Bass icon Jeff Berlin has launched a Pledge Music Campaign for a new tribute album to legendary Jack Bruce titled “Jeff Berlin Plays
Jack Bruce: Songs For A Wailer”! Jack Bruce, best known for his work with
classic rock legends Cream, as well as his critically acclaimed solo work,
sadly passed away in 2014. Jeff Berlin, who has been called “the greatest bass
player in the world”, was a personal friend of Jack's and felt the time was
right for a tribute.
Says Jeff,
“Recording the music of Jack Bruce will be the most emotional recording project
of my career. Jack was the greatest musical influence I ever had. As an
impressionable 14 year old bass player, I was stunned by Cream, literally in
awe of the music that came from them. And, in the center of the music were
these strange and wonderful bass lines weaving in and out of the key, reaching
for resolutions and finding them, again, and again. Jack’s playing was a living
evolving improvisation. I simply never heard a bass player that had the breadth
of originality like Jack had. In fact, I still haven’t!
“ 'Jeff
Berlin Plays Jack Bruce: Songs for a Wailer!' isn’t a cover CD, not in the
literal sense. Except for a couple of tunes from his Cream period (arranged in
ways that should surprise people) most of the songs on this CD come from other
periods in Jack’s musical life before and after Cream. Jack's solo career
represented a multitude of musical styles, so many in fact that his career
reminded me of that famous quote from Forrest Gump: You never knew what you
were going to get. This recording, to me, will be a new revamp of some of those
songs, some of the best music that I heard from one of the greatest musicians
of the last fifty years.”
Guest
performers are:
Ginger Baker
on drums
Chad Smith
on drums
Paul Shaffer
on Hammond organ
Allan
Holdsworth on guitar
Guest list
is still being expanded.
Known
worldwide for his innovative style, Jeff has graced bandstands and recordings
with legendary players like Bill Bruford, Dennis Chambers, Neil Peart, Billy
Cobham, John McLaughlin, and Allan Holdsworth, and has led bands and recorded
his own CDs for nearly 30 years. He has recorded for vocalists Patti Austin and
kd Lang; he has traversed the progressive rock realm with former YES members
Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe and is the only electric bassist to have
played with jazz pianist Bill Evans. Jeff famously turned down an offer to join
rockers VAN HALEN. Jeff is also hailed outside the usual musician ranks: Actor
Gary Sinise (also a bassist) is one of his biggest fans, and renowned boxing
trainer and ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas refers to Jeff as “the best in the
business.” Jaco Pastorius considered Berlin a better soloist than he was.
Geddy Lee called Jeff “the best bass
player on the planet”. Jack Bruce said that Jeff “was the greatest bass player
I ever heard!” From straight ahead Jazz to Fusion to Prog-Rock, Jeff is famous for
playing anything, always at the very highest level of proficiency and
musicality.
“Jeff Berlin
Plays Jack Bruce: Songs For A Wailer” will be co-produced with Jeff Berlin by
New York based producer John McCracken. John is a gold and platinum record
producer/musician/engineer with over 100 recordings produced for major and
independent record labels as well as TV and film. He has worked in all genres
including rock, pop, jazz and classical/opera. John is also a former EMI Music
Group Executive as Head of A&R/Staff Producer for EMI Music/Blue Note Label
Group. There he worked with Norah Jones, Amos Lee, Rosanne Cash, Diana Ross,
Sarah Brightman, Anouska Shankar (daughter of Ravi and half sister of Norah
Jones), Robert Glasper and many others. John is currently spearheading guitar
legend Allan Holdsworth’s Tales from the Vault PledgeMusic campaign. He is also
an acclaimed guitarist and recording engineer and brings over 35+ years of
experience at all levels of music production, A&R/project management and
publishing.
Pledge
Campaign Link: www.pledgemusic.com/projects/jeffberlinplaysjackbruce
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