Bill Bruford retires from public performance

Yes, King Crimson, and Earthworks drummer and bandleader Bill Bruford has announced that he will no longer perform in public. After an exemplary 41-year career that has moved through progressive rock to electronic jazz and on to acoustic jazz, Bruford will hang up his sticks and concentrate on “related
activities.”

“It’s been an exciting four decades, but now it’s someone else’s turn,” said Bruford. “I’d like to thank my friends and colleagues and the greater listening public for giving me a more-than-fair hearing. My ambition was always to try to contribute to drumming and music in the broader sense – to try to imagine a better way of doing things today, or the sort of things we might expect drummers to be doing tomorrow. If I’ve managed to push things forward an inch or two over the years, then that is a source of satisfaction.”

Bruford will continue to talk and write on the subject of his career and the percussion scene in general, and will continue to archive and manage his voluminous back catalogue of recordings on Summerfold and Winterfold Records.

To celebrate Bruford’s considerable achievements, Summerfold and Winterfold Records are respectively releasing two collections of his work. The Winterfold Collection focuses his earlier rock output with his group Bruford, and The Summerfold Collection is an overview of his later jazz side exemplified by his work with Earthworks and others.

To coincide with his departure from the live music scene, Bruford has also written his autobiography, Bill Bruford: The Autobiography available for pre-sale at Amazon.com and in stores late March 2009 on Jawbone Press.