The 1980 Listening Post - Jack Bruce and Friends - I've Always Wanted To Do This

 Reviewed by Tom Mott

Released: December 1980 Jack Bruce And Friends I've Always Wanted To Do This Genre: Jazz Brunch Rating: 3 out of 5 Highlights: Dancing on Air Jack Bruce is a GOAT. His lead vocal on Tales of Brave Ulysses is enough for me. After Cream, he went on record a couple of challenging fusion albums which I admit I've circled around tenatively a couple of times but haven't quite committed to.[1][2] Those are fusion in the best "Bitches Brew" sense of that genre. Fusion gets a bad rap, but let's face it: a lot of it is bad. Or more to the point, by 1980, "fusion," became shorthand for a very specific micro-genre which I don't much like. Bruce is joined on this album by Billy "speaking of Bitches Brew, here comes fusion's greatest drummer" Cobham, and Clem "Colosseum" Clempson, so I was looking forward with anticipation. Well, shit. This isn't my thing. Keyboard-heavy, early-80's jazzy rock. Or rock-infused jazz---"dolphin-sounds" jazz. With a tweak or two, you'd have John Martyn's "Grace & Danger."[3] But without that tweak or two, this is Steely Dan's "CODA." Pass. ----------- 1. Ginger Baker's early 70s excursions fare better in my book, especially the live Air Force 2 album with Denny Laine, Graham Bond, and Rich Grech that currently isn't streaming but is on YouTube in dubious quality. 2. You want some fucked up early 70s fusion, a la Miles Davis's Down on the Corner? Check out Bruce "Buffalo Springfield" Palmer's 1970 album "The Cycle is Complete" with Rick "Super Freak, that's right I was in the Mynah Birds with Neil Young" James scatting. That album leaped 100 spots with a bullet on my personal all-time favorite albums list after I blumbled into it a month ago. 3. Still holding up as a LISTENING POST DISCOVERY and one of THE GREAT LOST ALBUMS of the early 80s.