Bill Bruford

William Scott Bruford (born 17 May 1949) is an English drummer and percussionist. He is known for his work from the late 1960s to the 1990s, primarily as both a founding member of Yes and as a member of three forms of King Crimson.

Bruford co-founded Yes in 1968 and recorded five albums with them, including The Yes Album, Fragile (both 1971) and Close to the Edge (1972). He left Yes in 1972, and spent the rest of the 1970s recording and touring with numerous groups. Most prominently, he performed with King Crimson; then after they disbanded in 1974, he worked with Roy Harper and U.K., and toured with Genesis in 1976 as a part of their A Trick of the Tail promotional tour. In 1978 he formed his own group, Bruford, who were active until 1980.

During the 1980s Bruford returned to King Crimson for three years in their Discipline line-up, consisting of him and Robert Fripp along with Americans Tony Levin and Adrian Belew. He performed on their albums Discipline (1981), Beat (1982) and Three of a Perfect Pair (1984), until the group disbanded again in 1984. After this, he collaborated with several artists (including Patrick Moraz and David Torn) and formed his own electric jazz band, Earthworks, in 1986. He then played with his former Yes bandmates in the supergroup Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, which eventually led to a very brief second stint in Yes. Bruford played in King Crimson for his third and final tenure from 1994 to 1997 as part of the Double Trio, then continued with a new acoustic configuration of Earthworks.

In 2009, Bruford announced his retirement from professional drumming. He pursued other projects, including the operation of his two record labels, Summerfold and Winterfold, releasing an autobiography, and speaking and writing about music. In 2016, he received a doctorate in music from the University of Surrey. In that year Bruford ranked No. 16 on Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Drummers of All Time". In 2017, Bruford was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes. In 2022, after a 13-year hiatus, he returned to live performance as a member of the Pete Roth Trio.

Bruford was born on 17 May 1949 in Sevenoaks, Kent, the third child of Betty and John Bruford, a veterinary surgeon. He has a brother, John, and a sister, Jane. He attended New Beacon School in Sevenoaks, followed by Tonbridge School in Tonbridge, a boarding school. Bruford decided to take up drumming at thirteen after watching American jazz drummers on the BBC2 television series Jazz 625, and practised the instrument in the attic of his house. He cites Max Roach, Joe Morello, Art Blakey and Ginger Baker as the most influential drummers on him as a young man. Around this time, Bruford's sister bought him a pair of drum brushes as a birthday present, and Bruford would practise using them on album sleeves after he was told the sound resembled a snare drum while watching Jazz 625. Bruford recalled it as "a perfect education". Though he was given a single snare drum at first, Bruford gradually built a full drum kit. He later took a few lessons from Lou Pocock, a member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.