King Crimson were an English progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London. The band drew inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, blues, industrial, electronic, experimental music and new wave. They exerted a strong influence on the early 1970s progressive rock movement, including on contemporaries such as Yes and Genesis, and continue to inspire subsequent generations of artists across multiple genres. The band earned a large cult following.
John Scofield is an American guitarist and composer whose music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention in the band of Miles Davis, and has toured and recorded with many prominent jazz artists, including saxophonists Eddie Harris, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson and Joe Lovano; keyboardists George Duke, Joey DeFrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Larry Goldings and Robert Glasper; fellow guitarists Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, Pat Martino and Bill Frisell; bassists Marc Johnson and Jaco Pastorius; and drummers Billy Cobham and Dennis Chambers. Outside the world of jazz, he has collaborated with Phil Lesh, Mavis Staples, John Mayer, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Gov't Mule.
Jazz fusion is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyboards that were popular in rock and roll started to be used by jazz musicians, particularly those who had grown up listening to rock and roll.
William Scott Bruford is an English former drummer and percussionist who first gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes. After leaving Yes in 1972, Bruford spent the rest of the 1970s recording and touring with King Crimson (1972–1974), Roy Harper (1975), and U.K. (1978), as well as touring with Genesis (1976). In 1978, he formed his own group, Bruford, which was active until 1980.
Anthony Frederick Levin is an American musician and composer specializing in electric bass guitars, Chapman Stick and upright bass. He also sings and plays synthesizer. Levin is best known for his work with King Crimson (1981–2021) and Peter Gabriel. He is also a member of Liquid Tension Experiment, Bruford Levin Upper Extremities (1998–2000) and HoBoLeMa (2008–2010). He has led his own band, Stick Men, since 2010.
Jazz Café Suite is a live album by ProjeKct One, one of the four sub-groups known as ProjeKcts into which the band King Crimson 'fraKctalised' from 1997 to 1999. The album was released by Discipline Global Mobile records in 2003.
Christopher Stephen Botti is an American trumpeter and composer.
Roy Anthony Hargrove was an American jazz musician and composer whose principal instruments were the trumpet and flugelhorn. He achieved worldwide acclaim after winning two Grammy Awards for differing styles of jazz in 1998 and 2002. Hargrove primarily played in the hard bop style for the majority of his albums, but also had a penchant for genre-crossing exploration and collaboration with a variety of hip hop, soul, R&B and alternative rock artists. As Hargrove told one reporter, "I've been around all kinds of musicians, and if a cat can play, a cat can play. If it's gospel, funk, R&B, jazz or hip-hop, if it's something that gets in your ear and it's good, that's what matters."
David M. Torn is an American guitarist, composer, and producer. He is known for combining electronic and acoustic instruments and for his use of looping.
Bruford Levin Upper Extremities (B.L.U.E.) was a musical group consisting of drummer Bill Bruford, bassist Tony Levin, guitarist David Torn, and trumpeter Chris Botti.
Bill Bruford's Earthworks were a British jazz band led by drummer Bill Bruford. The band recorded several albums for Editions EG, Discipline Global Mobile and Summerfold Records.
The ProjeKcts are a succession of spin-off projects associated with the band King Crimson.
Bruford Levin Upper Extremities is a self-titled album by the band Bruford Levin Upper Extremities. It is their only studio recording, released on Tony Levin's independent label Papa Bear Records. Formed by bassist Levin and drummer Bill Bruford, the group also included guitarist David Torn and trumpeter Chris Botti. Torn, Bruford and Levin had recorded together on Torn's album Cloud About Mercury ten years before this.
Earthworks is the first album by Bill Bruford's Earthworks, a jazz fusion band led by drummer Bill Bruford with keyboardist and trumpeter Django Bates, saxophonist Iain Ballamy, and acoustic bassist Mick Hutton. It was released in 1987 on EG Records and reissued on Summerforld in 2005. The album was co-produced by Bruford's former bandmate Dave Stewart.
All Heaven Broke Loose is the third album by Bill Bruford's Earthworks, featuring Django Bates, Iain Ballamy and Tim Harries. It was released on EG Records in 1991. It was co-produced by experimental guitarist David Torn, with whom Bruford had played extensively in the 1980s (and would go on to do again in Bruford Levin Upper Extremities in 1998-2000.
Cloud About Mercury is the second album by guitarist David Torn, supported by trumpeter Mark Isham, bassist Tony Levin and drummer Bill Bruford. It was recorded in March of 1986 and released on the ECM label in 1987.
Geoffrey Keezer is an American jazz pianist. In 2023, he won the Best Instrumental Composition Grammy for Refuge
Brazen Heart is a studio album by American trumpeter Dave Douglas which was released in October 2015 on Douglas' own Greenleaf Music label. The album bears a dedication to Douglas’s older brother, Damon, who died in June 2015 after a long fight with cancer.
Rehearsals & Blows is an album of studio sessions and rehearsals by the band King Crimson, released through the King Crimson Collectors' Club in January 2016. As with The Champaign-Urbana Sessions, this album shows the development of material intended for the group's 1984 album, Three of a Perfect Pair. King Crimson biographer and historian Sid Smith described the album as "work-in-progress sketches, outtakes, bright ideas, dead-ends and cul-de-sacs ... where ideas either bloomed or withered." Two recordings present on this release were later included in the box set On The Road, and one of them is also included in the 40th Anniversary Edition of Three of a Perfect Pair. While this release is numbered Club 42, it was released several years after Club 46 as it was delayed several times.
