"Thanks for inviting me to chat, it's getting late here in the UK and I get up really early to do yoga these days," laughed a very jovial Malcolm Bruce as he discussed the recent December 2023 release of "Heavenly Cream: An Acoustic Tribute to Cream," its all-star cast of players, feelings on today's music, his famous father Jack and more.
There are tribute albums, tribute bands and tributes to artists both onstage and off but when you are the son of one of the most influential bassists of all time and have an endless pool of talent to swim in; you choose how you jump in wisely.
Malcolm Bruce, the son of legendary Cream bassist Jack Bruce grew up around Rock 'N' Roll royalty but it wasn't until one of his father's co-writers and a great musician himself approached him that the pieces for this delicately manufactured work of art began to take shape.
"Heavenly Cream" was really Pete Brown's idea," he began with enthusiasm. "Pete Brown being the lyricist and collaborator with my dad on many of the Cream songs and also on a lot of his solo stuff. Pete passed away in May of 2023 but he was really the instigator of the whole thing in collaboration with Quarto Valley Records; he sort of put the whole thing together initially and then he came to me. He asked me to get involved and Rob Cass the producer and Mark Waters who shot a documentary that is out at the same time as the album; so really, Pete Brown was the initiator and then the rest of us kind of joined with him to put it together."
So, the idea was presented to Malcolm but Brown seemingly had already done a lot of the not so heavy lifting to assemble the cast of incredible talent who readily agreed to be part of the project. Luminaries such as Joe Bonamasa, Paul Rodgers, Bobby Rush, Peter Bullick, Deborah Bonham, Tony Remy and of course Malcolm himself along with a multitude of others eagerly lined up to take part.
"I think maybe "Heavenly Cream" is a little bit of, hey here's me back trying to do something with people again," he said with a laugh. "These kinds of things sort of come together kind of organically I guess; you start reaching out to people and then you see who, if you've got friends; Bernie Marsden for instance was a long time collaborator with Rob Cass the producer so that was really easy for us to just drop him a line and see if he wanted to get involved and Bernie had also played on my dad's final record, "Silver Rails." So, Bernie immediately agreed and Bernie's friendship with Joe Bonamasa really helped us secure Joe, although I think because we suggested Joe play with Ginger Baker; I think that helped as well because Joe had played with Eric and my dad and so, I think that playing with Ginger completed the circle for Joe in some strange way I think because Cream is one of the bands that obviously influenced him and me, us and everyone. So, yeah, I think a lot of it was friendship, a lot of it were just people that we thought made sense for the project; Pete himself really wanted Bobby to do it so he reached out to Bobby. Obviously, that was amazing that Bobby did it; he flew over and came to Abbey Road on the day and did a couple of songs and was incredible and inspiring and sort of led the way on that session which was very cool. I think, ultimately, it just sort of falls together; you ask people and the people who are really into it agree and the rest say, "I'm sorry, I'm having my nails done (laughs). It's a funny thing; isn't it? I'm sure you have spoken with other kids of that kind of generation of musicians or whoever; there are a few of us around. It is a strange phenomena, it's like, there is a humility in it as well because if we are artists we are kind of overshadowed by that stuff while we are trying to find our own way in that whole process but it has always been an honor to do stuff with my dad or stuff that is associated or in tribute to him along with me continuing to establish myself in terms of my own artistry and as my own person; whatever that amounts to but yeah, I guess the Bruce name has some meaning to people who understand the tradition and value of what my dad brought to the table. I don't know, I suppose if I play the bass, I can sound a little bit like him, I don't know (laughs)."
"I think Pete Brown asked Eric Clapton and he passed but before Pete passed away we cut Pete's solo record which is called, "Shadow Club" and that's coming out this year with Richard Bailey on drums, me on bass and Eric is guesting on that record," continued Brue. "So, I think maybe Eric decided that he didn't want to play on a Cream record but he was happy to play on Pete's record because it was original new songs. So, that's something to look forward to, it's a really lovely record. Pete passed away before it was mixed but he was there during the sessions and I know he was proud of what we achieved together on that record; Eric being on it, Joe Bonamasa is on it I believe and maybe even Bobby Rush as well. That's a whole other thing called "The Shadow Club" that will be out this year. So, yeah, for whatever reason, Eric didn't play on this record but he probably was asked by Pete I imagine."
With an obvious attachment to his father's legacy, memory and a rich musical history, when asked whether he was overcome with memories or emotions during the project; Bruce didn't hesitate to respond in the slightest.
"Yeah! Absolutely," he said emphatically. "I guess in some ways, I've always known but I still feel really proud to have been involved with this record and I'm proud of my dad. The more distance there is; I mean, my dad passed away 10 years ago this year so there is more distance. I have more and more pride and respect him more for what he achieved with his songwriting and his musicality and ability. So, yeah, it was really nice, me and Joe Bonamasa were standing in the control room in Abbey Road, in The Beatles studio where we recorded with Joe and Ginger and we were listening back to a take of Ginger's drums; we were isolating the drums with the engineer. It was just beautiful listening to just Ginger and the whole history was there, it's hard to describe. I suppose it's even like going, wow man, listen to how he plays his hi-hat and how that hi-hat is not in time in the way most drummers would play it. There is this looseness in the phrasing that is just so unique. It's like this amalgamation of a lifetime of experiences; not a technical thing, it's a feel thing, it's a human; it's a Ginger thing (laughs). So, those kinds of layers of meaning and subjective things that you pick up on and the uniqueness of those three guys and what they achieved within that music; it was so organic and forever growing. I think that's one of the realizations that I continue to gain an understanding of within this music; that it's alive. That's the uniqueness of Cream, it's constantly evolving or can be. I think it was for my dad and Ginger and Eric I would imagine too; it was kind of this alive organism or at least that is how I kind of imagine it. I'm always proud of any connection that I have with it and just having all of these incredible people on this record validated it. You have Paul Rodgers singing "Born Under A Bad Sign" but he's not singing it like my dad, he's singing it like Paul; or like Deborah Bonham, she is such a great artist so when she comes and interprets one of those songs, it breathes fresh life into it and it shines a light on it; it's not the same every time, it is something completely new and I think, in our own small way, that is what this record hopefully represents and that is the potential in this music; to be something new."
Ah but the music of Cream was created decades ago before the new technologies of today and no matter how you "Splice" it, the creativity and raw talents of the day was what separated many of the greats from the one hit wonders. When asked his thoughts on yesterday and today; Bruce once again did not hesitate to voice an opinion.
"I'm not sure we can blame technology, it's still the humans," he led off with confidence. "Technology is an amazing thing but it is how we use it that's the problem I think. Just because we can alter something, doesn't mean we should but there might be instances where it's a useful tool but that's the thing; isn't it? It's just a tool and we don't want to allow the tools to take over; Artificial Intelligence is probably useful but we don't want it to take over the creative process. Feel is everything and feel is a human concept. I suppose machines can mimic it to some degree but that's not the thing. Yes, successive generations may not understand the potential within music like where it shifts and changes; there are great Hip-Hop and Rap artists that have incredible sense of phrasing so, it's not a drummer that's spent decades becoming a great artist anymore, maybe it's somebody using their voice in a poly-rhythmic way across a beat. Art does evolve in that sense but whether it's evolving to a better place, I'm not so sure. The skill sets that great artists have; in all humility, I'm practicing three or four instruments every day and practicing scales, learning Classical repertoire, studying Jazz and the Blues and all kinds of music but I think things have been straightened out a little bit. Even in jazz music, you hear jazz music and think, wow, that's incredible but it's completely predictable. I'm always attracted to the unpredictable in writing and composition or performance and I think that's the problem; it's not genre specific. You can talk about the blues and there are so many blues artists and it's yeah, that's really good but you're not saying anything that hasn't been said before and probably better by a great artist, you're just repeating and you hear that in hard rock and metal as well. You hear all of these incredible; drummers especially, like the guys who can play that kick drum stuff they do and it's like, wow! That's incredible but is that music? When I first met Kofi Baker and we started playing together when we were teenagers, he was doing everything on one kick drum and then he got two and it sort of detracted because the skill of him being able to do all of that stuff with one kick drum was just ridiculous and then suddenly he has got two drums and it wasn't quite the same. So, I think that simplicity of working with stuff in that particular way can get lost but going back to what I was saying about listening to Ginger and how he was playing; it's not a technical thing, it's where he places the notes within the phrase or outside playing. You've got a meter but you're not playing 1,2,3,4 in the meter, you are kind of moving around it but you can still feel the meter because it's implicit, it's stated implicitly within the musical expression but not stated specifically. That's great art to me and I think Cream's music has all that potential in it whether it's the bass playing, the singing, the guitar playing, the drumming or the actual songwriting; there is so much potential to take it in all directions and it's not fixed. I think that's the exciting thing about it, it's malleable to human intention so, there you go, that's one way of looking at it."
"Heavenly Cream: An Acoustic Tribute to Cream" can be found by going to https://quartovalleyrecords.com/ and "The Cream Acoustic Sessions" documentary which Bruce calls, "A fly on the wall view" can be found at https://sunnstream.vhx.tv/cream-acoustic. To discover more about Malcolm Bruce, please visit https://www.malcolmbrucemusic.com/.
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
