthworks if I remember correctly. Again, the piano is the melodic instrument, the bass very flowing and moody and the drumming is typically jazzy: in the breakground and light to the touch. Towner plays both acoustic guitar (where I know him from from his very nice albums for ECM in the seventies) and the piano even some keyboards. Forgiveness is back to the ballads, comparable to the first track and Somersaults is more playful tune with bouncy percussion and that has some Spanish overtones. Funny thing about the next track is that I'm just reading a book in which the name Thistledown figures quite a lot (it's a city). The track sounds a bit like the previous one, but with a pianic melody and again some Latin in the back. The Ballad of Vilcabamba is a Latin piece: danceable and playful. The only Gomez composition on the album is the moody Amethyst. Starting with acoustic guitar and keyboards in the back this is a somber track, and I like it. Bruford applies brushes here. Splendour Among Shadows is a percussion track for the most part and is more hectic and heavy than the others. The next one is a drum solo and is credited to one Morello. It seems he played this solo on a Dave Brubeck album. It's full of non-standard meters, hence the time. More percussion (but also dreamy and spooky keys) on the next one Silent Pool and the Towner-penned Now Is The Next Time closes this album: this is a typical jazz track, but not as quiet as the others. What I miss is more explicit melody.

Conclusion

This is not prog, but since Bruford has evident relations to prog, I thought I'd review this. The album is not even close to Bruford's other jazz excursions since this is not even rock. More something for the later hours these are easy going jazzy pieces with piano and acoustic guitar and of course the rhythm section. Not always melodic, but usually quite intimate and subtle this is something for people who enjoy ECM recordings with classical guitar or piano.