Exclusive: Baker, Hackett Among First Names For New Jack Bruce Tribute

uDiscover can exclusively announce that the first names to be confirmed for An Evening For Jack, the new charity tribute to Jack Bruce to take place in London on 25 October, include his former Cream colleague Ginger Baker, his 1980s collaborator and drumming great Billy Cobham and ex-Genesis guitar virtuoso Steve Hackett. Other major names will be announced for the bill in due course.

The concert, at the 02 Shepherds Bush Empire, will take place on the second anniversary of the great bassist, singer and songwriter’s passing. Musical direction and curation of An Evening For Jack will be by Bruce’s co-writer in Cream and elsewhere across many decades, Pete Brown, and Jack’s son and musician Malcolm Bruce. All proceeds raised will go to Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy and Jack’s favourite local charity, East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH).

Scottish singer-songwriter Eddi Reader and widely-travelled rock guitarist Bernie Marsden are also confirmed for the line-up. Other members of the Bruce family will take part, including Jack’s granddaughter, singer Maya Sage and his nephew and bassist Iain ‘Nico’ Bruce, along with Ginger’s son and drummer, Kofi Baker.

The show will feature numerous other musicians who worked with Jack over the course of his 55-year career. These include drummer Dennis Chambers (Santana, Parliament, Funkadelic, John McLaughlin), bassist Jeff Berlin, drummer Corky Laing (Mountain and the 1970s blues-rock power trio West, Bruce & Laing), guitarist ‘Clem’ Clempson (Colosseum, Humble Pie), vocalist Gary ‘Mudbone’ Cooper (Parliament, Funkadelic) and guitarist Chris Spedding.

Malcolm Bruce, exclusively describing to uDiscover how the evening will be configured, says it will be “a chronological journey through Jack’s musical career. We’re also going to tip a hat to his formative influences, [such as] Scottish folk music — that’s where Eddi Reader comes in — and we’re going to look at some be-bop, maybe some trad jazz, and a few of the classical influences. Jack always loved Ravel and Messiaen.”

The set list will then move into Bruce’s early work in such groups as the Graham Bond Organisation, which also featured Baker, and through into his best-known period with Cream. It will then dig deep into albums from his solo catalogue, such as Songs From A Tailor, Things We Like, Harmony Row and later releases, as well as acknowledging the many collaborative groups in which he played.

Last year’s Sunshine Of Your Love concert at London’s Roundhouse starred Ginger Baker, Phil Manzanera, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Hugh Cornwell, Uli Jon Roth, Mark King of Level 42, Vernon Reid of Living Colour and many others. Within three weeks of the event, it had raised over £30,000 for EACH.

Of the upcoming tribute, Malcolm Bruce tells us: “Rather than me going ‘What song should come next?,’ the story kind of writes itself. It’s like channelling Jack, in a way. It has an arc. It’s like a family and friends type thing, but very tightly produced.”

Tickets for An Evening For Jack can be purchased here.

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Format: UK English