text:
Jack Bruce

John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish musician. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and bassist of rock band Cream. After the group disbanded in 1968, he pursued a solo career and also played with several bands.

In the early 1960s, Bruce joined the Graham Bond Organisation (GBO), where he met future Cream bandmate Ginger Baker. After leaving the band, he briefly joined John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, where he met Eric Clapton. In 1966, after a short time with Manfred Mann, he formed Cream with lead guitarist Clapton and drummer Baker. He co-wrote many of their songs (including "Sunshine of Your Love", "White Room" and "I Feel Free") with poet/lyricist Pete Brown. After the group disbanded in the late 1960s, he began recording solo albums. Bruce put together a band of his own to perform material live and subsequently formed the blues rock band West, Bruce and Laing in 1972, with ex-Mountain guitarist Leslie West and drummer Corky Laing. His solo career spanned several decades. From the 1970s to the 1990s he played with several bands as a touring member. He reunited with Cream in 2005 for concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Bruce is considered one of the most important and influential bassists of all time. Rolling Stone magazine readers ranked him number eight on their list of "10 Greatest Bassists of All Time". He was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, both as a member of Cream.

1943–1962: Early life
Bruce was born on 14 May 1943 in Bishopbriggs, Lanarkshire, Scotland, to Betty (née Asher) and Charlie Bruce, musical parents who moved frequently, resulting in the young Bruce attending 14 different schools, ending up at Bellahouston Academy. He began playing jazz bass in his teens and won a scholarship to study cello and musical composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama while playing in Jim McHarg's Scotsville Jazzband to support himself.

1962–1966: Early career
Jack's playing in jazz combos was disapproved by his school and he was forced to leave. After leaving school, he toured Italy, playing double bass with the Murray Campbell Big Band.

In 1962, Bruce became a member of the London-based band Blues Incorporated, led by Alexis Korner, in which he played the upright bass. The band also included organist Graham Bond, saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith and drummer Ginger Baker. In 1963 the group broke up. In March, 1963, Bruce played in the Johnny Burch Octet. Bruce would go on to form the Graham Bond Quartet with Bond, Baker and guitarist John McLaughlin. They played an eclectic range of music genres, including bebop, blues and rhythm and blues. As a result of session work, Bruce switched from the upright bass to the electric bass guitar. The move to electric bass happened as McLaughlin left the band; he was replaced by Heckstall-Smith on saxophone, and the band pursued a more concise R&B sound and changed their name to the Graham Bond Organisation. The group released two studio albums and several singles but were not commercially successful.

During the time that Bruce and Baker played with the Graham Bond Organisation, they were known for their hostility towards each other. There were numerous stories of the two sabotaging each other's equipment and fighting on stage. Relations grew so bad between the two that Bruce left the band in August 1965.

After leaving, Bruce recorded a solo single, "I'm Gettin Tired", for Polydor Records. He joined John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers band, which featured guitarist Eric Clapton. Bruce's stay in the band was brief, and he did not contribute to any releases at the time, but recordings featuring him were later released, initially on Looking Back and Primal Solos.

After the Bluesbreakers, Bruce had his first commercial success as a member of Manfred Mann in 1966, including "Pretty Flamingo", which reached number one in the UK singles chart (one of two number one records of his career – the other being an uncredited bass part on The Scaffold's "Lily the Pink") as well as the freewheeling and groundbreaking jazz rock of Instrumental Asylum. When interviewed on the edition of the VH1 show Classic Albums which featured Disraeli Gears, Mayall said that Bruce had been lured away by the lucrative commercial success of Manfred Mann, while Mann himself recalled that Bruce played his first gig with the band without any rehearsal, playing the songs straight through without error, commenting that perhaps the chord changes seemed obvious to Bruce.

While with Manfred Mann, Bruce again collaborated with Clapton as a member of Powerhouse, which also featured Spencer Davis Group members Steve Winwood credited as "Steve Anglo", on vocals and Pete York on drums (Apparently, Ginger Baker was originally to have played the session), Ben Palmer on piano, and Manfred Mann vocalist Paul Jones on harmonica. Three tracks were featured on the Elektra sampler album What's Shakin'. Two of the songs, "Crossroads" and "Steppin' Out", became staples in the live set of his next band, Cream.

1966–1968: Cream
In July 1966, Bruce, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker founded the power trio Cream, which gained international recognition playing blues-rock and jazz-inflected rock music. Bruce either penned or co-penned the majority of the band's tunes and sang most of the lead vocals, with Clapton backing him up and eventually assuming some leads himself.

With his Gibson EB-3 or Fender VI electric basses, Bruce became one of the most famous bassists in rock, winning musicians' polls and influencing the next generation of bassists such as Sting, Jim Shaw, Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler and Jeff Berlin. Bruce co-wrote most of Cream's single releases with lyricist Pete Brown, including the hits "Sunshine of Your Love", "White Room" and "I Feel Free". Cream broke up in 1968.

1970s: Post-Cream
Collaborative efforts with musicians, in many genres – hard rock, jazz, blues, R&B, fusion, avant-garde, world music, third stream classical – continued as a theme of Bruce's career. Alongside these he produced a long line of highly regarded solo albums. In contrast to his collaborative works, the solo albums usually maintain a common theme: melodic songs with a complex musical structure, songs with lyrics frequently penned by Pete Brown and a core band of world-class musicians. This structure was loosened on his live solo albums and DVDs, where extended improvisations similar to those employed by Cream in live performance were sometimes still used.

In August 1968, before Cream officially disbanded, Bruce recorded a semi-acoustic free jazz album with John McLaughlin, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Jon Hiseman. This was issued in 1970 as Bruce's second solo album, Things We Like. The album was a precursor to the jazz fusion boom in the early 1970s.

Bruce's first solo release, Songs for a Tailor, was issued in September 1969; it too featured Heckstall-Smith and Hiseman. It was a worldwide hit, but after a brief supporting tour backed by Larry Coryell and Mitch Mitchell, Bruce joined the jazz fusion group Lifetime, with drummer Tony Williams, guitarist McLaughlin, and organist Larry Young, for its second album, Turn It Over (1970). For the group's third album, Ego (1971), Ron Carter replaced Bruce on bass, but Bruce contributed a guest vocal. Bruce then recorded his third solo album Harmony Row, but this was not as commercially successful as Songs for a Tailor. The song "The Consul at Sunset" from Harmony Row, which was inspired by the Malcolm Lowry novel Under the Volcano, was released as a single in 1971 (Polydor 2058–153, b/w "A Letter of Thanks"), but did not chart.

In 1972 Bruce formed a blues rock power trio, West, Bruce & Laing. Besides Bruce, the group included singer/guitarist Leslie West and drummer Corky Laing, both formerly of the Cream-influenced American band Mountain. West, Bruce & Laing produced two studio albums, Why Dontcha and Whatever Turns You On, and one live album, Live 'n' Kickin'.

The band's breakup was announced shortly before Live 'n' Kickin's release in early 1974, and Bruce released his fourth solo album Out of the Storm later that year. Also in 1974 he featured on the title track of Frank Zappa's album Apostrophe ('), recorded in November 1972. Bruce was credited with bass and co-authorship on the improvised track. When asked about Zappa in a 1992 interview, Bruce tried to change the subject and jokingly insisted that he had played only cello parts. Outtakes from the session were released on the archival release The Crux Of The Biscuit in 2016. In 1973 Bruce recorded bass guitar for Lou Reed's Berlin album, playing on all but two tracks.

A 1975 tour was lined up to support the Out of the Storm album with a band featuring former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor and jazz keyboard player Carla Bley, with whom he had collaborated in 1971 on Escalator over the Hill. The tour was belatedly documented on Live at Manchester Free Trade Hall '75 (2003), but it ended with Taylor's departure, and sessions for a studio album were abandoned. During the next year, Bruce only resurfaced to play on Charlie Mariano's Helen 12 Trees album.

In 1976, Bruce formed a new band (The Jack Bruce Band) with drummer Simon Phillips and keyboardist Tony Hymas. The group recorded an album, called How's Tricks. A world tour followed, but the album was a commercial failure. The follow-up album, Jet Set Jewel, was rejected at the time by Bruce's record label RSO as not being marketable, and RSO ultimately dropped Bruce from their roster. In 1979 he toured with members from the Mahavishnu Orchestra, reuniting him with John McLaughlin, and introducing him to drummer Billy Cobham. A 3-CD collection of his 1970s BBC recordings, entitled Spirit, was released in 2008.

1980s
By 1979, Bruce's drug habit had reached such a level that he had lost most of his money. Bruce contributed as a session musician to recordings by Cozy Powell, Gary Moore and Jon Anderson to raise money. By 1980 his career was back on track with his new band, Jack Bruce & Friends, consisting of drummer Billy Cobham, guitarist Clem Clempson and keyboardist/guitarist David Sancious. After releasing an album, I've Always Wanted to Do This, at the end of 1980, they undertook a long tour to support the record, but it was not a commercial success and they disbanded. In the early 1980s, he also joined up to play with friends from his Alexis Korner days in Rocket 88, the back-to-the-roots band that Ian Stewart had arranged, and Bruce appears on the album of the same name, recorded live in Germany in 1980. They also recorded a "live in the studio" album called Blues & Boogie Explosion for the German audiophile record label Jeton. That year he also collaborated on the Soft Machine album Land of Cockayne (1981).

In 1981, Bruce collaborated with guitarist Robin Trower and released two power trio albums, B.L.T. and Truce, the first of which was a minor hit in the US. He also played for Trevor Rabin on the album Wolf. By 1983, Bruce was no longer contracted to a major record company and released his next solo album, Automatic, on a minor German label, Intercord. A European tour followed to promote the album enlisting Bruce Gary from The Knack (who had also played in Bruce's 1975 band) on drums and Sancious from his 1980 band (Jack Bruce & Friends) on guitar and keyboards. In 1982, Bruce played with a short-lived ensemble A Gathering of Minds, composed of Billy Cobham, Allan Holdsworth, Didier Lockwood and David Sancious at Montreux. In 1983, Bruce sang on tracks 5 and 6 of the Allan Holdsworth album Road Games.

In 1983, Bruce began working with the Latin/world music producer Kip Hanrahan, and released the collaborative albums Desire Develops an Edge, Vertical's Currency, A Few Short Notes from the End Run, Exotica and All Roads Are Made of the Flesh. They were all critically successful, and in 2001 he went on to form his own band using Hanrahan's famous Cuban rhythm section. Other than his partnership with lyricist Pete Brown, Bruce's musical relationship with Hanrahan was the most consistent and long-lasting of his career.

In 1985, he sang lead and played blues harp on the song "Silver Bullet" with Anton Fier's Golden Palominos. It appears on the album Visions of Excess. In 1986 he re-recorded the Cream song "I Feel Free" and released it as a single to support an advertising campaign for the Renault 21 motor car.

In 1989, Bruce secured his first major record deal in a decade, with Epic, and recorded A Question of Time. This included two tracks with Ginger Baker on drums, their first collaboration since Cream. Baker then joined Bruce's live band and toured the United States at the turn of the decade.

1990s
Bruce played at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1990, and was invited by the Irish blues rock performer Rory Gallagher (who had a long-standing relationship with Bruce, having supported Cream's farewell concert in the band Taste in 1968) to perform a couple of songs together on stage. In 1991 he was one of the supporting musicians for Vivian Stanshall's solo show "Rawlinson Dog-ends", but quit over a lack of adequate rehearsals.

On April 25, 1991, Bruce performed with Uli Jon Roth, Simon Phillips, Randy Hansen, John Wetton, Zeno Roth, and others at E-Werk in Cologne, Germany. This performance featured a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, and a concert video of 22 tracks was released on Laserdisc in 1994 as "The Spirit of Jimi Hendrix Live in Concert" in Japan.

In 1993, a solo album, Somethin Els, reunited him with Eric Clapton and brought belated, but widespread, critical acclaim.

Later that year, Ginger Baker and a host of former Bruce band colleagues joined him for two special 50th birthdays concerts in Cologne, Germany, hosted by the TV show Rockpalast. Selections from these were released as the live double CD Cities of the Heart, and much later as the DVD set Rockpalast: The 50th Birthdays Concerts. One special guest was the Irish blues-rock guitarist Gary Moore, who joined Bruce and Baker for a set of Cream classics. Inspired by this performance, the three formed the power trio BBM and their subsequent (and only) album, Around the Next Dream, was a top ten hit in the UK. However, the old arguments between Bruce and Baker arose again, and the subsequent tour was cut short and the band broke up. A low-key solo album, Monkjack, followed in 1995, featuring Bruce on piano and vocals, accompanied only by the Funkadelic organist Bernie Worrell.

Bruce then began work producing and arranging the soundtrack to the independently produced Scottish film The Slab Boys, with; Lulu, Edwyn Collins, Eddi Reader and the Proclaimers. The soundtrack album appeared in 1997. In 1997 he returned to touring as a member of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band, which also featured Peter Frampton on guitar. At the gig in Denver, Colorado, the band was joined onstage by Ginger Baker, and Bruce, Baker and Frampton played a short set of Cream classics. Bruce continued to tour with Starr through 2000.

2000s
In 2001, Bruce reappeared with a band featuring Bernie Worrell, Vernon Reid of Living Colour on guitar and Kip Hanrahan's three-piece Latin rhythm section. Hanrahan also produced the accompanying album Shadows in the Air, which included a reunion with Eric Clapton on a new version of "Sunshine of Your Love". The band released another Hanrahan produced studio album, More Jack than God, in 2003, and a live DVD, Live at the Canterbury Fayre.

Bruce had suffered a period of declining health, after many years of addictions which he finally beat with clinical treatment, and in 2003 was diagnosed with liver cancer. In September 2003, he underwent a liver transplant, which was almost fatal, as his body initially rejected the new organ. He recovered, and in 2004 re-appeared to perform "Sunshine of Your Love" at a Rock Legends concert in Germany organised by Leslie Mandoki.

In May 2005, he reunited with former Cream bandmates Clapton and Baker for a series of well-received concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall, released as the album Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005, and New York's Madison Square Garden.

In between the UK and U.S. Cream dates, he also played live with Gary Moore and drummer Gary Husband at the Dick Heckstall-Smith tribute concert in London.

Subsequent concert appearances by Bruce were sparse because of recovery after the transplant, but in 2006 he returned to the live arena with a show of Cream and solo classics performed with the German HR (Hessischer Rundfunk) Big Band. This was released on CD in Germany in 2007. In 2007, he made a brief concert appearance, opening a new rehearsal hall named in his honour at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow with Clem Clempson, keyboard player Ronnie Leahy and Husband.

In 2008, Bruce collaborated again with guitarist Robin Trower on the album Seven Moons. It also featured Husband.

In May 2008, Bruce was 65 years old and to commemorate this milestone two box sets of recordings were released. Spirit is a three-CD collection of Bruce's BBC recordings from the 1970s. Can You Follow? is a six-CD retrospective anthology released by the Esoteric label in the UK. This anthology is a wide-ranging collection covering his music from 1963 to 2003 and, aside from his work with Kip Hanrahan, is a comprehensive overview of his career.

Improved health led to Bruce playing a series of live outdoor concerts across the US starting in July 2008 as part of the Hippiefest Tour. He was supported by members of the late Who bassist John Entwistle's the John Entwistle Band, and headlined at a tribute concert to the bassist.

In November 2008, he recorded a concert in Birmingham, England for Radio Broadcast with the BBC Big Band, where he again played the Big Band arrangements of his classic songs. In December he was reunited with Ginger Baker at the drummer's Lifetime Achievement Award concert in London. They played jazz classics with saxophonist Courtney Pine and for the first time in 40 years played the Graham Bond–Cream classic "Traintime".

The same month, Bruce, with guitarist Vernon Reid, drummer Cindy Blackman and organist John Medeski played a series of Blue Note Club tribute concerts to the Tony Williams Lifetime in Japan. These shows were broadcast in high definition on television in Japan.

In 2009, Bruce performed in a series of concerts with Trower and Husband in Europe. Proposed dates in the U.S. in April were cancelled because of a further bout of ill health. Bruce recovered and the band played summer concerts in Italy, Norway and the UK during 2009. This promoted the release of the Seven Moons live CD and DVD, recorded in February during the European leg of the tour in Nijmegen, Netherlands.

During the Scottish dates of the 2009 tour Bruce was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Glasgow Caledonian University for services to the culture of Glasgow and music in general.

In August 2009, the 1983 Bruce solo album Automatic was re-released, making his entire solo catalogue available on CD. In addition, all of the discs up to and including How's Tricks contain previously unreleased material.

In October 2009, Bruce performed at the 50th anniversary of Ronnie Scott's Club with the Ronnie Scott's Blues Band.

2010s
Jack Bruce – Composing Himself: The Authorized Biography by Harry Shapiro was released by Jawbone Press in February 2010. Shapiro had previously written biographies of Bruce collaborators Alexis Korner, Graham Bond and Eric Clapton. The book followed memoirs from his Cream bandmates Clapton (Clapton, 2007) and Baker (Hellraiser, 2009). His songwriting partner, Pete Brown's, biography White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns was published in September 2010. They each have differing recollections of forming Cream, playing and writing together.

On 14 January, at the 2011 North American Music Merchants Show, Bruce became only the third recipient of the International Bassist Award, a lifetime achievement award for bassists, after Jaco Pastorius and Nathan Watts.

His first independent CD release, Live at the Milky Way, Amsterdam 2001, featuring The Cuicoland Express, his Latin-based band of the time, was issued in October 2010. The double album received an official worldwide release, distributed by EMI in February 2011. To support this release Bruce again played four dates in London at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club with the Ronnie Scott's Blues Experience, followed by a further ten dates across the UK with the band. On 4 June 2011, Bruce played a special concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London, which was celebrating its 60th anniversary. The evening celebrated the 50th anniversary of the blues in Great Britain, and Bruce played with his Big Blues Band and special guest Joe Bonamassa.

Bruce started 2012 playing the Gerry Rafferty tribute concert in Glasgow, followed by a date with the traditional Celtic band Lau. BBC Scotland recorded a one-hour special on Bruce, which also included a performance with Lau. The completed documentary Jack Bruce – The Man Behind the Bass was transmitted in February 2012 by BBC Scotland. It featured new interviews with Bruce, Clapton, Baker and Brown. It was transmitted again on 9 November 2014 on BBC2 Scotland and on 17 November 2014 on BBC4 in the UK.

February 2012 saw Bruce playing in Havana, Cuba, along with guitarist Phil Manzanera, supporting the mambo band of Augusto Enriquez. March saw another residency at Ronnie Scott's in London supported by his Big Blues Band, followed by a UK tour. The concert at the Stables, Milton Keynes on 18 March was due to be recorded as an Instant Live CD release, but technical issues prevented this. The following evenings' performance at the same location was recorded and a 2CD version issued by Instant Live.

Spectrum Road, a collaboration with Vernon Reid, Cindy Blackman and John Medeski in tribute to The Tony Williams Lifetime, was released in June 2012 by the US jazz record label Palmetto Records and was accompanied by a series of dates at large jazz festivals in North America and Europe throughout June and July.

In March 2014, Bruce released Silver Rails on the Esoteric Antenna label, his first solo studio album in over a decade. Silver Rails was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, produced and mixed by Rob Cass and features contributions from Cream lyricist, Pete Brown, Kip Hanrahan and wife Margrit Seyffer as well as musicians Robin Trower, Cindy Blackman, Phil Manzanera, Uli Jon Roth, John Medeski and Bernie Marsden. The deluxe version of the album featured a behind the scenes documentary "The Making of Silver Rails" which was filmed on location at the studios and directed by Bruce's daughter Kyla Simone Bruce. Bruce's son Malcolm Bruce pre-produced the album and played guitar on several tracks, while Bruce's daughter Aruba Red was featured on "Hidden Cities" singing backing vocals.

Secondary instruments
In addition to his primary instruments, Bruce is known to have played the following instruments during his career:
 * Cello – Rope Ladder to the Moon (documentary)
 * Guitar
 * Harmonica – "Traintime"
 * Mellotron – "Silver Rails"
 * Organ – Rope Ladder to the Moon
 * Piano – "Theme for an Imaginary Western"

Personal life
In 1964, Bruce married Janet Godfrey, who had been the secretary of the Graham Bond Organisation fan club and had collaborated with Bruce on two songs written for the band. The couple had two sons together, Jonas (Jo) Bruce, who grew up to play keyboards in his father's band and played with Afro Celt Sound System, and Malcolm Bruce, who grew up to play the guitar with his father and played with Ginger Baker's son, Kofi. Jonas died in 1997 from respiratory problems.

In 1982, he married his second wife, Margrit Seyffer, with whom he had two daughters, Natascha, known professionally as Aruba Red and Kyla, and a son, Corin.

Death
Bruce died of liver disease on 25 October 2014, in Sudbury, Suffolk, England, aged 71. He was survived by his wife Margrit and four children.

His funeral was held in London on 5 November 2014 and was attended by Clapton, Baker and noted musicians Phil Manzanera, Gary Brooker, Vernon Reid and Nitin Sawhney among others. Dozens assembled at the Golders Green Crematorium paying a last tribute singing "Morning Has Broken", "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Theme for an Imaginary Western". Bruce's remains were later cremated and then interred at a private family ceremony on 31 December 2014 at the crematorium.

Influence
Steve Anderson, writing in The Independent said: "he became one of the most famous and influential bass players in rock." Eric Clapton posted on Facebook about Bruce: "He was a great musician and composer, and a tremendous inspiration to me" and composed an acoustic song in his honour. Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi said on Twitter that Bruce had been his favourite bass player, saying "He was a hero to so many" and Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler regarded him as his "biggest influence and favourite bass player". Rush bassist and singer Geddy Lee wrote: "One of the greatest rock bassists to ever live and a true and profound inspiration to countless musicians. He was one of my first bass heroes and was a major influence on my playing and my music."

Writing in The Sunday Times in 2008, Dan Cairns had suggested: "many consider him to be one of the greatest bass players of all time." Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Neil McCormick said, "There was a time when Jack Bruce was synonymous with the bass guitar in rock history, when he was widely revered as the best there was on four strings." Roger Waters of Pink Floyd described Bruce as "probably the most musically gifted bass player who's ever been."

Singles

 * 1965, "I'm Gettin' Tired (Of Drinkin' and Gamblin')", Polydor: BM 56036
 * 1971, "The Consul at Sunset" / "A Letter of Thanks", Polydor: 2058 153
 * 1974, "Keep It Down", RSO: 2090 141
 * 1986, "Feel Free", Virgin: VS 875
 * 1995, "Monkjack", CMP Records:	CMP CD 1010P
 * 1997, "On and On" (Man Doki with Ian Anderson, Nik Kershaw, Jack Bruce, Bobby Kimball, Chaka Khan, Guru and David Clayton-Thomas), Brunswick News: 573 469-2
 * 2014, "Fields of Forever", Esoteric / Cherry Red: EANTS 1002

Collaborations

 * with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated
 * 1964 – Alexis Korner and Friends

 * with The Graham Bond Organisation
 * 1964 – Live at Klooks Kleek (first released in 1972 as Faces And Places Vol. 4)
 * 1965 – The Sound of '65
 * 1965 – There's A Bond Between Us

 * with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
 * 1966 – Looking Back (compilation album released in 1969)
 * 1966 – Primal Solos (live recording first released in 1977)

 * with Manfred Mann
 * 1966 – "Pretty Flamingo", Machines EP, Instrumental Asylum EP

 * with Cream
 * 1966 – Fresh Cream
 * 1967 – Disraeli Gears
 * 1968 – Wheels of Fire
 * 1969 – Goodbye
 * 1970 – Live Cream
 * 1972 – Live Cream Volume II
 * 2005 – Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005

 * with Jimi Hendrix
 * 1968 – Jack Bruce Jam (Unofficial Release)

 * with Michael Gibbs
 * 1970 – Michael Gibbs

 * with The Tony Williams Lifetime
 * 1970 – Turn It Over
 * 1971 – Ego

 * with Carla Bley
 * 1971 – Escalator over the Hill

 * with West, Bruce and Laing
 * 1972 – Why Dontcha
 * 1973 – Whatever Turns You On
 * 1974 – Live 'n' Kickin'

 * with Lou Reed
 * 1973 – Berlin

 * with Frank Zappa
 * 1974 – Apostrophe (')

 * with Michael Mantler
 * 1974 – No Answer
 * 1987 – Live
 * 1988 – Many Have No Speech
 * 1993 – Folly Seeing All This
 * 1997 – The School of Understanding

 * with Charlie Mariano
 * 1976 – Helen 12 Trees

 * with John McLaughlin
 * 1978 – Electric Guitarist

 * with Cozy Powell
 * 1979 – Over the Top
 * 1981 – Tilt

 * with Bernie Marsden
 * 1979 – And About Time Too

 * with Trevor Rabin
 * 1980 – Wolf

 * with Rocket 88
 * 1981 – Rocket 88

 * with Soft Machine
 * 1981 – Land of Cockayne

 * with Robin Trower
 * 1981 – B.L.T. (album) – US#37
 * 1982 – Truce – US#109 CA#39
 * 2008 – Seven Moons
 * 2009 – Seven Moons Live (re-released as Songs From The Road)

 * with Ellen McIlwaine
 * 1982 – Everybody Needs It

 * with Mose Allison
 * 1983 – Lessons in Living

 * with Allan Holdsworth
 * 1983 – Road Games

 * with Kip Hanrahan
 * 1983 – Desire Develops an Edge
 * 1984 – Vertical's Currency
 * 1986 – A Few Short Notes from the End Run
 * 1993 – Exotica
 * 1995 – All Roads Are Made of the Flesh

 * with Mark Nauseef
 * 1985 – Wun-Wun
 * 1994 – The Snake Music (with Miroslav Tadić)

 * with The Golden Palominos
 * 1985 – Visions of Excess
 * 1986 – Blast of Silence (Axed My Baby for a Nickel)

 * with Anton Fier and Kenji Suzuki
 * 1987 – Inazuma Super Session "Absolute Live!!"

 * with Leslie West
 * 1988 – Theme

 * with Bill Ward
 * 1990 – Ward One: Along the Way

 * with Bruce-Baker-Moore (BBM)
 * 1994 – Around The Next Dream

 * with Dick Heckstall-Smith and John Stevens
 * 1994 – This That

 * with Vernon Reid, Cindy Blackman and John Medeski
 * 2012 – Spectrum Road

title: Jack Bruce


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Federal Reserve Bank

A Federal Reserve Bank is a regional bank of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. There are twelve in total, one for each of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts that were created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The banks are jointly responsible for implementing the monetary policy set forth by the Federal Open Market Committee, and are divided as follows:

• Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

• Federal Reserve Bank of New York

• Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

• Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

• Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

• Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

• Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

• Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

• Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

• Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

• Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Some banks also possess branches, with the whole system being headquartered at the Eccles Building in Washington, D.C.

History

The Federal Reserve Banks are the most recent institutions that the United States government has created to provide functions of a central bank. Prior institutions have included the First (1791–1811) and Second (1818–1824) Banks of the United States, the Independent Treasury (1846–1920) and the National Banking System (1863–1935). Several policy questions have arisen with these institutions, including the degree of influence by private interests, the balancing of regional economic concerns, the prevention of financial panics, and the type of reserves used to back currency.

A financial crisis known as the Panic of 1907 threatened several New York banks with failure, an outcome avoided through loans arranged by banker J. P. Morgan. Morgan succeeded in restoring confidence to the New York banking community, but the panic revealed weaknesses in the U.S. financial system, such that a private banker could dictate the terms of a bank's survival. In other parts of the country, clearing houses briefly issued their own money notes to carry on business. In response, Congress formed the National Monetary Commission to investigate options for providing currency and credit in future panics. Based on the Commission's findings and other proposals, Congress established the Federal Reserve System in which several Federal Reserve Banks would provide liquidity to banks in different regions of the country. The Federal Reserve Banks opened for business in November 1914.

Legal status
The Reserve Banks are organized as self-financing corporations and empowered by Congress to distribute currency and regulate its value under policies set by the Federal Open Market Committee and the Board of Governors. Their corporate structure reflects the concurrent interests of the government and the member banks, but neither of these interests amounts to outright ownership.

Legal cases involving the Federal Reserve Banks have concluded that they are "private", but can be held or deemed as "governmental" depending on the particular law at issue. In United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation v. Western Union Telegraph Co., the U.S. Supreme Court stated, "Instrumentalities like the national banks or the federal reserve banks, in which there are private interests, are not departments of the government. They are private corporations in which the government has an interest." The United States has an interest in the Federal Reserve Banks as tax-exempt federally created instrumentalities whose profits belong to the federal government, but this interest is not proprietary. In Lewis v. United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stated that: "The Reserve Banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of the FTCA [the Federal Tort Claims Act], but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations." The opinion went on to say, however, that: "The Reserve Banks have properly been held to be federal instrumentalities for some purposes," such as anti-bribery law. Another relevant decision is Scott v. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, in which the distinction is made between Federal Reserve Banks, which are federally created instrumentalities, and the Board of Governors, which is a federal agency.

The original Federal Reserve Act provided starting capital for the Reserve Banks by requiring the participating banks to purchase stock in a Reserve Bank in proportion to their assets. This stock pays a dividend out of the Reserve Bank's earnings but otherwise is quite different from common stock in a private corporation. It may not be traded, transferred or borrowed against, and it grants no ownership of the Reserve Bank's surplus. A bank's stock ownership does not give it proportional voting power to choose the Reserve Bank's directors; instead, each member bank receives three ranked votes for six of the Reserve Bank's nine directors, who are subject to qualifications defined in the Federal Reserve Act. If a Reserve Bank were ever dissolved or liquidated, the Act states that members would be eligible to redeem their stock up to its purchase value, while any remaining surplus would belong to the federal government.

Regarding the structural relationship between the twelve Federal Reserve banks and the commercial (member) banks, political science professor Michael D. Reagan explains that,

"the 'ownership' of the Reserve Banks by the commercial banks is symbolic; they do not exercise the proprietary control associated with the concept of ownership nor share, beyond the statutory dividend, in Reserve Bank 'profits.' ... Bank ownership and election at the base are therefore devoid of substantive significance, despite the superficial appearance of private bank control that the formal arrangement creates."

Function
The Federal Reserve Banks offer various services to the federal government and the private sector:

 * Acting as depositories for bank reserves
 * Lending to banks to cover short-term fund deficits, seasonal business cycles, or extraordinary liquidity demands (i.e. runs)
 * Collecting and clearing payments between banks
 * Issuing banknotes for general circulation as currency
 * Administering the deposit accounts of the federal government
 * Conducting auctions and buybacks of federal debt
 * Purchasing obligations of non-bank entities via emergency credit facilities authorized by the Board of Governors

Historically the Reserve Banks compensated member banks for keeping reserves on deposit (and therefore unavailable for lending) by paying them a dividend from earnings, limited by law to 6 percent. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) of 2008 additionally authorized the Reserve Banks to pay interest on member bank reserves, while the FAST Act of 2015 imposed an additional dividend limit equal to the yield determined in the most recent 10-year Treasury Note auction.

Although all Reserve Banks have the legal authority to conduct open-market operations, in practice only the Reserve Bank of New York does so. It manages the System Open Market Account (SOMA), a portfolio of government-issued or government-guaranteed securities that is shared among all of the Reserve Banks.

Finances
The Federal Reserve Banks fund their own operations, primarily by distributing the earnings from the System Open Market Account. Expenses and dividends paid are typically a small fraction of a Federal Reserve Bank's revenue each year. The banks may retain part of their earnings in their own surplus funds that are limited to $7.5 billion, system-wide. The rest must be transferred via the Board of Governors to the Secretary of the Treasury, who then deposits it to the Treasury's general fund. When a Reserve Bank's earnings are insufficient to cover its expenses and dividends, it introduces a deferred asset on its books to be realized from future earnings.

The Reserve Banks were historically capitalized through deposits of gold, and in 1933 all privately held monetary gold was transferred to them under Executive Order 6102. This gold was in turn transferred to the Treasury under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 in exchange for gold certificates that may not be redeemed under current law. The Reserve Banks continue to report these certificates as assets, but they do not represent direct gold ownership and the Board of Governors has stated that "the Federal Reserve does not own gold."

Although the Reserve Banks operate as distinct financial entities, they participate each April in an interdistrict settlement process that has three purposes: settling the payment balances that the Reserve Banks owe each other; allocating ownership of the SOMA portfolio; and establishing uniform gold certificate backing for Federal Reserve Notes. This process connects the Reserve Banks' different functions — monetary policy, payment clearing and currency issue — as an integrated system.

The Federal Reserve Banks conduct ongoing internal audits of their operations to ensure that their accounts are accurate and comply with the Federal Reserve System's accounting principles. The banks are also subject to two types of external auditing. Since 1978 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has conducted regular audits of the banks' operations. The GAO audits are reported to the public, but they may not review a bank's monetary policy decisions or disclose them to the public. Since 1999 each bank has also been required to submit to an annual audit by an external accounting firm, which produces a confidential report to the bank and a summary statement for the bank's annual report. Some members of Congress continue to advocate a more public and intrusive GAO audit of the Federal Reserve System, but Federal Reserve representatives support the existing restrictions to prevent political influence over long-range economic decisions.

Banks

The Federal Reserve officially identifies Districts by number and Reserve Bank city.

 * 1st District (A): Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
 * 2nd District (B): Federal Reserve Bank of New York
 * 3rd District (C): Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
 * 4th District (D): Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, with branches in Cincinnati, Ohio and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
 * 5th District (E): Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, with branches in Baltimore, Maryland and Charlotte, North Carolina
 * 6th District (F): Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, with branches in Birmingham, Alabama; Jacksonville, Florida; Miami, Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; and New Orleans, Louisiana
 * 7th District (G): Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, with a branch in Detroit, Michigan.
 * 8th District (H): Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, with branches in Little Rock, Arkansas; Louisville, Kentucky; and Memphis, Tennessee
 * 9th District (I): Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, with a branch in Helena, Montana
 * 10th District (J): Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, with branches in Denver, Colorado; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Omaha, Nebraska
 * 11th District (K): Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, with branches in El Paso, Texas; Houston, Texas; and San Antonio, Texas
 * 12th District (L): Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, with branches in Los Angeles, California; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Seattle, Washington

The New York Federal Reserve district is the largest by asset value. San Francisco, followed by Kansas City and Minneapolis, represent the largest geographical districts. Missouri is the only state to have two Federal Reserve Banks (Kansas City and St. Louis). California, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas are the only states which have two or more Federal Reserve Bank branches seated within their states, with Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee having branches of two different districts within the same state. In the 12th District, the Seattle Branch serves Alaska, and the San Francisco Bank serves Hawaii. New York, Richmond, and San Francisco are the only banks that oversee non-U.S. state territories. The System serves these territories as follows: the New York Bank serves the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; the Richmond Bank serves the District of Columbia; the San Francisco Bank serves American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Board of Governors last revised the branch boundaries of the System in February 1996.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Federal Reserve Bank


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Egersund

Egersund is a town in Eigersund municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The town is located along the southwestern coast of Norway, about 75 km south of the city of Stavanger. The town is situated along a strait which separates the mainland from the island of Eigerøya. From 1838 until 1964, the town was also an independent municipality.

The 6.79 km2 town has a population (2019) of 11,433 and a population density of 1684 PD/km2.

Egersund has one of the best natural harbours in Norway, and it used to be the largest harbour in Norway when measured in quantity of fish brought in each year (surpassed by Ålesund in 2006). The tidal range, the difference in height between high tide and low tide, is practically zero due to the presence of an amphidromic point. Several internationally known companies have divisions here, like Navico (earlier Robertson autopilots) and Jeppesen Norway formerly C-MAP Norway (producer of electronic sea-maps). In addition, the Aker Solutions corporation owns and runs a large installation here which specializes in the building of parts for oil platforms. Most of the industry is related to the sea and to boats.

Early history
People have lived around the area of Egersund since the Stone Age. There are several places around Egersund where one can find ruins of settlements dating back to the age of migrations in Norway (400–600 BC).

Middle Ages
There used to be a church here, the Church of St. Mary, mentioned in 1292 in a privilege of indulgence issued in Rome on 5 February 1292 by Pope Nicholas IV as Ecclesia beatæ Mariæ de Eikundarsund. It was the first church in Egersund, and was the parish church of the St. Mary parish. It is believed to have been located where the present Egersund Church stands today. Old folklore from Egersund also says that before the Church of St. Mary, an altar where people sacrificed to the old Norse gods was placed here, but this has not been verified from any sources except old stories.

There was also a chapel, the chapel of St. Laurenti, mentioned in a letter issued on 5 February 1308 as Ecclesia beati Laurentii de Eikundarsund, where Pope Clement V gives King Håkon V Magnusson extensive privileges concerning the King's 14 chapels (including the chapel of St. Laurenti), which was founded by himself or his father, King Magnus Lagabøte, and his grandfather, King Håkon Håkonson. Since these chapels often were built on the king's estates, it is presumed to have been on grounds owned by the Husaby estate. An old tradition says it was located at what is now "Strandgata 43", but the exact position is somewhat uncertain.

17th and 18th centuries
In 1623 the old church (probably the Church of St. Mary) was demolished and a new Egersund Church was erected. This building still stands today.

On 18 July 1798, the village of Egersund was established as a ladested with its own customs office.

19th and 20th centuries
The ladested of Egersund was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 under the new formannskapsdistrikt law. This effectively gave Egersund the municipal self-government that was now uniformly given to all areas of Norway.

In 1843, a fire destroyed two thirds of the town, allowing a major redesign of streets. In 1847, Johan Feyer founded A/S Egersunds Fayancefabriks Co., which became the town's major employer until closing in 1979.

On 7 July 1859, there was another major fire, and another again on 20 October 1862. This was the last major town fire, since town planners finally understood wooden structures' vulnerability and reconstructed buildings using extra wide streets to prevent fires from spreading.

In 1878, the Jærensbanen railway line between Egersund and the city of Stavanger opened with Egersund Station in the center of the town. In 1905, Egersund became the first town in Rogaland county to get electrical lighting.

On 9 April 1940, the German military invaded Norway and they occupy Egersund during World War II. Egersund had strategic importance because of its harbour, as well as because the telegraph line between Norway and England was situated there. The Germans built large camps in the area. The occupation lasted until the end of the war.

In 1947, the town was growing rapidly, and an area of the neighboring municipality of Eigersund (population: 515) was transferred into the town of Egersund.

During the 1960s, the Schei Committee met in Norway to discuss the municipal structure in the nation. It was decided that the number of cities and municipalities in Norway was too large, so on 1 January 1965, the town of Egersund lost its status as a self-governing municipality. On that date, the following places were all merged into the new, larger municipality of Eigersund, with the town of Egersund as the new administrative centre:
 * the town of Egersund (population: 3,787)
 * the municipality of Eigersund (population: 4,664)
 * the municipality of Helleland (population: 851)
 * the Gyadalen and Grøsfjell areas in the municipality of Heskestad (population: 114)

Name
The town (originally the parish) is named after the Eigersundet strait (Eikundarsund). The first element is the genitive case of the name of the island of Eikund (now Eigerøya). The name of the island comes from the word which means "oak" followed by the suffix -und which means "plentiful of" (i.e. "the island covered with oak trees"). The last element is which means "strait" or "sound". The name is among the oldest place names in Norway. It can already be found in the form Eikundarsund in the Norse saga of Olav the Holy, written by Icelandic author Snorri Sturlasson in the 13th century. From around the year 1000 Olav the Holy's fleet was here often. We can also find the name in texts and scaldic poems from Olav's saga.

During the 1910s, the name of the municipality was changed from Egersund to Eigersund, but the town of Egersund within Eigersund Municipality kept the old spelling. The form of the name spelled without the diphthong [ei] (Egersund) is the Danish language form of the name and at that time the municipal name was changed to use the Norwegian language form. The town kept the old spelling for historic purposes.
 * "Egersund" vs. "Eigersund"

Municipal self-government (1838-1964)
From 1838 until 1964 when the town of Egersund was an independent municipality, it was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment, social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Bystyre) of Egersund was made up of representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Mayors
The mayors (ordfører) of Egersund:

 * 1838-1838: Gunder Jacobsen Bjerckeland
 * 1839-1839: Isach P. Brodahl
 * 1840-1840: Gunder Jacobsen Bjerckeland
 * 1841-1841: Isach P. Brodahl
 * 1842-1842: Andreas Faye-Lund
 * 1843-1843: Gunnar R. Titus Eide
 * 1844-1844: Andreas Faye-Lund
 * 1845-1845: Gunnar R. Titus Eide
 * 1846-1846: Aanen Atlaksen
 * 1847-1847: Ole A. Bodum
 * 1848-1848: Tollak Bowitz
 * 1849-1849: Nils A. Nøsted
 * 1850-1850: Ole Hamre
 * 1851-1851: Sigbjørn Egelandsdal
 * 1852-1852: Ole Hamre
 * 1853-1853: Johan Fredrik Feyer
 * 1854-1854: Rasmus Torjusen
 * 1855-1856: Michael Puntervold
 * 1857-1857: Gunder Jacobsen Bjerckeland
 * 1858-1858: Michael Puntervold
 * 1859-1859: Gunder Jacobsen Bjerckeland
 * 1860-1860: Johan Stiansen Vemmestad
 * 1861-1861: Johan Feyer
 * 1862-1862: Johannes Eriksen Ollestad
 * 1863-1863: Fredrik Bøckman
 * 1864-1864: Wilhelm Bøe
 * 1865-1865: Christen M. Feyer
 * 1866-1866: Iver Carlsen
 * 1867-1867: Osmund Olsen Lindefjeld
 * 1868-1868: Theodor Christian Bernhoft
 * 1869-1869: Tønnes Houge Puntervold
 * 1870-1870: Lars Samuelsen Bowitz
 * 1871-1871: Anders Bøe
 * 1872-1872: Wilhelm Bøe
 * 1873-1874: Thorvald Rynning
 * 1875-1875: Tønnes Houge Puntervold
 * 1876-1877: Adolf Birkeland
 * 1878-1879: Thorvald Rynning
 * 1880-1881: Adolf Birkeland
 * 1882-1882: Anders Bøe
 * 1883-1883: Adolf Birkeland
 * 1884-1885: Christen M. Feyer (H)
 * 1886-1887: Adolf Birkeland (V)
 * 1888-1889: Thorvald Rynning (H)
 * 1889-1891: Adolf Birkeland (V)
 * 1892-1894: Magnus Feyling (V)
 * 1895-1898: Hans Thu (V)
 * 1899-1907: Erik H. Torjusen	(V)
 * 1908-1909: Thomas Dybing (V)
 * 1910-1915: Hans Thu (AvH)
 * 1916-1916: Thomas Dybing (V)
 * 1917-1917: Geirulv Albretsen (H)
 * 1918-1918: Jacob G. Åse (V)
 * 1919-1920: Geirulv Albretsen (H)
 * 1921-1922: Christian Michelsen (H)
 * 1923-1925: Ole A. Kjellberg (AvH)
 * 1926-1928: I: ngjald Mehus (AvH)
 * 1929-1929: Einar Øxnevad (H)
 * 1930-1930: Odd H. Torjusen (V)
 * 1931-1931: Einar Øxnevad (H)
 * 1932-1934: Hans Berentsen (AvH)
 * 1934-1935: Odd H. Torjusen (V)
 * 1935-1935: Hjalmar Fardal (H)
 * 1936-1936: Tollak P. Rygh (AvH)
 * 1937-1937: Albert Melhus (H)
 * 1938-1938: Adolf A. Albrethsen (H)
 * 1939-1940: Asbjørn Hadland (V)
 * 1946-1951: Edvard M. Edvardsen (Ap)
 * 1952-1953: Thor Tingbø (KrF)
 * 1954-1964: Karl Jensen (H)

Transportation
Egersund has good connections by road to the cities of Stavanger and Kristiansand, via the European route E39 highway. There is also a more scenic coastal highway Norwegian County Road 44. There is an hourly train connections northwards to Stavanger, while express and regional trains run southwards towards Kristiansand and Oslo.

Neighborhoods
Egersund is divided up into several neighborhoods
 * Central (the central part of the town) It is further divided into:
 * Damsgård, Havsøyne, Husabø, Lervige, Mosbekk, Årstad, Årstaddalen
 * Hestnes (far south part of the town)
 * Lagård (along the lake)
 * Rundevoll (central-south part of the town)
 * Sandbakkan (far southeastern part of the town)
 * Slettebø (far northeastern part of the town)
 * Søra Eigerøy / Søra Øyne (the south part of the island of Eigerøya)
 * Norda Eigerøy / Nora Øyne (the north part of the island of Eigerøya)
 * Tengs (far northwestern part of the town)
 * Åsan (near the bridge to Eigerøya)

Attractions

 * Dalane Folkemuseum: Museum of antiquities and history of Egersund.
 * Egersund Fayancemuseum: Museum of the glazed earthenware and porcelain made by Egersund Fayancefabrik from 1847 till 1979.
 * «Stoplesteinan». A rather unknown attraction, since it has not been embraced by the local tourist bureau. «Stoplesteinan» is a smaller «Stonehenge», i.e. a stone circle. It is more than a thousand years old, and believed by some to be almost 2000 years old. Who built it and why, is unknown. The stone circle is situated directly above Skårabrekkå just outside downtown Egersund.
 * Central Egersund houses some of the best preserved wood buildings in Norway. They are built in late Empire style, and most of the buildings are protected by law.
 * Magma UNESCO Global Geopark: open air geological park provided with facilities for outdoor activities to discover the amazing geological heritage of the area. From November 2017 in Egersund headquarter will be open to the public the geoVR virtual exhibition.
 * Home to the popular Trollpikken rock formation.

title: Egersund