For those unaware, bass icon Jeff Berlin will be releasing a new tribute album to legendary Jack Bruce titled Jack Songs” on August 2nd, 2022.

Jack Bruce, best known for his work with classic rock group Cream as well as his critically acclaimed solo work 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 wanted to record his songs in remembrance of how Jack helped Jeff to find his own musical path.

Says Jeff, “Recording the music of Jack Bruce has been the most emotional recording project of my career. Jack was the greatest bass influence I ever had. In the center of his 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.”

1. Creamed
2. Theme From An Imaginary Western
3. A Letter of Thanks
4. L’Angelo Misterioso
5. Rope Ladder to the Moon
6. One Without a Word
7. Smiles Story and Morning Grins
8. Folk Song
9. Traintime Time
10. Fuimus (We Have Been)

With an album that is most definitely not a cover recording, well, not in the literal sense, except maybe for a couple of tunes from Bruce’s Cream period (all be they arranged in ways that should surprise people), and with most of these songs coming from other periods in his life after Cream, the album opens on the funky blues of Creamed and the piano-led balladry of Theme From An Imaginary Western and then follow those up with the upbeat and joyous A Letter of Thanks, the drum-led, Hammond and horn-imbued beauty L’Angelo Misterioso and then comes the mid-tempo hipsway of Rope Ladder to the Moon.

Along next is one of my own personal favorites, the lyrically-majestic ballad One Without a Word and then that is in turn backed by the masterful piano work heard within the gentle AOPR of Smiles Story and Morning Grins, the quiet, veritable gossamer of Folk Song, the album rounding out on the aptly-named, gently frenetic Traintime Time, coming to a close on the earnest piano ballad Fuimus (We Have Been) (aka the Bruce Clan Motto).

“Jack was the Alpha and Omega for me,” Berlin Continues. “I never would have become the bass player I became if I didn’t hear his unfettered improvisations and innovations, his creating a completely original bass tone, and his playing every gig as if it was his last.”

“When he died, I immediately set out to honor him by reviewing his music to choose some of my favorite songs of his and recording them via my own musical vision. As was his legacy of musical brilliance, I wanted this record to be brilliant to honor his spirit. He really means this much to me.”

For over 40 years, Jeff Berlin has stood as one of the most innovative electric bassists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Known for his one-of-a-kind tone, jaw dropping technique and highly advanced harmonic approaches to the bass, Jeff has been one of the major figures in firmly establishing the electric bass as a solo instrument well deserving of its own distinct place in modern music.

Jeff’s recording and performance credits include a who’s who of jazz and rock. They include: Bill Bruford, Allan Holdsworth, Larry Coryell, Pat Martino, John McLaughlin, Anderson Wakeman Bruford Howe, Frank Zappa, Patrick Moraz and many more.

Guest performers:
Sammy Hagar, Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, Gregg Bissonette, Gary Husband, Eric Johnson, Bill Frisell, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Alex Ligertwood, Scott Henderson, Marcus Miller, Ron Carter, Tony Levin, Michael League, Nathan East, Mark King, Bruce Guttridge, Billy Sheehan and Johnny Hiland!

Jeff Berlin - Jack Songs (An All-Star Tribute to Jack Bruce) [Official Invite Video]

Official Purchase Link

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