Bill Bruford Quotes

A rock band used to be four guys and a drummer. Now it's five guys sitting around reading manuals!

If it's fast, no I don't have enough piano technique. In that case, it's probably been done on some kind of synthesizer or sequencer. Then the score can then be printed out and so forth.

But what I think my emphasis is, is on the fact that I like music a lot.

Entertainment is about telling everybody that everything is alright but music is on the side of the upsetters and that's where I'm at.

I listen to Bill Stewart play the drums and when I have finished doing that, I listen to Bill Stewart.

Second edition of Earthworks I have the more traditional compositional approach, namely I write a piece from the piano.

And I like messing around in the engine room of music. Seeing what happens in the rhythm section area.

This amateurism however, can sometimes be helpful in forging a style; you have to work around your weaknesses.

We were from totally different social backgrounds. This is what is very hard for an American to understand, but we could have been five guys from Mars.

The best practice you can get is on the bandstand, but in between gigs I feel I have to stay in shape.

I practice at home, in between phone calls, and have much to do.

With Bruford, the album was One Of A Kind. All-instrumental, it possessed the kind of focused vision that allowed for no ifs or buts. With the unnerving confidence of youth, it had This Is What We Do And This Is How We Do It stamped all over it.

One of the great things about having good players in your band is that you just ask them questions. You can pick up some good information that way.

We used to drink an awful lot of alcohol.

We all lived in the same house, or most of us did. And as far as I can make out we were confined to the property, because at twenty-four hours' notice we'd have to do a gig somewhere. So you couldn't leave the building for more than twelve hours in case a gig came through.

Plus I am being hounded by all the fabulous new drummers, Bill Stewart at the head of the pack.

I warm naturally to the drummer whose ideas and approach are strong, even if he doesn't quite have the ability to carry them out.

You learn so much about music from all the people you surround yourself with - good, bad and indifferent. It's extremely hard to be specific.

Whatever I have come to offer, I have come to offer and it may or may not be connected to anything that has happened in the past.

I seldom play in a trio, but acoustic music is likely to be lighter, quicker, and quieter.

The piano is kind of my second instrument.

Sometimes I had to room with Tony Kaye and that was awful.

My harmony is passable but is usually made more eloquent at the hands of Steve Hamilton.

Drummers haven't managed to develop their individuality quite as well as guitarists have. We can be so focused on the nuts and bolts that we overlook the importance of individuality - the broader picture, if you will.

I have been steadily exchanging a rock audience who were nervous about what they had just bought for a jazz audience who not only were happy with their purchase, but are increasingly coming again.

And we'd drink huge amounts of scotch and coke, which is a ghastly sweet drink ... And now people don't drink nearly as much, for good reason. We're all a little wiser.

If I was hearing something I couldn't do, I would figure out how to do it.