EARTH RISING
The history of music is full of passionate conflicts between rival subcultures, factions and fan tribes – some more celebrated than others. But while, say, punk’s implacable opposition to prog in the late 1970s has been well-documented, and often wildly overstated, other battles are largely forgotten.
Take the searing distaste jazz aficionados once had for rock’n’roll and its myriad stylistic offshoots. From the moment Elvis and his vulgar, backbeat-pounding friends stole the limelight from them in the late 1950s, many uncompromising fans of jazz dismissed the simple, sleazy, overhyped charms of rock as intrinsically inferior, juvenile and moronic.
This continued even after rock’s desire to broaden its sonic palette saw a generation of musicians draw on numerous unorthodox influences. As a young teenager, Bill Bruford had particularly mixed musical heritage, with “my family’s Dansette record changer” featuring everything from Big Bill Broonzy to Sinatra to Elvis, while the BBC’s Jazz 625 TV show opened up other inspirations.
“It hipped me to Joe Morello’s unhurried elegance, Max Roach’s compositional style, and Art Blakey’s explosive groove,” he says by way of explaining the evolution of his drumming style. “Couldn’t do any of it, and came out sounding like me.”
But when
