Additional information
On SOMETHIN ELS Jack Bruce reunites with lyricist Pete Brown and with former Cream band-mate Eric Clapton for 3 tracks. Personnel: Jack Bruce (vocals, cello, piano, organ, keyboards, fretless bass, drums, percussion); Maggie Reilly (vocals); Peter Weihe (acoustic guitar); Ray Gomez (electric guitar); Clem Clempson (guitar); Dick Heckstall-Smith (soprano & tenor saxophones); Uli Lask (alto saxophone); Gerd Dudek (tenor saxophone); Walt Fowler (trumpet); Bruce Fowler (trombone); Stuart Elliot (drums); Mark Nauseef (percussion); Eric Clapton, Trilok Gurtu, Dave Leibman, Anton Fier. Producers: Jack Bruce, Kurt Renker, Walter Quintus. Recorded at Ztudio Zerkall, Germany, between 1986 and 1992. Includes liner notes by Jack Bruce. After stints with Golden Palominos, Michael Mantler, Kip Hanrahan, and others throughout the '80s, Jack Bruce teamed up again with lyricist Pete Brown for this 1992 recording, released the following year in time for Bruce's 50th birthday. Bruce is joined by old Cream-mate Eric Clapton on several songs, and by a host of other players who worked with him over the previous decades--Dick Heckstall-Smith, Clem Clempson, Anton Fier, and even saxophonist Dave Liebman. The songs visit previous terrain--heavy blues, near-operatic balladry, and jazz-rock fusion. Over the course of the album, Bruce's pipes soar with his characteristic dramatics. The slow build of "Ships In The Night" would seem trite or cliched in lesser hands, were it not for Bruce's bass and singing and Eric Clapton's aching guitar solo. The album closes with Bruce solo at the piano for his instrumental "FM," hinting at the album that would follow two years later, MONKJACK.
Reviews
Q (5/93, p.87) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Bruce's voice is a revelation, high and shimmering as Roy Orbison....he plays with tight self-discipline, on three tracks geeing old chum Clapton to peerless heights..." Down Beat (6/93, p.49) - 3 Stars - Good - "...Basically, it reveals that at age 50, Bruce has more in common with Broadway's Mandy Patinkin than Willie Dixon, his boyhood blues hero..." Musician (11/93, p.92) - "...Bruce is up to his old eclectic tricks, mixing pseudo-classical sketches and shades of fusion with dance and post-Cream grunge. This album's contours can be exhilarating as well as disorienting: Bruce is always thinking about somethin' else...."
