![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Spectrum-Road-Q-and-A-May-2012.jpg\" "\\"Spectrum-Road-Q-and-A-May-2012\\"")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nJack Bruce and friends pay tribute to one of fusion\u2019s founding fathers \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The word \u201csupergroup\u201d gets tossed around a lot, but Spectrum Road makes an impressive case for itself. Each member of the quartet comes with a wildly impressive r\u00e9sum\u00e9. Guitarist Vernon Reid is the prime mover behind Living Colour, the juggernaut that helped define rock-funk in the \u201980s. Keyboardist John Medeski, one-third of Medeski Martin & Wood, has been an innovator for nearly three decades. Powerhouse drummer Cindy Blackman Santana is best known for her years playing behind Lenny Kravitz as well as dozens of rock and jazz artists (including husband Carlos). And then there\u2019s Jack Bruce\u2014as bassist, vocalist and chief songwriter for the legendary Cream, he knows a thing or two about supergroups. \u201cSpectrum Road happened in the same way that Cream happened,\u201d says Bruce, 69. \u201cIt was just instant chemistry. It would have been very churlish indeed to say we\u2019re not going\u00a0to play together.\u201d<\/p>\n In a sense, there\u2019s a fifth member of Spectrum Road: late drummer Tony Williams, the onetime Miles Davis sideman who helped to create jazz fusion with his own Tony Williams Lifetime. Bruce spent a couple of years as a member of Lifetime after Cream split, and nine of the 11 tracks on Spectrum Road\u2019s self-titled debut are culled from that pioneering outfit\u2019s catalogue.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was an aura about Tony when he first came around, sort of the same as when Jimi Hendrix appeared,\u201d says Bruce. \u201cThere was a rumor about this new guy. At the time it seemed to be a big statement about the direction of jazz and of jazz drumming. Tony revolutionized that. So part of the point of Spectrum Road is to turn people on to Tony Williams and the music of Lifetime. But we\u2019re not trying to duplicate it, we\u2019re just improvising on it. It\u2019s a starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n The blueprint for Spectrum Road first came up in a discussion between Bruce and Reid in 2001, four years after Williams\u2019 death from a heart attack at age 51. \u201cHe had the idea of doing a tribute concert or a record to keep Tony\u2019s name alive,\u201d Bruce recalls. \u201cI said, \u2018Any time.\u2019\u201d A full decade passed before Reid assembled the crew he wanted. After a series of successful concerts in Japan, they headed into the studio. \u201cThere was that feeling of idealism,\u201d says Bruce, who will be touring with Spectrum Road this summer. \u201cLike Cream, and like Lifetime itself, it\u2019s extremely addictive. Once it takes off it grabs you by the throat. I\u2019ve got no idea where it\u2019s going, but I\u2019m looking forward to finding out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2013Jeff Tamarkin<\/p>\n SPECTRUM ROAD Jack Bruce and friends pay tribute to one of fusion\u2019s founding fathers \u00a0\u00a0 The word \u201csupergroup\u201d gets tossed around a lot, but Spectrum Road makes an impressive case for itself. Each member of the quartet comes with a wildly impressive r\u00e9sum\u00e9. Guitarist Vernon Reid is the prime mover behind Living Colour, the juggernaut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[3916,3917,3914,2706,3754,3406,10156,3918,3915],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6643"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6646,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6643\/revisions\/6646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"