In the early 1960s, Jack Bruce could only stand at the bottom of the stairs at Ronnie Scott’s and listen. He was an outsider; scuffling on the lunatic fringe of the London jazz scene, he could neither afford the admission – nor did he fit in artistically. He was in good company; the likes of saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith and drummer Ginger Baker occupied the same twilight zone. Unlike their mainstream counterparts, they never felt inferior to their more illustrious fellow travellers from the States – and they were prepared to experiment, to take the music ‘out there’ and not trail in the slipstream of Charlie Parker.

Fifty years later, Jack Bruce is the headliner, playing to a packed house at Scott’s, the last of three sell-out dates with a superb blues band called the Blues Experience. Jack looked relaxed, laughing and joking his way through a set of Cream classics and blues standards and playing like a demon.

Does this mean Jack has gone mainstream and embedded himself in the Establishment? Very far from it; over five decades as a professional musician, Jack has retained the essential iconoclasm and free spirit that saw him turn his back on the restrictions and constraints of formal music education and strike out, still in his teens, to make his way as a bass player for hire. What happened next has passed into legend; Jack Bruce became one of rock’s most accomplished composers, its most distinctive vocalist and the musician who wrote the book on electric bass guitar. Bracketed by Cream who broke up in 1968 and the Cream reunion of 2005, Jack has roamed across the landscape of popular music creating a stunning body of solo work and thrilling associations with the world’s best rock and jazz musicians. Interweaved with triumph and acclaim, Jack’s own haunting demons, personal tragedy, illness and the blood-sucking vampires of a treacherous music business have all conspired to make the pathways anything but smooth.

For two years from 2007, I was privileged to keep company with Jack as he told me his life story with candour and much self-deprecating humour. We talked in his country home, his town house, over pub lunches and walking through the streets of Glasgow on a trip down memory lane. To add perspective and context to the story, I also interviewed Jack’s immediate family, friends and many of the stellar musicians with whom he has shared studio and stage including Carla Bley, Gary Moore, Billy Cobham and Larry Coryell. Eric Clapton kindly provided a very insightful foreword situating Jack in his own early development as a musician. The end result, Jack’s authorised biography, Jack Bruce: Composing Himself, published by the Jawbone Press is now available.

But as anybody who witnessed the gigs at Scott’s will tell you, the story is far from over. There is a new project on the way. Back in October 2001, Jack’s Latin band, the Cuicoland Express recorded a live album in Holland. It has never been released, but now Jack has partnered with a new company called Pledge Music to get the album out to Jack’s many dedicated fans across the world. And believe me, it’s a beautiful album which will come as a real surprise to those rock fans who only know Jack through power trios like Cream and West, Bruce and Laing. And really that was the point of writing the book in the first place. The stories of rock ‘n roll mayhem are entertaining and sometimes jaw-dropping, but the real purpose was to encourage people to go explore for themselves the many sides of Jack Bruce – master musician and class act.

To find out more about obtaining Jack’s new album and other exclusive benefits go to: www.pledgemusic.com

The Jack Bruce biography will be officially launched on Thursday 11th March at Hornsey Public Library in Crouch End, London N8. For more information and booking:
http://www.haringey.gov.uk/whatsondisplayAtoZ.htm?whatsonid=140481 or phone 020 8489 1429

To buy the book go to www.amazon.co.uk