About Winterfold
Drummer Bill Bruford’s records, DVDs, and related projects are released on either Winterfold or Summerfold Records … and are available at the shop here.
Winterfold Records exists, in the first instance, to re-issue re-mastered and expanded versions of Bill’s CDs and DVDs up to the 1987 watershed.
“He used to be a rock guy, all guitars and electric, and now he’s a jazz guy, all saxophones and acoustic.” Or so at least goes the rather simplistic shorthand for those who have been good enough to consider Bill’s recorded output since 1977. While, for the musician, such distinctions may appear hopelessly old-fashioned, it is, as they say, the way the world works. Back here at the ranch, it seems to us the case that a number of listeners who had hitherto derived pleasure from the earlier music of Holdsworth, Stewart, Berlin, Moraz et al, were unintentionally left behind in the watershed year of 1987 with the arrival of Earthworks, and musicians with less familiar names and smaller amplifiers, like Bates, Ballamy, Garland, and Hamilton. Quite simply, we lost those good listeners and they lost us, for no good reason anyone can think of, and here’s the way to reconnect.”
For further information please go to the FAQ, or mail us at winterfold@billbruford.com
Moraz – Bruford
Music for Piano and Drums
BBWF 001CD Released: 2004 – 10 – 15 Tracks: 13
On the rebound after the roar and klangfarben of King Crimson, this was all about the quieter, more intimate world of piano and drums. Here, small things mattered. The reason I worked with Patrick Moraz was not because we had both been members of Yes, but because he’s a great player who lived round the corner. On this, I like ‘Symmetry’.
Moraz – Bruford
Flags
BBWF 002CD Released: 2004 – 10 – 15 Tracks: 13
Cover art is by the same photographer that did the iconic King Crimson sleeve for ‘Red’, Gered Mankowitz. As a duo, Moraz and I were rapidly taking on electronics in our live shows (see ‘In Tokyo’), but for now we were still broadly in the acoustic camp. The title track has space, grandeur, and all the drama of the progressive rock with which we were associated.
Bruford
Feels Good To Me
BBWF 003CD Released: 2005 – 03 – 07 Tracks: 11
My first album under my direction – a frightening proposition. Only mounting studio costs and the fear of utter humiliation spurred me on to completion. The idea – there’s always an idea – was to get Annette Peacock’s whispered-spoken-sung vocals over a balls-to-the-wall rock group. It worked pretty well here on ‘Adios a la Pasada’ (Goodbye to the Past).
Bruford
One of a Kind
BBWF 004CD Released: 2005 – 04 – 04 Tracks: 11
We got it about right on this one. All good albums and by that I mean albums that are going to last need cohesion and clarity of vision, both compositionally and sonically. Why did I fade guitarist Allan Holdsworth at the ride-out of ‘Travels with Myself…’? Must have been mad he was burning.
Bruford
Gradually Going Tornado
BBWF 005CD Released: 2005 – 05 – 02 Tracks: 9
This hold many great personal memories for me. ‘Plans for j.d’ brings punk attitude, Dave Stewart’s epic ‘Land’s End’ is gorgeously evocative, and ‘Q.E.D’ nods to Weather Report whose engineer Ron Malo recorded the music for us. I had to go the U.S. to find someone like Jeff Berlin; in the U.K. in 1980 they didn’t make bass talent like that. His ‘Joe Frazier’ continues to scare bass players half to death, and remains a personal favourite of mine.
Bruford
The Bruford Tapes
BBWF 006CD Released: 2005 – 06 – 06 Tracks: 10
Issued in an era when the word ‘bootleg’ was new to the music industry, this live radio broadcast was originally issued in a deliberately low-cost rough-and-ready bootleg packaging, completely in tune with the music inside. Working in US rock clubs of the day was a dirty business, and the music had to turn heads immediately. This may have been rough and ready, but it had plenty of fireworks. Love it.
Bruford
Rock Goes to College – DVD
BBWF 008DVD Released: 2006 – 09 – 25 Tracks: 8
I have a particularly soft spot for this DVD as it is a fair example of what we used to get up to on stage. Hard to believe that we actually got a national television spot playing this stuff. I think you’d need a license these days. Sorry it’s a bit expensive, but the BBC charged Winterfold a fortune to release it
Bruford
Rock Goes to College – CD
BBWF 009CD Released: 2007 – 03 – 19 Tracks: 8
This is a simple audio-only CD version of the ‘Rock Goes To College’ DVD. Incidentally, the title of the BBC TV series from which this is taken was prompted by the 1954 Dave Brubeck Quartet ‘Jazz Goes To College’album.
Winterfold Artists
The Winterfold Collection 1978 – 1986
BBWF 010CD Released: 2009 – 02 – 02 Tracks: 13
Thirteen of the best tracks from across the Winterfold label. In the late 1970s my partner Dave Stewart had to ship a Hammond organ around until Sequential Circuits finally invented a much smaller (and lighter) Prophet 5 polyphonic synthesiser. We both heaved a sigh of relief. Dave took to it like a duck to water, and became a highly original synthesiser player. His beautiful opening chords on this audio sample are like taking a warm bath.
Moraz – Bruford
In Tokyo
BBWF 011CD Released: 2009 – 09 – 07 Tracks: 10
Music for electronic piano and drums, live. The only official live album of this duo. Keyboard manufacturer Kurzweil was the market leader in the new keyboard sampling technology of the day. For the first time, the player could improvise something, loop it, and improvise more on top in real time. Live sampling on stage was fraught with hazards – if you played too many notes with too many sounds the whole thing would crash. But Moraz uses the full orchestral range of the instrument to great effect here on the front of ‘Hazy’.
