Bill Bruford - The Autobiography: Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks and More by Bill Bruford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Popularity is a crime from the moment it is sought; it is only a virtue where men have it whether they will or no." (Marquis of Halifax, Moral Thoughts and Reflections (1750), as quoted by Bill Bruford)

Bill Bruford: The Autobiography (2012) is an outstanding work by the famous drummer, a legend in the rock and jazz music community, and the "godfather of progressive drumming." The autobiography presents the 40-year career of Mr. Bruford, from his work in the famed progressive rock bands Yes and King Crimson, through electronic jazz, to acoustic jazz drumming. As far as I can ascertain this is not a ghost-written work: there is little of that characteristic polished, glossy style of entertainment writers and a lot of somewhat endearingly awkward prose of an "amateur" author.

By far the best aspect of the autobiography deserves capitalization: THERE IS NO SHOW BUSINESS GOSSIP in the book! The reader will not learn who slept with whom, who took which drugs, or who fired whom from the band. These kind of issues belong in tabloid magazines and luckily there is virtually nothing of that kind here, with the exception of some gentle fun made of Robert Fripp, the famed leader of King Crimson. This is a really serious book, one that deals with serious issues in a mature way.

Another good feature of the autobiography is that it is not chronological but instead arranged around selected topics from theory, business, and sociology of music, which of course helps the author focus on the serious aspects of his career. He repeatedly "circles in time" and returns to his periods of playing with Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Bruford, and Earthworks.

Some of the topics studied by the author are: the relationship between talent and success in the music world, the differences between being an artist and a craftsman, the theory of music as a social phenomenon, differences between composed and improvised music, and similarities and differences between mathematics and music. The closest that the author comes to the dreaded gossip in his autobiography are passages that portray the interpersonal dynamics on a rock/jazz tour and detailed descriptions of recording sessions. Still, luckily we have no sensationalism here.

Let me just focus on two of my hot-button issues. The first one is about "music as art" versus music as a commodity. Mr. Bruford nicely says that artists create music "to soothe their soul," and he chides the alternative - the focus-group-based, business view of music whose goal is to study "what the market wants and provide it." Alas, the latter approach is prevalent these days.

The other issue dear to my heart is the dramatic shortening of the attention span for modern listeners. Mr. Bruford writes:

"For a whole new generation, listening to a piece of music from beginning to end seems unusual. Through TV advertising we hear slices of Beatles songs, Bach cantatas, jazz and blues pastiche, and - here is the point - all of it incomplete".

The "incomplete listening" goes hand in hand with the more and more common "multitasking," which means that instead of doing one thing well, we do two or more things poorly.

There is a number of cool and catchy phrases in the autobiography, such as "Music begins where language leaves off" and several funny quotes, such as

"The [progress in] technology has benefits (anyone can make a record) which immediately leads to drawbacks (everyone does make a record)."

For a moment I was even toying with the idea of a five-star rating for this interesting, analytical, and insightful book. But no, let's leave five stars for absolute masterpieces.

Four and a quarter stars.


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