Music
Bruford chose to play drums because after watching American jazz drummers of the 1960s on BBC TV. His sister then gave him a pair of brushes as a present. He later took a few lessons - while still attending Public School - from Lou Pocock of the Royal Philharmonic.
He said that he never acquired drum technique for the sake of acquiring it, but as a solution to a particular problem, and if he heard something that he couldn't do, he would learn how to do it. Bruford applied this way of learning to other instruments as well, although acknowledging that he has the 'classic amateur's technique'; meaning that he knows some very difficult bits and that he has some large gaping holes in his knowledge, but his amateurism can sometimes be helpful in forging a style, because he has to work around his weaknesses.
Bruford's pre-Yes bands included The Breed (1966–67), a Sevenoaks-based r'n'b/soul band which included future Flash bassist Ray Bennett, future Canned Rock singer/guitarist Doug Kennard and guitarist Stu Murray (since Bruford was at boarding school and not available for all gigs, the band occasionally used another drummer, Pete Skinner, and sometimes both), a short-lived band named The Noise (1967) with whom he gigged in Italy, and Savoy Brown (1968), his first professional engagement - which lasted all of three gigs.
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Famous quotes containing the word music:
“I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.... Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
—Harper Lee (b. 1926)
“As polishing expresses the vein in marble, and grain in wood, so music brings out what of heroic lurks anywhere. The hero is the sole patron of music.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Taylor, the Shakespeare of divines.
His words are music in my ear,”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)