"Cloud About Mercury"
David Torn: guitar
Michael White: trumpet
Mick Karn: bass
Bill Bruford: drums and percussion
Nightstage
Cambridge, Mass. U.S.A.
October 12, 1987
Late show
performance quality: A- (a fine performance throughout)
recording quality: B+ nice sound, 2nd show a little bit better than 1st
source: 1st generation audience tape
runtime: 82:55 (7 tracks)
thanks to ronoblique for almost complete setlist
1: Dali's car 5:45
2: Suyafhu skin > snapping the hollow reed 9:20
3: previous man 12:49
4: Pilgrim's Way 16:12
5: unknown 11:11
6: 3 minutes of pure entertainment 14:51
7: unknown 12:46
lineage: Realistic mini-mikes >
Sony D-6 cassette deck (dolby off) >
Master cassettes > my cassettes >
(all Maxell XLII-S C-90's) played on
Naka. 125 into soundforge 4.5 > FLAC 6 > torrentially yours.
reseeded in 2011 with track times, some setlist info. and
a flac > wav > flac (sb's aligned) reconversion to remove the sbe's.
a this and that production.
Do not sell this recording.
Share freely, losslessly and gaplessly.
comments:
Few things in life could be more enjoyable than hearing a Bill Bruford concert (with a guitarist
this time) in the acousticly delightful confines of Nightstage. I had seen the Earthworks group in
the same place just a few months earlier and never expected that Bruford would play 4 sets there
in just 3 months time, but he did. I thought something was missing from the Earthworks band, namely
a guitar player (by design, Earthworks doesn't have a guitarist), and of course Bruford may be best
known for what he does with Fripp in Crimson, one of the most powerful drum/guitar combos ever in a
band, (and in Yes). Actually, Mr. Bruford had a hefty list of bands he has enhanced tremendously, in
my humble, Bruford-loving opinion. If you are a fan of Bruford/Levin Upper Extremities from some
11 years after this band, you will likely enjoy this group too. David Torn is a fine guitarist, and
has played with another of my favorite drummers, Terry Bozzio (in Polytown). The only thing missing
at this concert was me- I was in San Francisco. I would have seen them there but I was visiting a friend
who was ill. Fortunately "jazzdave" was able to record this and did a nice job of that. (I should say,
I know more than one "jazzdave" so if you like jazz and your name is Dave, that's nice, but hardly
original, not that it matters). I don't know the titles of these songs, but the shows sound very similar,
and Bruford sounds like only Bruford ever does. Like one of my 4 all time favorite drummers. Both these
shows are complete, not even a tape flip cut, and everything comes through very clearly. I think this
group only has 1 released CD, "Cloud About Mercury" which I enjoy. Most of the music in these shows
is on the disc, unfortunately both Nightstage and this group were not around very long, so I'd like
to share this nice memory with the countless Bruford fans around the world. It was only a few years ago
that Bruford's great drumming was honored with a formal award (I believe in Montreal, Quebec), but he's
been an award winning player in my book for about 35 years. I first saw him in 73 with King Crimson and
have ever since, loved his style and talent of drumming, tried to see any band I could with Bruford in it,
and that's alot. I couldn't see all of them, and other than Earthworks which just didn't do much for me,
every other one I've seen has been very interesting. So I have up or coming up, plenty of Bill Bruford,
2 1978 shows with U.K., BB Band from 1980, a Crimson show from 73, another from 84, and a 1991 Yes show.
Even this just barely scratches the surface of his contribution to creative music. On my former radio show
"Glasnost Radio", Bill Bruford holds the distinction of being in more of our "hall of fame bands" (6) than
any other artist in the whole world, based largely on the standard of musical excellence in live performance,
and has been paid tribute to with several various concerts to show off his amazing ability and versatility.
Bruford has been one of the most influential drummers of his lifetime, and mine. My goal is to upload at
least 1 show from each of the 6 bands Bruford won Glasnost Radio Hall of Fame honors with, and another
uploader beat me to the punch on one of them (Gong), thank you for that, I didn't have any Gong w/Bruford
of my own to offer (there wasn't much of that), and anything with Bruford sounds quite different than
without him. So far that means the only missing link left is with National Health- again, there wasn't much
of that either. It is also quite possible there could be other bands worthy of such honors that I've never
heard, this is a very, very hard working, busy fellow. This band is one of his unsung heroes. Don't let
that fool you. The consistency of Bruford over 30 + years is in our opinion, as good as it ever gets in
music of any kind. The popularity may have dropped off a little with CAM (on Bruford standards, not many
others) but the performance quality doesn't at all. This just isn't music you'll likely hear on commercial
radio, but you just might hear it in a supermarket. It sounds like the taper got a slightly better seat for
the second show, or the sound at the show may have been a little better, since it's all recorded with the
same deck, tape and mikes by the same person. It all sounds very enjoyable to me, I think you'll enjoy it
too.
Do not sell this recording.
Trade freely and losslessly.