The Bill Bruford Interview 

I was with Bill & Earthworks from about 1997-2004, he's a great guy & bandleader - eternally grateful for those experiences, thanks Bill!

Thank you all!

Bill’s autobiography is a must read, fascinating and intellectual. Bill is a true maverick who always followed his muse, and it should never be underestimated what a feat it has been to sustain such a long career as a solo jazz artist.

I’m 74, saw bill in 1972 with Crimson. He’s speaking, thinking and looking good at 75.

WOW..Vinnie I was your 'drum roadie' and lighting guy on Tom Scott tour in '79. The year after that tour, as the house guy at the Roxy theatre, Bill instructed me to light Robert on the start of the Discapline tour !

The way Bruford phrases, always beautiful always eludes me.

Man these guys are two of my favourite drummers.

When I was a budding teenage drummer, Bill on Yes's Close To The Edge, and Vinnie on Zappa's Joe's Garage were must-listens.

His late 70's solo albums are a must have for Fusion fans.

The duo recordings with Bill and Patrick Moraz are brilliant as well. Best wishes to you both.

I saw Bill play with Yes in 1969 at the National Boxing Stadium in Dublin on the same bill with The Nice. I was 16 yrs old. Bill’s drumming ability was apparent to everyone and what a great band. He doesn’t look much different now🇮🇪

Still my favourite drummer after 45 years . Always inventive and interested in finding new ways to play.

I was extremely fortunate to see Yes on tour for “Fragile”. What a brilliant group of musicians.

Saw Bill with Genesis in 76 in London and with the Yes Union tour. I have all his albums, including a real beauty with Ralph Towner. His autobiography is excellent.

Wow, two of my favorite drummers having a great conversation! Thanks Vinnie and Bill!✌️

Saw Bill two times, with ABWH in Quebec, 1989 and with Earthworks in Montreal. To me, he is the greatest... ♥

I'm going to defend Vinnie here.... as an interviewer. This is really a conversation and an incredible one. To all the naysayers here who have suggested that Bill should do most of the talking, I disagree 100%. The reason is that Vinnie is also at a very high level of proficiency on the shared instrument (drums) and most so called "interviewers" are not and cannot possibly hold ground in such a conversation with someone as accomplished and articulate as Bill Bruford. This is a real blessing certainly for musicians but also potentially motivating for the next generation of musicians who are actually interested in music that is AUTHENTIC! This word "authentic" really needs to be in the discussion because ever since the first "AI" intervention (drum machines) entered the musical landscape, authenticity has been up for debate, questioned, and should be interrogated justifiably. The age of analog tape machines seems to focus wrongly upon analog vs digital (sound quality etc).. but the real thing at stake here since the move toward computer manipulation (pro tools etc or DAWS) is the PROCESS! The way of doing things in the past has verifiable and objective validity. These two wonderful musicians grew up in a time where authenticity was a given and wasn't in question. If you heard it.. it was played.. whether tracked, punched or even overdubbed. It still HAD TO BE performed. This is where people are missing the mark and not seeing the towering trees as they stare at the path (or their phones) as they enter the forest. Thanks guys!

This is a FANTASTIC interview!! 2 of my heroes still inspiring us with their wisdom..

What a great interview especially the 2nd half. It was like these two were sitting chatting out on the patio somewhere.

I saw Bill Bruford with King Crimson at the Stanley Warner Theater in Pittsburgh back in 1974 in a huge theater, then again, in a more intimate 'nightclub' setting with his Earthworks. I actually got to meet him with the latter and still appreciate him all these years later. As mentioned, he still looks really good! Nice going Mr. Bruford!

I am very lucky to be in Japan where there are hundreds of tiny clubs where live groups still play. I play drums myself so I can join a jam session pretty much anytime I want. Such an amazing pair Vinnie and Bill. Wow. Thank you Vinnie for putting this on!

This is a wonderful and inspired conversation between the masters of their craft. I love the back and forth, and I am the fly on the wall. Thank you, Vinnie.

not even 60 seconds into this video and I'm already STUNNED by this interview! Thank you Vinnie Colaiuta! (Kinda young! Kinda wow!)

I was extremely happy to see this interview come through my feed. Unfortunately, three minutes in and I'm completely frustrated (as I'm sure so was Bill) that the interviewer TALKED non-stop.

This new format is great…….

Vinnie... let Bill talk... and balance volumes...

Such a Blessing to see you both give back with all your music and now in your own words ! Thank you so much and God Bless you both 🥁

Great conversation Next guest could be Louis Cole if I may suggest

Wow, what a fantastic conversation

Legends ❤

I've been playing for over 60 years, and the conventional kit setup makes no real sense to me. Bruford's does - hi hat in front of the right hand, toms easy to reach - that's my next kit. BB is my absolute favorite drummer ever talking to VC - one of the very best.

I became a decent drummer who got a job at a studio where there were samplers. Clients demanded best sound possible, so, studio is like ‘some assembly required’ in order to achieve a specific sound. I love live drumming more than anything but for me, the studio from a writers perspective is a lab, for making interesting sound. I definitely understand Vinnie being concerned about his talent going to waste, so the answer, might be, Vinnie writes his one tunes and exclusively records them live, and EVERYONE I know will want to hear those records! And Bill, your solo on My Heart Declares a Holiday is so transcendent!!!! I could listen to that all day

Vinnie and Bill, this is awesome!

Vinnie!!!!!! I am a professional drummer who has been heavily influenced by you and Bill. I absolutely loved this interview because it's beyond educational listening to 2 iconic drummers having an honest and pragmatic conversation. 🙏

Two greats who have forgotten more than I ever knew in the first place. Thanks.

Thanks for the great interview!

Great interview...nice to hear from Bill again, I hope he makes more of these appearances again in the future.

This is priceless. I feel like I'm being allowed into the green room where the real conversations take place (although I would not really know!). Thanks Vinnie!

5 min into it - and I love it already. Thank you so much!!!

This is a fantastic interview, thanks you both!

Love the new format. Thanks Vinnie!

Wonderful Vinnie, Bill TY!

This is wonderful, thank you Vinnie 🙏

Really amazing interview!!!

Fantastic conversation, thank you ,gentlemen

Love this!

Highly enjoyable, thank you, Bill & Vinnie. Some deep perspectives displayed here. Bravo.

Thank you, Vinnie! So awesome that you’re bringing this out for all to hear! More guys of your stature need to do the same!

Man, what an extraordinary interview!!! Thanks Vinnie! Thanks Bill!! Hello from Brazil!

Thanks for launching your channel! This interview was very important and insightful, looking forward to many more. love you Vinnie!

What a pleasure!! Two Giants of the drums! 🛠

Wow! That are some great insights. This will be become my goto-video-podcast in the close future. Thank you so much for this!

Wow! Three interviews in and I'm feeling that this is the best musician interview program that I have ever had the privilege to witness! Delving into the thought process of why we musicians do what we do is a subject that I've been hungry to hear! Well done Vinnie, I'm glad I could eavesdrop on your "breakfast".

A great interview/chat from two legends. Fascinating to hear this 'behind the scenes philosophy'. Thank both, gents!

Great interview, Vinnie! Thank you

Such a great conversation….thank you both !!!🎉

Awesome interview!!!❤Thanks Vinnie for this great RU-vid canal!!

Thank you so much, Vinnie. Great stuff. 👍😎

What a fantastic honest conversation between two masters. More of this please and thank you both!

Wow! 2 of my favourite drummers! All we needed was Ringo to complete the trio!

Thank you for a great interview! Not only that, a great conversation! I very much like the style and approach and will definitely check out more! Once again thanks! :)

SO cool! Two of the best drummers I've ever had the opportunity to see live just talking drums!!! Thanks Vinnie!!

Great one Vinnie! Thank You!

Wow this was amazing! Thank you!

Thank you Vinny and Bill... Right on the money.

Great talk with substantial insights and thoughts. Thank you for sharing this with us 🙏

Two legends of the art of drumming, thanks Vinnie🙏🏼✌🏼

Very enjoyable, thank you 😀

Wow. My favorite drummer interviewing one my childhood drum heroes. Thanks for doing this.

What a great interview! Thanks for sharing this! Few people speak more directly or more articulately than Dr. Bruford. What a career.

Thanks Vinnie for this awesome interview with Bill Bruford. You both could write a book together on these topics & more. Cheers to Bill & Vinnie!!

I didn't know you were here, Vinnie. Thanks to you and Bill for a well-spent hour (and decades of meaningful music).

Thank you Vinnie for this masterful interview, you and Bill have been my heroes for years and I loved watching this video. Greetings from Panama!!

Thanks Vinnie and Bill for all the music.

Thank you for this interview Vinnie,both are a great influenced on my drumming/music career.Both of you played with the greatest ALLAN HOLDSWORTH ❤❤❤ Best wishes for you guys from Los Angeles CA ❤.

I love this ,Vinnie.! Great job! what fun and Im a fan of Bill for sure!

Thank you Vinnie and Bill for your "deep" wisdom around music and art and entertainment and commerce etc...

Grazie!è stato bellissimo ascoltarvi!

Two legends. Love this conversation.

Love Bill, nice man . great player and yes buy his book it is excellent

So many good points. Bill Please play again!

I really enjoyed this discussion. I learned a lot about two great drummers that I really admire as artists and performers.

fascinating conversation. I really love hearing you guy's perspective. As someone who has had to survive as a drummer in the age of internet basically my whole life, I really loved the topics of this conversation.

Great video 2 legends

OK! Now that I've watched/listened to the whole episode... WOW! I'm even MORE amazed at having these two musicians in the same place at the same time talking about the same thing! I've always held the belief that the one drummer I would have loved to see play with FZ would have been Bill Bruford. I've seen a number of different interviews were FZ said things to the effect that he was looking for drummers who didn't just 'hit' drums in a sequence... he wanted to replace parts of the drum kit with different sounding things: bells, horns, random sounding things. All of it 'played' like drums but not 'sound' like drums. Bruford DID THAT! He was one of the first drummers that I can think of who abandoned the sound palette of drums tuned down from left to right and added those kooky Simmons pads to created something that sounded really unique! And then by the time the late 80's / early 90's came around he wasn't even playing those triggers exclusively rhythmically, he played them melodically! Then you look at BB's career and see all the covert intersections with the FZ Academy: he leaves UK and who replaces him? Terry Bozzio! He rejoins King Crimson and who is there at the front of the stage? Monsieur Belew! Maybe it is dementia setting in but it just seems like the universe was always pointing in that direction but somehow 'things' conspired to keep the ball from going through the goal posts. And by no means is anything I've said here meant to be disparaging to Vinnie Colaiuta (he's NOT just a 'boom/bash/boom boom/bash" drummer (laughing). According to people who know one of the best sight readers ever to sight or read!

Vinnie, love this interview! It’s always so great to hear you talk with folks like Bill who have influenced you. Both of you have influenced me… and I’m a guitarist. Just gotta say thanks!!!

Thank you, Vinnie! This is my first time watching your show. I am only @4:34 now, though there is one thing I noticed. Bill Bruford's facial expressions are the same after all these years!

Vinnie you are already a podcast legend. Please make more episodes

Hello Vinnie ! YT just suggested me that vid and i'm litteraly amazed ; It was 40 years ago, i met a lad who made me discover two great albums and two great drummers that same night : "Joe's Garage" and "Discipline" !! Thank you for your work Masters !!

Two top Drummers in the world 🌎 Thank you Vinnie

Loved listening. “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity” - Neil Peart

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

This Is GREAT.thank you master's

I’ve been playing guitar for over 50 years, and only on a couple of occasions I realised I wasn’t doing it, just observing. I suspect these guy’s are blessed more often than me.

Awesome 👍😎

Great interview thank you Vinnie! I've been commenting on this for a while, but I believe it was the price of recording studios that pushed musicians into working alone , and that's all good, except, with everyone having a home studio (computer based), musicians don't met anymore, in the real world. Situation is probably evolving...Before computers & internet, people had to go out and meet real people, physically. Nowadays, you can make a record without ever meeting the people involved. The positive side of computers & internet, I can work with a friend in Japan (me beeing in France), and do everything thru some audio file delivering service, instantly... But I've met my friend before and we did a lot of things, beeing away (before, we used to send each other, K7s, DATs, ADATs, and everything inbetween! Take care and thank you for sharing your experience! Nothing replaces 'live' music, I believe it is something that makes sense when people play toghether.

Thanks, Vinnie for a fascinating conversation with Bill, you're both great musicians and great people intellectually to listen to. The state of affairs with the arts, in general these days is complicated and unfortunate, in fact, it's a travesty to be quite frank! But perhaps one benefit of modern technology is being able to see virtuosos like yourself & Bill chat one to one this way, that could never really happen years ago,....

Great conversation between two giants of the kit! Love Vinnie’s laugh 😂 someone needs to sample that lol

A conversation between two great drummers with tremendous experience who have invested so much of themselves in their music over the years. Listening to the dialog about art and entertainment, i couldnt help but think about the very elusive art of preaching and how difficult it is to define--how many vastly different and personal, even idiosyncratic, ways there are to be good at it--and how personal listening to and witnessing it is, too (how different people may be trying to get something different out of it, or be attracted to some very different facet of it that may be trivial to someone else). There are some things that are very profound and important to us, and personal, that are very hard to define beyond simply being experienced. Music has that kind of pull and power, and i get the sense that--because of the earnestness with which both Bill & Vinny have approached music and drumming and playing with others--that there is a kind of hunger to be a part of something and produce something special that satisfies something in our humanity, that maybe only a similarly hungry person would uncover

Amazing chat…. Quite unusual! Most unexpected!