Bruce Hornsby
Encyclopedia
Bruce Randall Hornsby is an American
singer, pianist
, accordion
player, and songwriter. Known for the spontaneity and creativity of his live performances, Hornsby draws frequently from classical
, jazz
, bluegrass
, folk
, Motown
, rock
, blues
, and jam band
musical traditions with his songwriting and the seamless improvisations contained within.
Hornsby's recordings have been recognised on a number of occasions with industry awards, including the Best New Artist Grammy in 1987 with Bruce Hornsby and the Range, the Best Bluegrass Recording Grammy in 1990, and the Best Pop Instrumental Grammy in 1993.
Hornsby has also achieved recognition for his solo albums and performances, his current live act Bruce Hornsby & the Noise Makers, his bluegrass project with Ricky Skaggs
, his jazz act The Bruce Hornsby Trio, and his appearances as a session- and guest-musician. He also collaborated with the Grateful Dead
and was a part time member of the band from September 1990 to March 1992.
, a son of Robert Stanley Hornsby (1920–1998), a real-estate developer and former musician, and his wife, née Lois Saunier. Raised a Christian Scientist
, he has two siblings, Robert Saunier Hornsby and Jonathan Bigelow Hornsby.http://www.realhornsby.com/Robert.htm
He graduated from James Blair High School in Williamsburg, Virginia
in 1973, where he played on the basketball team. He studied music at the University of Richmond
, as well as Berklee College of Music
and the University of Miami
, from which he graduated in 1977.
In the spring of 1974 Hornsby's older brother Bobby, who attended the University of Virginia
, formed the band "Bobby Hi-Test and the Octane Kids" to play fraternity parties, featuring Bruce on Fender Rhodes and vocals. The band, which is listed in Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads, performed covers of Allman Brothers Band, The Band
, and predominantly Grateful Dead
songs. Although Hornsby's collaboration with Bobby Hornsby would be relatively short-lived, Bobby's son R.S. was a recurring guest-guitarist with Hornsby's band and periodically toured with his uncle.
Following his graduation from the University of Miami
, in 1977, Bruce returned to Williamsburg and played in local clubs and hotel bars. In 1980, he and his younger brother (and songwriting partner) John Hornsby
moved to Los Angeles
, where they spent three years writing for 20th Century Fox
. Hornsby also spent time in Los Angeles
as a session musician
and touring with Sheena Easton
's band before moving back to his native southeastern
Virginia
.
Hornsby currently uses a Steinway & Sons
concert grand piano. He bought the piano in Zurich, Switzerland, while on a solo show tour in Europe in 1995. With the Range and up until 1995, he used a Baldwin concert grand piano. He currently uses a Korg M1
synthesizer. With the Range, Hornsby used an Oberheim OB-X
synthesizer.
Outside the realm of music, Hornsby is a good basketball
player and an avid fan of the sport. As such, he can frequently be seen at college basketball
games around the state of Virginia. He is also a friend of St. Louis Cardinals
manager Tony La Russa
, and attends games in St. Louis
whenever he can. Their friendship led to La Russa introducing Hornsby to jazz bassist Christian McBride
, which then led to the formation of The Bruce Hornsby Trio (along with drummer Jack DeJohnette
) and their first album, Camp Meeting
.
Bruce Hornsby was raised a Christian Scientist and its influence can be seen in some of his songs.
Hornsby and his wife Kathy have twin sons; Russell, a top middle distance track recruit in the US, and Keith, who plays basketball for national powerhouse Oak Hill Academy and is committed to play Division I college basketball for UNC-Asheville. They were named after Leon Russell
and Keith Jarrett
.
in 1985. Besides Hornsby, Range members were David Mansfield
(guitar
, mandolin
, violin
), George Marinelli (guitars and backing vocals
), Joe Puerta
(bass guitar
and backing vocals), and John Molo
(drums
).
Hornsby's recording career started with the biggest hit he has had to date, entitled "The Way It Is". It topped the American music charts in 1986. With a propulsive yet contemplative piano riff and the refrain, That's just the way it is / Some things will never change / That's just the way it is / But don't you believe them, the song was catchy and described aspects of the American Civil Rights movement and institutional racism. In years to come, the song would be sampled by at least six rap
artists, including Tupac Shakur
, E-40
, and Mase
.
With the success of the single worldwide, the album The Way It Is
went multi-platinum
and produced another top five hit with "Mandolin Rain
" (co-written, as many of Hornsby's early songs were, with his brother John Hornsby
). "Every Little Kiss
" also did respectably well. Other tracks on the album helped establish what some labeled the "Virginia sound", a mixture of rock
, jazz
, and bluegrass
with an observational Southern
feel. Bruce Hornsby and the Range would go on to win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist
in 1987, beating out Glass Tiger
, Nu Shooz
, Simply Red
and Timbuk3.
Hornsby and the Range's sound is somewhat distinctive. For one, Hornsby's consistent use of syncopation
in his piano solos was different from other pianists during the 1980s. Hornsby used a brighter piano sound, which was typical for 1980s pop music. There is also extensive use of synthesizer
s used as background for Hornsby's solos, most notable on the tracks "The Show Goes On" and "The Road Not Taken". John Molo's drumbeats were often looped throughout the recorded versions of songs. They are typical double-time beats, which allowed Hornsby and the rest of the band to do more with their solos.
Hornsby and the Range's second album, Scenes From The Southside
(on which Peter Harris replaced Mansfield) was released in 1988. It featured such hits as "Look Out Any Window" and "The Valley Road
" which many critics noted due to their "more spacious" musical arrangements, allowing for "more expressive" piano
solos from Hornsby. The song "Jacob's Ladder
" was featured as well, having originally been written by Hornsby for musician friend Huey Lewis
; Lewis' version became a number one hit from his album Fore!
. Scenes was successful as an album, once again offering slices of "Americana" and "small-town nostalgia," but it would be the group's last album to perform so well in the singles market.
In 1988, Hornsby first appeared on stage with the Grateful Dead
, a recurring collaboration that would continue until the band's dissolution. Hornsby went on to appear on stage frequently as a guest before becoming a regular fixture in the touring lineup for the Dead a few years later. During the late 1980s and early 1990s Hornsby worked extensively as a producer and sideman, notably producing a comeback album for Leon Russell
, an idol of Hornsby's. In 1989 Hornsby co-wrote and played piano on Don Henley's
big hit "The End of the Innocence
," and in 1991 played piano on Bonnie Raitt's
popular hit "I Can't Make You Love Me
". Bruce continues to feature both of these songs in his own concerts. He also appeared on albums by Bob Dylan
, Robbie Robertson
, Crosby Stills and Nash, Stevie Nicks
and Squeeze during this time period.
During this era he slowly began to slip jazz and bluegrass elements into his music, first in live performance settings and later on studio work. In 1989, he first performed at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival
. He also reworked his hit "The Valley Road" with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
for their album Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two
. The song won at the 1990
Grammy Award
s for Best Bluegrass Recording.
A Night On The Town
was released in 1990, on which he teamed up with jazz musicians Wayne Shorter
and Charlie Haden
as well as bluegrass pioneer Bela Fleck
. A change in style became apparent as the album was much more rock- and guitar
-driven, making use of Jerry Garcia
's guitar work on a number of tracks, perhaps most prominently on the single "Across the River". In concert, Hornsby and the Range began to stretch out their songs, incorporating more and more "freewheeling musical exchanges." Critics received the album quite well, praising it for its production, its political relevance, and Hornsby's gestures toward expanding out of a strictly pop sound by incorporating jazz and bluegrass. Ultimately, though, the core "rock band" sound of the Range limited Hornsby's aspirations, and after a final three-week tour in 1991, Hornsby disbanded the outfit to enter a new phase of his career. Drummer John Molo
continued to perform regularly with Hornsby for another few years, although other members pursued separate musical endeavors. Following Hornsby's and Molo's involvement with The Other Ones
, Molo left Hornsby to become the primary drummer with Phil Lesh
and Friends.
, beginning in 1988 and continuing until Jerry Garcia
's death in 1995.
Between September 1990 and March 1992, Hornsby played piano
(and frequently accordion
) at every Grateful Dead gig, following the death of Brent Mydland
. After that period, Vince Welnick
became the sole keyboardist, although Hornsby still sat in with the band on occasion.
Hornsby's own music evolved significantly during this time period. Critics have suggested that Dead's vibrant tradition of melding folk music
and the blues
with psychedelic rock
in "loose-knit expressions" and extended jamming "further pushed [Hornsby] outside the confines of mainstream pop." Critics have also commented upon the "close musical connection" formed between Hornsby and Jerry Garcia
, suggesting that Hornsby's particular style of jazz-fueled improvisation added to the band's repertoire, and helped to revitalize and refocus Jerry Garcia's guitar solos in the band's sound. Hornsby's friendship with Garcia would continue, both inside and outside the band, as the two would "challenge" each other to expand their musicianship through several other album and live collaborations. Above all, Hornsby's musical versatility and ability to slip in and out of extended freeform jams won over longtime Grateful Dead fans.
Hornsby originals "The Valley Road
" and "Stander on the Mountain" appeared several times in the Dead's setlists. Hornsby also co-performs the improvisation "Silver Apples of the Moon" for the Grateful Dead's Infrared Roses
.
Beginning in the early 1990s, and continuing to the present, Hornsby's own live shows have drawn Deadhead
s; he reflects upon this phenomenon as follows: "I've always liked the group of fans that we've drawn from the Grateful Dead time, because those fans are often adventurous music listeners." Hornsby has paid tribute to his time with the Dead by performing a number of their songs during his concerts and by various homages on studio and live albums.
In 1994 the Grateful Dead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
at the ninth annual induction dinner. Bruce Hornsby was their presenter. To this day, Hornsby continues to work with Dead-related projects, such as Bob Weir
's Ratdog
, Mickey Hart
's solo projects, and in 2005 participated in a tribute concert to Jerry Garcia, "Comes a Time." He has also sat in with The Other Ones
and The Dead
.
, in 1993. This record showcased him in a more jazz-oriented setting and featured an all-star lineup, including Pat Metheny
, Branford Marsalis
, Jerry Garcia
, Phil Collins
, and Bonnie Raitt
. Unlike earlier albums, Harbor Lights
allowed more space for Hornsby's and guest-players' "extended instrumental" solos to "flow naturally" out of the songs. The tone was set by the opening title track, which after 50 seconds of expansive solo piano lurches into an up-tempo jazz number, ending with Metheny
's guitar runs. The album closes in a similar fashion with "Pastures of Plenty", this time with an extended guitar solo from Garcia intertwined with Hornsby's piano. Hornsby also quotes the main musical phrase from the Grateful Dead
's "Dark Star
" as the jazz head to his song about tensions surrounding a biracial relationship, "Talk of the Town". The mid-tempo "Fields of Gray", written for Hornsby's recently-born twin boys, received some modest radio airplay. Harbor Lights
was well-received by critics and fans, who praised it for its "cooler, jazzier sound" and its "affinity for sincere portraits of American life, love, and heartache." Hornsby would also secure his third Grammy in 1993 for Best Pop Instrumental for "Barcelona Mona" (composed with Branford Marsalis
for the Barcelona Olympics).
In 1995, Hot House was released with its cover art, featuring an imagined jam session between bluegrass
legend Bill Monroe
and jazz
legend Charlie Parker
, serving as an apt metaphor for the rich fusion of musical styles Hornsby was currently developing and expanding. This album would find Hornsby expanding upon the foray into jazz sound from Harbor Lights
, this time reintroducing elements of bluegrass from A Night On The Town
and his earlier collaborations. Much like the socially-conscious lyrics of his earlier work, the underlying messages behind the catchy tunes are often very dark, such as on "Country Doctor", "Hot House Ball" and "White Wheeled Limousine", where story-telling lyrics build around spousal murder
, nuclear disaster, and wedding-day adultery
, respectively. The album featured many of the same guests as on his previous record, such as Pat Metheny
and Jimmy Haslip
. Béla Fleck
also collaborates again on banjo. On the last song of the album "Hot House," is the very last song Jerry Garcia played guitar on for a Bruce Hornsby album called "Cruise Control." At a concert he performed in Buffalo, NY in August 2008 on the anniversary of Garcia's death, Bruce said that Garcia really wanted to play on the song "Country Doctor", but due to his ailing health, he gave Garcia an easier tune to play.
As a testament to Hornsby's willingness to allow songs space to grow and evolve, it is worth noting that the song "White Wheeled Limousine" had debuted five years earlier as an encore to Branford Marsalis's opening act for the Grateful Dead's 12/31/90 New Year's Concert, (Marsalis and Rob Wasserman
joined Hornsby in the performance). The Hot House version of "White Wheeled Limousine" pairs Pat Metheny
's guitar with Béla Fleck's banjo for a blisteringly intricate call-and-response alongside Hornsby's piano runs. Hot House also makes an homage to Hornsby's years with the Dead via his recasting of the chorus/bridge of the Dead's song "Estimated Prophet" as the newly-lyricized Hornsby tune "Tango King." The album also boasts a more prominent role for Harbor Lights
alum John D'earth on trumpet and introduces Bobby Read on woodwinds and J. V. Collier on bass. Read and Collier continue to perform with Hornsby to date.
During this time period, "even his concerts conveyed a looser, more playful mood, and Hornsby began taking requests from the audience." Hornsby's concerts became "departure points" for his album compositions, which would be blended with and reworked into "lengthy spontaneous medleys". Both in terms of audience requests and in terms of spontaneous on-stage decisions, Hornsby's performances became opportunities for him to challenge himself by trying to "find a way to seamlessly thread these seemingly disparate elements together."
Hornsby next worked with several Grateful Dead reformation projects, including several Furthur Festivals and the ultimate formation of The Other Ones
, which resulted in the release a live album, The Strange Remain
. Hornsby's piano
and vocals factor heavily into the band's performance of classic Dead tunes "Jack Straw" and "Sugaree" (which features Hornsby on lead vocal, in Jerry Garcia's absence), and Hornsby-originals "White-Wheeled Limousine" and "Rainbow's Cadillac" receive reworkings in the hands of The Other Ones.
Three years after Hot House, Hornsby released a double album
, Spirit Trail
. Featuring a decidedly goofy picture of his uncle on the cover, the collection blends instrumental tracks with the story-telling, rock
, jazz, and other musical forms Hornsby had delved into over his career. Over the two discs, Hornsby weaves a tapestry of varied textures, from the fervent spirituality then almost gospel
dirge of "Preacher in the Ring, parts I & II," to the catchy chord progressions of "Sad Moon." Among other homages, the song "Sunflower Cat (Some Dour Cat) (Down With That)" samples and loops the main lick from the Grateful Dead song "China Cat Sunflower." In some of the songwriter's most poignant lyrics to date, Spirit Trail considers "very Southern" themes with "songs about race, religion, judgment and tolerance" and "struggles with these issues." Exemplary in this regard is the tune "Sneaking Up on Boo Radley," which references the character from Harper Lee
's Pulitzer Prize
-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird
.
Throughout the sequence of Harbor Lights
, Hot House, and Spirit Trail, Hornsby's piano playing steadily gained further complexity, taking on a more varied array of musical styles and incorporating more and more difficult techniques, as evidenced by his two-hand-independence on Spirit Trails "King of the Hill." During this same span of solo album years, Hornsby made several mini-tours playing solo piano gigs for the first time in his career. These shows allowed Hornsby limitless possibilities for seguing songs into other songs, often blurring lines between classical compositions, jazz standards, traditional bluegrass, folk
, and fiddle
tunes, Grateful Dead songs, and, of course, reworkings of Hornsby originals. Hornsby reflected on these periods of intensive solo performances stating that these solo tours helped him "recommit [himself] to the study of piano" and "take [his] playing to a whole new level", explorations and improvisations that would not be possible in a band setting.
, who then became former Grateful Dead
bassist Phil Lesh
's regular drummer in his post-Dead band Phil Lesh & Friends. A set of twenty consecutive shows performed by Hornsby and his band at Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland, CA would mark a particularly innovative period of evolution for his live shows; here Hornsby and his band were "able to explore songs in a completely spontaneous fashion". From this point to the present Bruce has avoided even planning set lists for his shows, preferring to choose songs on the spot based mainly on audience requests. As Hornsby experimented with a different sound, ushering in frequent collaborations with such musicians as Steve Kimock
on guitar and Bobby Read on heavily effects-driven electronic woodwinds, his current band, dubbed Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers, took shape. In 2000, Hornsby chronicled this journey with a compilation live album entitled Here Come The Noise Makers
, and did extensive touring with his new band featuring John "J. T." Thomas (keyboards
, organ
), Bobby Read (saxophone
s, woodwinds, flute
), J. V. Collier (bass
), Doug Derryberry (guitar
, mandolin
), and several different drummers before Sonny Emory
took over full-time.
Here Come The Noise Makers
not only captures the ambience of one of Hornsby’s concerts, but it also reflects the vibrant temperament and true stylistic diversity with which he approaches his craft, treating the live performance like a journey in search of the perfect musical moment. With this album, Hornsby is determined to create a hybrid style that encompasses rock
, jazz
, and classical music
within a jam band
mentality. The concert musical experience captured on the album embodied the gestures towards complete improvisatory musical spontaneity and towards recasting old songs as unrecognizably new that so much of Hornsby's solo work had been forecasting, this time in a full band setting. The album covers pieces by many of Hornsby's musical influences, George Gershwin
, Samuel Barber
, Bill Evans
, Bud Powell
, and Bob Dylan
among them. Hornsby directly acknowledges the influence of the Dead by performing their songs "Lady with a Fan" and "Black Muddy River" and by including a version of "The Valley Road" that seems to have "emerged from the Grateful Dead's "Wharf Rat."
His next studio album of new material was not until 2002: Big Swing Face
. This album marked Hornsby's most experimental effort to date; Big Swing Face, the only album on which Hornsby barely plays any piano
, relies heavily on post-electronica beats, drum loops, Pro Tools editing, and dense synthesizer
arrangements. The album also boasts a "stream-of-consciousness wordplay" of lyrics that are in many ways more eccentric and humorous than previous work. The jazz fusion
jam on "Cartoons & Candy" and the gesture towards Hornsby's jam band
influence with Steve Kimock
's extended guitar solo
on "The Chill" highlight some of the album's only familiar territory, and Hornsby cites the opening track, "Sticks and Stones," as his partial homage to Radiohead
's "Everything in its Right Place." Big Swing Face met mixed reviews ranging from "a new and improved Bruce Hornsby" to feeling as if "someone else is singing" to the album being called one of the "strangest records of 2002." Album sales were not helped by poor promotion from RCA, perhaps prompting Hornsby's decision to leave the label.
In 2004, after 19 successful years on RCA Records, Hornsby returned to a more acoustic, piano-driven sound on his Columbia Records
debut Halcyon Days
, which reviewers referred to as "pure Hornsby". Guests included Sting, Elton John
, and Eric Clapton
. The tracks "Gonna Be Some Changes Made," "Candy Mountain Run," "Dreamland," and "Circus On The Moon" would become quick concert staples, each showcasing the diversity of Hornsby's improvisations and the Noise Makers' live sound. Notably, Halcyon Days also includes a suite of solo piano songs—"What The Hell Happened," "Hooray For Tom," and "Heir Gordon"—which all have a "Randy Newman
pastiche." Although the album was markedly less-risk-taking than Big Swing Face
, it would be well-received as a "winning balance of [Hornsby's] tuneful and adventurous sides." Throughout tours following the album's release, both with the Noise Makers and in solo performances, Hornsby continued to demonstrate his desire to "grow" as a singer and performer and to expand the instrumental possibilities of the piano in various genres. During this time period, Hornsby also began to offer CD-sets/digital downloads of digitally-mastered soundboard recordings of live concerts via the Bruce Hornsby Live website; selected concerts have been offered from 2002 to the present.
In July 2006, Hornsby released a 4 CD/1 DVD box set titled Intersections (1985-2005)
. The discs are thematically broken into three categories: “Top 90 Time,” “Solo Piano, Tribute Records, Country-Bluegrass, Movie Scores,” and “By Request (Favorites and Best Songs)” (2 CDs). A full third of the music is previously unreleased; many familiar tracks are presented as unreleased live versions rather than the original studio recordings, and the majority of the remaining tracks are from single “B” sides and aforementioned collaborations and/or tribute albums and movie soundtracks. Some noteworthy collaborations include a piano-and-saxophone
duet with Ornette Coleman
and a performance with Roger Waters
of Pink Floyd
's "Comfortably Numb." The set also offers a number of excellent examples of Hornsby's re-inventiveness with his own compositions, particularly in a live setting, for instance three different versions of “The Valley Road” are included—a live "bluesy funk" version with the Noise Makers, a Grammy-winning bluegrass
version with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
, and "a loose and sloppy but totally grooving boogie" take with the Grateful Dead. Critics have said that Hornsby's particular integrations of different musical genres, and his passion for reinventing his own compositions, create a kind of music many might "never hear" otherwise as it is "a kind of music no one else is making." All ticketholders on Hornsby's 2006 Solo Piano tour received a free copy of this set. Among Intersections (1985–2005) is the Grammy nominated track "Song H," a new composition which competed for Best Pop Instrumental at the 2007 Grammy Awards. In recent concerts, Hornsby has begun playing classical music. In a 2007 concert in Saint Louis, Missouri, during Hornsby's improvisational session in "The Way It Is", he began playing J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations
along with the drums. On that same tour in a different city, he played five straight Goldberg Variations over the effected drum intro of "Gonna Be Some Changes Made."
On September 15, 2009, Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers released their fourth album, to mixed reviews. The album is titled Levitate
. This album is somewhat musically different. Hornsby and the Noisemakers have gone as far as to not include piano solos. The first single, "Levitate", was released on June 9, 2009.
Dating back to a 2000 collaboration on the track "Darlin' Cory" for Big Mon, a Bill Monroe
bluegrass
tribute album, Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs
had discussed launching a project together. In March 2007, the duo, backed by Skaggs's band Kentucky Thunder, released the bluegrass album Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby
, and set several tour dates together. Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby combine bluegrass, traditional country
, "a tinge of Hornsby's jazzy piano and a splash of humor" on a spectrum of songs from the traditional "Across the Rocky Mountain" and "Hills of Mexico" to new compositions such as the opening track "The
Dreaded Spoon," "a humorous tale of a youthful ice cream heist." The pair also reinvent Hornsby's hit "Mandolin Rain" as a minor key acoustic ballad and "give his cautionary tale of backwoods violence", "A Night On the Town," a treatment highlighting the "Appalachian storytelling tradition that was always at the song's heart."
The album ends a surprise cover of Rick James
's funk
hit "Super Freak
" in a bluegrass arrangement. Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby would top Billboard
s bluegrass charts for several weeks after its release. As Hornsby carves out a new-found place for piano
within traditional bluegrass, disproving the notion that the piano is not compatible with "string-oriented" bluegrass, critics have called his playing and songwriting "centered, focused, and inspired."
The duo of Hornsby and Skaggs put some of their collaborative material on display for a television audience on February 24, 2007 with the premier of an episode of the series CMT Crossroads. The performance featured the two artists backed by Skaggs' band Kentucky Thunder
and showcased songs such as "Mandolin Rain","Super Freak
", and a bluegrass
-influenced version of Hornsby's hit "The Way It Is".
Simultaneous to the bluegrass project, Bruce Hornsby has formed The Bruce Hornsby Trio and recorded a jazz
album titled Camp Meeting
. Hornsby is joined in his trio by jazz giants Christian McBride
(bass
) and Jack DeJohnette
(drums
). Alongside original compositions by Hornsby, the trio delivers "newly reharmonized versions" of tunes by John Coltrane
, Miles Davis
, Thelonious Monk
, Bud Powell
, and a previously unrecorded Ornette Coleman work titled "Questions and Answers" as well as an early Keith Jarrett
composition "Death and the Flower." The trio made a series of appearances in the summer of 2007, at the Playboy Jazz Festival
, the Newport Jazz Festival
, and at the Hollywood Bowl
, among other bookings.
During 2007, Hornsby made concert appearances of historical import. On January 4, former Grateful Dead
members Bob Weir
, Bill Kreutzmann
and Mickey Hart
reunited along with Hornsby, Mike Gordon
(of Phish
and the Rhythm Devils
) and Warren Haynes
to play two sets at a post-inauguration fundraising party for Nancy Pelosi
, the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House in the United States Congress
. They were billed as "Your House Band" and performed some Dead classics such as "Truckin'
" and "Touch of Grey
". Other performers appearing at the event included Tony Bennett
, Wyclef Jean
and Carole King
. Additionally, Bruce Hornsby & The Noise Makers hosted an evening of rock
, R&B
and progressive bluegrass on May 12, 2007, to honor America's beginnings 400 years ago at Jamestown, Virginia
. Hornsby was joined by some of his Grammy-winning friends, including legendary funk
and R&B artist Chaka Khan
and progressive bluegrass master Ricky Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder.
Bruce Hornsby has also been writing songs for a Broadway Musical, titled "SCKBSTD
". One song from this project, a playful biographical tune about real-estate tycoon Donald Trump
titled "The Don of Dons," made several appearances in setlists during his early-2007 solo piano performances.
Hornsby has composed the score for Spike Lee
's new ESPN
documentary, titled Kobe Doin' Work, about NBA star Kobe Bryant
and his MVP season.
Steinway & Sons
recently announced that their new Limited Edition Signature Piano Series will feature Hornsby. Hornsby selected ten Model B Steinway Grands to be featured in this collection, each one personalized with his signature. Hornsby owns three 9-foot Model D Steinway Grands himself.
Outside of music composition and performance, Hornsby has taken an ownership interest in Williamsburg area radio station "The Tide," WTYD 92.3 FM
, and he has endowed the Bruce Hornsby Creative American Music Program at University of Miami
's Frost School of Music
, encouraging the study of songwriting broadly across traditional genres. Hornsby played himself in a cameo role in the Robin Williams
movie World's Greatest Dad
, in which Williams' character plays a Bruce Hornsby fan. He continues to reside with his family outside of Williamsburg, Virginia.
Hornsby's nephew, and sometime Noisemaker R.S. Hornsby, died on January 15, 2009 in a car accident
near Crozet, Virginia
. He was 28.
Bruce's newest Noisemakers album, Levitate, was released on September 15, 2009. It primarily features songwriting more than instrumental fireworks, going so far as to have no piano solos. It also gives several "SCKBSTD" songs their first public release.
According to the official Bruce Hornsby website: No Tour in 2010... Many of you have asked about Bruce's touring plans for 2010. Bruce says, "I'm burned out from being on the road and am taking a break long enough to allow me to enjoy it again."
Bruce Hornsby played keyboards on “Her Dance Needs No Body” and “Red Hot Mama" with Widespread Panic to close out the 10th annual Bonnaroo Music and Art Festival on June 12, 2011.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
player, and songwriter. Known for the spontaneity and creativity of his live performances, Hornsby draws frequently from classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, Motown
Motown Records
Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, and jam band
Jam band
-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...
musical traditions with his songwriting and the seamless improvisations contained within.
Hornsby's recordings have been recognised on a number of occasions with industry awards, including the Best New Artist Grammy in 1987 with Bruce Hornsby and the Range, the Best Bluegrass Recording Grammy in 1990, and the Best Pop Instrumental Grammy in 1993.
Hornsby has also achieved recognition for his solo albums and performances, his current live act Bruce Hornsby & the Noise Makers, his bluegrass project with Ricky Skaggs
Ricky Skaggs
Rickie Lee "Ricky" Skaggs is a country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, and banjo.-Early career:...
, his jazz act The Bruce Hornsby Trio, and his appearances as a session- and guest-musician. He also collaborated with the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
and was a part time member of the band from September 1990 to March 1992.
Early years/background information
Bruce Randall Hornsby was born in Williamsburg, VirginiaWilliamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...
, a son of Robert Stanley Hornsby (1920–1998), a real-estate developer and former musician, and his wife, née Lois Saunier. Raised a Christian Scientist
Christian Science
Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...
, he has two siblings, Robert Saunier Hornsby and Jonathan Bigelow Hornsby.http://www.realhornsby.com/Robert.htm
He graduated from James Blair High School in Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...
in 1973, where he played on the basketball team. He studied music at the University of Richmond
University of Richmond
The University of Richmond is a selective, private, nonsectarian, liberal arts university located on the border of the city of Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. The University of Richmond is a primarily undergraduate, residential university with approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate...
, as well as Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
and the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
, from which he graduated in 1977.
In the spring of 1974 Hornsby's older brother Bobby, who attended the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
, formed the band "Bobby Hi-Test and the Octane Kids" to play fraternity parties, featuring Bruce on Fender Rhodes and vocals. The band, which is listed in Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads, performed covers of Allman Brothers Band, The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
, and predominantly Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
songs. Although Hornsby's collaboration with Bobby Hornsby would be relatively short-lived, Bobby's son R.S. was a recurring guest-guitarist with Hornsby's band and periodically toured with his uncle.
Following his graduation from the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
, in 1977, Bruce returned to Williamsburg and played in local clubs and hotel bars. In 1980, he and his younger brother (and songwriting partner) John Hornsby
John Hornsby
John Hornsby is an American composer, musician and actor. He is a brother of musician and composer Bruce Hornsby, and the two have collaborated often....
moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where they spent three years writing for 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
. Hornsby also spent time in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
as a session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
and touring with Sheena Easton
Sheena Easton
Sheena Easton is a Scottish recording artist. Easton became famous for being the focus of an episode in the British television programme The Big Time, which recorded her attempts to gain a record contract and her eventual signing with EMI Records.Easton rose to fame in the early 1980s with the pop...
's band before moving back to his native southeastern
Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
.
Hornsby currently uses a Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...
concert grand piano. He bought the piano in Zurich, Switzerland, while on a solo show tour in Europe in 1995. With the Range and up until 1995, he used a Baldwin concert grand piano. He currently uses a Korg M1
Korg M1
The Korg M1 is the world's first widely-known music workstation. Its onboard MIDI sequencer and palette of sounds allowed musicians to produce complete professional arrangements...
synthesizer. With the Range, Hornsby used an Oberheim OB-X
Oberheim OB-X
The Oberheim OB-X is an analog polyphonic synthesizer. It was the first Oberheim synthesizer that was created with internal prewired modules and not with the bulky SEM modules. Because of this, it was more functional for live performance, and therefore more portable. It was introduced in 1979 and...
synthesizer.
Outside the realm of music, Hornsby is a good basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player and an avid fan of the sport. As such, he can frequently be seen at college basketball
College basketball
College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
games around the state of Virginia. He is also a friend of St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to...
manager Tony La Russa
Tony La Russa
Anthony "Tony" La Russa, Jr. is a former Major League Baseball manager and infielder, best known for his tenures as manager of the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, and St. Louis Cardinals...
, and attends games in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
whenever he can. Their friendship led to La Russa introducing Hornsby to jazz bassist Christian McBride
Christian McBride
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...
, which then led to the formation of The Bruce Hornsby Trio (along with drummer Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. He is one of the most influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, due to extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians like Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett and Sonny...
) and their first album, Camp Meeting
Camp meeting
The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in Britain and once common in some parts of the United States, wherein people would travel from a large area to a particular site to camp out, listen to itinerant preachers, and pray...
.
Bruce Hornsby was raised a Christian Scientist and its influence can be seen in some of his songs.
Hornsby and his wife Kathy have twin sons; Russell, a top middle distance track recruit in the US, and Keith, who plays basketball for national powerhouse Oak Hill Academy and is committed to play Division I college basketball for UNC-Asheville. They were named after Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
and Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...
.
The Range
In 1984 he formed Bruce Hornsby and the Range, who were signed to RCA RecordsRCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
in 1985. Besides Hornsby, Range members were David Mansfield
David Mansfield
David Mansfield is an American violinist, mandolin player, guitarist, pedal steel guitar player, and composer....
(guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
), George Marinelli (guitars and backing vocals
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
), Joe Puerta
Joe Puerta
Joe Puerta is the bassist/vocalist and co-founder of the American rock group Ambrosia. He is credited with co-writing one of their earlier hits, Holdin' On To Yesterday . Puerta is also credited with forming Bruce Hornsby and the Range. He currently lives in Milwaukee, WI.-External links:* * *...
(bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and backing vocals), and John Molo
John Molo
John Molo , is an American rock and jazz drummer and percussionist. He has played with a variety of bands, combos, and soloists, including Bruce Hornsby and the Range, The Other Ones, Phil Lesh and Friends, Delaney Bramlett, John Fogerty, Keller Williams, Mike Watt, Paul Kelly, David Nelson,...
(drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
).
Hornsby's recording career started with the biggest hit he has had to date, entitled "The Way It Is". It topped the American music charts in 1986. With a propulsive yet contemplative piano riff and the refrain, That's just the way it is / Some things will never change / That's just the way it is / But don't you believe them, the song was catchy and described aspects of the American Civil Rights movement and institutional racism. In years to come, the song would be sampled by at least six rap
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
artists, including Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Amaru Shakur , known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world...
, E-40
E-40
Earl Stevens , better known by his stage name E-40, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and investor from Vallejo, California. He is also part of the rap group The Click and the founder of Sick Wid It Records. His solo debut album, Federal, was released in November 1992, after The Click's debut...
, and Mase
Mase
Mason Durell Betha , better known by stage name Mase who was previously known as Murda Ma$e, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor and inspirational speaker...
.
With the success of the single worldwide, the album The Way It Is
The Way It Is (Bruce Hornsby album)
The Way It Is is Bruce Hornsby and the Range's debut album, released in 1986. Led by its hit title track, the album went on to achieve multi-platinum status and helped the group to win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Other hits from the album include "Mandolin Rain" and "Every Little Kiss"...
went multi-platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
and produced another top five hit with "Mandolin Rain
Mandolin Rain
"Mandolin Rain" is the third track of The Way It Is, the debut album and commercial zenith for Bruce Hornsby and the Range. The song, released in late 1986, was a #4 hit single for the band in March 1987, following on the success of their previous single, the #1 hit and title track of their debut...
" (co-written, as many of Hornsby's early songs were, with his brother John Hornsby
John Hornsby
John Hornsby is an American composer, musician and actor. He is a brother of musician and composer Bruce Hornsby, and the two have collaborated often....
). "Every Little Kiss
Every Little Kiss
Every Little Kiss was the title of a song recorded by Bruce Hornsby and the Range. It was released in May 1986 as the lead single off their 1986 album The Way It Is. The song was originally released as their debut single in early 1986. It peaked at number 72 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and at...
" also did respectably well. Other tracks on the album helped establish what some labeled the "Virginia sound", a mixture of rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, and bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
with an observational Southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
feel. Bruce Hornsby and the Range would go on to win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist
Grammy Award for Best New Artist
The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967...
in 1987, beating out Glass Tiger
Glass Tiger
Glass Tiger is a Canadian rock band formed in 1983, in Newmarket, Ontario.-Biography:Originally named 'Tokyo', the band produced several hit singles in Canada and placed two songs on Billboard magazine's top 10: "Don't Forget Me " and "Someday," both of which came from their debut album, The Thin...
, Nu Shooz
Nu Shooz
Nu Shooz is an American Freestyle-R&B-Dance group fronted by husband-and-wife team of John Smith and Valerie Day, based in Portland, Oregon. The Shooz released four albums in the U.S...
, Simply Red
Simply Red
Simply Red were a British soul band that sold more than 50 million albums over a 25-year career. Their style drew influences from blue-eyed soul, new romantic, rock, reggae and jazz...
and Timbuk3.
Hornsby and the Range's sound is somewhat distinctive. For one, Hornsby's consistent use of syncopation
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
in his piano solos was different from other pianists during the 1980s. Hornsby used a brighter piano sound, which was typical for 1980s pop music. There is also extensive use of synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s used as background for Hornsby's solos, most notable on the tracks "The Show Goes On" and "The Road Not Taken". John Molo's drumbeats were often looped throughout the recorded versions of songs. They are typical double-time beats, which allowed Hornsby and the rest of the band to do more with their solos.
Hornsby and the Range's second album, Scenes From The Southside
Scenes from the Southside
Scenes from the Southside is the second album by Bruce Hornsby and the Range. The single "The Valley Road" was Hornsby's third Top 10 U.S. hit, peaking at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, and also his first number one on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart...
(on which Peter Harris replaced Mansfield) was released in 1988. It featured such hits as "Look Out Any Window" and "The Valley Road
The Valley Road
"The Valley Road" is the title of a song recorded by Bruce Hornsby and the Range. Hornsby co-wrote the song with his brother John Hornsby and co-produced it with Neil Dorfsman...
" which many critics noted due to their "more spacious" musical arrangements, allowing for "more expressive" piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
solos from Hornsby. The song "Jacob's Ladder
Jacob's Ladder (Huey Lewis and the News song)
"Jacob's Ladder" is a 1986 song, written by Bruce Hornsby and his brother John Hornsby, that was recorded by Huey Lewis and the News and became a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1987....
" was featured as well, having originally been written by Hornsby for musician friend Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis is an American musician, songwriter and occasional actor.Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many of the band's songs...
; Lewis' version became a number one hit from his album Fore!
Fore!
Fore! is the fourth album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, released in 1986 . The album hit number one on the Billboard 200 album chart and contained five top-ten Billboard Hot 100 singles, including the number-one hits: "Stuck with You" and "Jacob's Ladder."- Album cover :The wall...
. Scenes was successful as an album, once again offering slices of "Americana" and "small-town nostalgia," but it would be the group's last album to perform so well in the singles market.
In 1988, Hornsby first appeared on stage with the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
, a recurring collaboration that would continue until the band's dissolution. Hornsby went on to appear on stage frequently as a guest before becoming a regular fixture in the touring lineup for the Dead a few years later. During the late 1980s and early 1990s Hornsby worked extensively as a producer and sideman, notably producing a comeback album for Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
, an idol of Hornsby's. In 1989 Hornsby co-wrote and played piano on Don Henley's
Don Henley
Donald Hugh "Don" Henley is an American singer, songwriter and drummer, best known as a founding member of the Eagles before launching a successful solo career. Henley was the drummer and lead vocalist for the Eagles from 1971–1980, when the band broke up...
big hit "The End of the Innocence
The End of the Innocence (song)
"The End of the Innocence" is the lead single and title track from Don Henley's third solo studio album, The End of the Innocence, in 1989. The song was written by Bruce Hornsby, with lyrics added by Henley, and both perform the song live in their respective concerts...
," and in 1991 played piano on Bonnie Raitt's
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
popular hit "I Can't Make You Love Me
I Can't Make You Love Me
"I Can't Make You Love Me" is a 1991 popular song, written by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin and recorded by Bonnie Raitt on her Luck of the Draw album from that year. In August 2000, Mojo magazine voted "I Can't Make You Love Me" #8 on its The 100 Greatest Songs Of All Time list...
". Bruce continues to feature both of these songs in his own concerts. He also appeared on albums by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
, Crosby Stills and Nash, Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
and Squeeze during this time period.
During this era he slowly began to slip jazz and bluegrass elements into his music, first in live performance settings and later on studio work. In 1989, he first performed at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival
Telluride Bluegrass Festival
Telluride Bluegrass Festival is held annually in Telluride, Colorado by . Although traditionally the festival focuses on bluegrass music, it often features music from a variety of genres. In 1974, its first year, it attracted 1000 participants. Currently the festival's attendance is capped at 10,000...
. He also reworked his hit "The Valley Road" with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American country-folk-rock band that has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California in 1966. The group's membership has had at least a dozen changes over the years, including a period from 1976 to 1981 when the band performed and recorded...
for their album Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two
Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two
Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two is a 1989 album by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The album follows the same concept as the band's 1972 album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which featured guest performances from many notable country music stars.-Composition:Circle II features largely acoustic,...
. The song won at the 1990
Grammy Awards of 1990
The 32nd Grammy Awards were held in 1990. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year.-General:*Record of the Year**Arif Mardin & Bette Midler for "Wind Beneath My Wings"*Album of the Year...
Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s for Best Bluegrass Recording.
A Night On The Town
A Night on the Town (Bruce Hornsby album)
Bruce Hornsby and the Range's third and final album is titled A Night on the Town. Following albums would be credited to Bruce Hornsby . A Night on the Town features Hornsby's last significant hit single, "Across the River", which spent one week at the top of the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart...
was released in 1990, on which he teamed up with jazz musicians Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
and Charlie Haden
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...
as well as bluegrass pioneer Bela Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
. A change in style became apparent as the album was much more rock- and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
-driven, making use of Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
's guitar work on a number of tracks, perhaps most prominently on the single "Across the River". In concert, Hornsby and the Range began to stretch out their songs, incorporating more and more "freewheeling musical exchanges." Critics received the album quite well, praising it for its production, its political relevance, and Hornsby's gestures toward expanding out of a strictly pop sound by incorporating jazz and bluegrass. Ultimately, though, the core "rock band" sound of the Range limited Hornsby's aspirations, and after a final three-week tour in 1991, Hornsby disbanded the outfit to enter a new phase of his career. Drummer John Molo
John Molo
John Molo , is an American rock and jazz drummer and percussionist. He has played with a variety of bands, combos, and soloists, including Bruce Hornsby and the Range, The Other Ones, Phil Lesh and Friends, Delaney Bramlett, John Fogerty, Keller Williams, Mike Watt, Paul Kelly, David Nelson,...
continued to perform regularly with Hornsby for another few years, although other members pursued separate musical endeavors. Following Hornsby's and Molo's involvement with The Other Ones
The Other Ones
The Other Ones was an American rock band formed in 1998 by former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart, along with part-time Grateful Dead collaborator Bruce Hornsby. In 2000, Bill Kreutzmann, another Grateful Dead alumnus, joined the group, while Phil Lesh dropped out. In...
, Molo left Hornsby to become the primary drummer with Phil Lesh
Phil Lesh
Phillip Chapman Lesh is a musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30-year career....
and Friends.
The Grateful Dead
Bruce Hornsby played over a hundred shows with the Grateful DeadGrateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
, beginning in 1988 and continuing until Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
's death in 1995.
Between September 1990 and March 1992, Hornsby played piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
(and frequently accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
) at every Grateful Dead gig, following the death of Brent Mydland
Brent Mydland
Brent Mydland was the fourth keyboardist to play for the American rock band the Grateful Dead. He was with the band for eleven years, longer than any other keyboardist.- Early life :...
. After that period, Vince Welnick
Vince Welnick
Vince Welnick was an American keyboardist, best known for playing with the band The Tubes during the 1970s and 1980s and with the Grateful Dead in the 1990s.-Music career:...
became the sole keyboardist, although Hornsby still sat in with the band on occasion.
Hornsby's own music evolved significantly during this time period. Critics have suggested that Dead's vibrant tradition of melding folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and the blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
with psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
in "loose-knit expressions" and extended jamming "further pushed [Hornsby] outside the confines of mainstream pop." Critics have also commented upon the "close musical connection" formed between Hornsby and Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
, suggesting that Hornsby's particular style of jazz-fueled improvisation added to the band's repertoire, and helped to revitalize and refocus Jerry Garcia's guitar solos in the band's sound. Hornsby's friendship with Garcia would continue, both inside and outside the band, as the two would "challenge" each other to expand their musicianship through several other album and live collaborations. Above all, Hornsby's musical versatility and ability to slip in and out of extended freeform jams won over longtime Grateful Dead fans.
Hornsby originals "The Valley Road
The Valley Road
"The Valley Road" is the title of a song recorded by Bruce Hornsby and the Range. Hornsby co-wrote the song with his brother John Hornsby and co-produced it with Neil Dorfsman...
" and "Stander on the Mountain" appeared several times in the Dead's setlists. Hornsby also co-performs the improvisation "Silver Apples of the Moon" for the Grateful Dead's Infrared Roses
Infrared Roses
Infrared Roses is a live compilation album by the Grateful Dead. It is a conglomeration of their famous improvisational segments "Drums" and "Space."...
.
Beginning in the early 1990s, and continuing to the present, Hornsby's own live shows have drawn Deadhead
Deadhead
Deadhead or Dead Head is a name given to fans of the American jam band, the Grateful Dead. In the 1970s, a number of fans began travelling to see the band in as many shows or festival venues as they could. With large numbers of people thus attending strings of shows, a community developed...
s; he reflects upon this phenomenon as follows: "I've always liked the group of fans that we've drawn from the Grateful Dead time, because those fans are often adventurous music listeners." Hornsby has paid tribute to his time with the Dead by performing a number of their songs during his concerts and by various homages on studio and live albums.
In 1994 the Grateful Dead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
at the ninth annual induction dinner. Bruce Hornsby was their presenter. To this day, Hornsby continues to work with Dead-related projects, such as Bob Weir
Bob Weir
Bob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...
's Ratdog
Ratdog
RatDog , is an American rock band. The group began as a side project for Grateful Dead rhythm guitarist Bob Weir and bassist Rob Wasserman. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in December 1995, following the death of Jerry Garcia on August 9, 1995, RatDog became Bob Weir's primary band...
, Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995...
's solo projects, and in 2005 participated in a tribute concert to Jerry Garcia, "Comes a Time." He has also sat in with The Other Ones
The Other Ones
The Other Ones was an American rock band formed in 1998 by former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart, along with part-time Grateful Dead collaborator Bruce Hornsby. In 2000, Bill Kreutzmann, another Grateful Dead alumnus, joined the group, while Phil Lesh dropped out. In...
and The Dead
The Dead (band)
The Dead is an American rock band composed of some of the former members of the Grateful Dead.After the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann formed a band called The Other Ones. They performed concert tours in 1998 , 2000 , and 2002, and released one...
.
Solo
Hornsby would go on to release his first solo album, Harbor LightsHarbor Lights (album)
Bruce Hornsby's fourth album is titled Harbor Lights. This is his first album credited solely to Bruce Hornsby, without his previous backing band, The Range.The album cover uses Edward Hopper's 1951 painting "Rooms By The Sea".-Track listing:...
, in 1993. This record showcased him in a more jazz-oriented setting and featured an all-star lineup, including Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
, Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...
, Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
, Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
, and Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
. Unlike earlier albums, Harbor Lights
Harbor Lights (album)
Bruce Hornsby's fourth album is titled Harbor Lights. This is his first album credited solely to Bruce Hornsby, without his previous backing band, The Range.The album cover uses Edward Hopper's 1951 painting "Rooms By The Sea".-Track listing:...
allowed more space for Hornsby's and guest-players' "extended instrumental" solos to "flow naturally" out of the songs. The tone was set by the opening title track, which after 50 seconds of expansive solo piano lurches into an up-tempo jazz number, ending with Metheny
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
's guitar runs. The album closes in a similar fashion with "Pastures of Plenty", this time with an extended guitar solo from Garcia intertwined with Hornsby's piano. Hornsby also quotes the main musical phrase from the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
's "Dark Star
Dark Star (song)
"Dark Star" is a song released as a single by the Grateful Dead. It was written by lyricist Robert Hunter and composed by lead guitarist Jerry Garcia; however, compositional credit is sometimes extended to include Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, the late Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and Bob Weir...
" as the jazz head to his song about tensions surrounding a biracial relationship, "Talk of the Town". The mid-tempo "Fields of Gray", written for Hornsby's recently-born twin boys, received some modest radio airplay. Harbor Lights
Harbor Lights (album)
Bruce Hornsby's fourth album is titled Harbor Lights. This is his first album credited solely to Bruce Hornsby, without his previous backing band, The Range.The album cover uses Edward Hopper's 1951 painting "Rooms By The Sea".-Track listing:...
was well-received by critics and fans, who praised it for its "cooler, jazzier sound" and its "affinity for sincere portraits of American life, love, and heartache." Hornsby would also secure his third Grammy in 1993 for Best Pop Instrumental for "Barcelona Mona" (composed with Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...
for the Barcelona Olympics).
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
legend Bill Monroe
Bill Monroe
William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
legend Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
, serving as an apt metaphor for the rich fusion of musical styles Hornsby was currently developing and expanding. This album would find Hornsby expanding upon the foray into jazz sound from Harbor Lights
Harbor Lights (album)
Bruce Hornsby's fourth album is titled Harbor Lights. This is his first album credited solely to Bruce Hornsby, without his previous backing band, The Range.The album cover uses Edward Hopper's 1951 painting "Rooms By The Sea".-Track listing:...
, this time reintroducing elements of bluegrass from A Night On The Town
A Night on the Town (Bruce Hornsby album)
Bruce Hornsby and the Range's third and final album is titled A Night on the Town. Following albums would be credited to Bruce Hornsby . A Night on the Town features Hornsby's last significant hit single, "Across the River", which spent one week at the top of the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart...
and his earlier collaborations. Much like the socially-conscious lyrics of his earlier work, the underlying messages behind the catchy tunes are often very dark, such as on "Country Doctor", "Hot House Ball" and "White Wheeled Limousine", where story-telling lyrics build around spousal murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, nuclear disaster, and wedding-day adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
, respectively. The album featured many of the same guests as on his previous record, such as Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
and Jimmy Haslip
Jimmy Haslip
Jimmy Haslip is an American electric bass player and record producer best known as a founding and current member of the pioneering fusion group Yellowjackets...
. Béla Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
also collaborates again on banjo. On the last song of the album "Hot House," is the very last song Jerry Garcia played guitar on for a Bruce Hornsby album called "Cruise Control." At a concert he performed in Buffalo, NY in August 2008 on the anniversary of Garcia's death, Bruce said that Garcia really wanted to play on the song "Country Doctor", but due to his ailing health, he gave Garcia an easier tune to play.
As a testament to Hornsby's willingness to allow songs space to grow and evolve, it is worth noting that the song "White Wheeled Limousine" had debuted five years earlier as an encore to Branford Marsalis's opening act for the Grateful Dead's 12/31/90 New Year's Concert, (Marsalis and Rob Wasserman
Rob Wasserman
Rob Wasserman is an American bass player, who has played with a wide variety of musicians including David Grisman, Lou Reed, Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia, Bruce Cockburn, Van Morrison, Rickie Lee Jones, Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, Mark Morris, Aaron Neville, Chris Whitley, Studs Terkel, Pete Seeger,...
joined Hornsby in the performance). The Hot House version of "White Wheeled Limousine" pairs Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
's guitar with Béla Fleck's banjo for a blisteringly intricate call-and-response alongside Hornsby's piano runs. Hot House also makes an homage to Hornsby's years with the Dead via his recasting of the chorus/bridge of the Dead's song "Estimated Prophet" as the newly-lyricized Hornsby tune "Tango King." The album also boasts a more prominent role for Harbor Lights
Harbor Lights (album)
Bruce Hornsby's fourth album is titled Harbor Lights. This is his first album credited solely to Bruce Hornsby, without his previous backing band, The Range.The album cover uses Edward Hopper's 1951 painting "Rooms By The Sea".-Track listing:...
alum John D'earth on trumpet and introduces Bobby Read on woodwinds and J. V. Collier on bass. Read and Collier continue to perform with Hornsby to date.
| "To be creative, spontaneous in the moment and make music in the present tense, that's what we're all about live. I write the songs, we make the records and then the records become a departure point, the basic blueprint, the basic arrangement. I'm fairly restless creatively. I was never a very good Top 40 band guy because I never liked to play the same thing every time. Too often songwriters approach their songs like museum pieces. I don't subscribe to that. I think of my songs as living beings that evolve and change and grow through the years." |
| — Bruce Hornsby |
Hornsby next worked with several Grateful Dead reformation projects, including several Furthur Festivals and the ultimate formation of The Other Ones
The Other Ones
The Other Ones was an American rock band formed in 1998 by former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart, along with part-time Grateful Dead collaborator Bruce Hornsby. In 2000, Bill Kreutzmann, another Grateful Dead alumnus, joined the group, while Phil Lesh dropped out. In...
, which resulted in the release a live album, The Strange Remain
The Strange Remain
The Strange Remain is an album by the rock band The Other Ones. It was recorded live on the Furthur Festival tour in 1998 and released in 1999. The album reached number one on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart and number 112 on the Billboard 200....
. Hornsby's piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and vocals factor heavily into the band's performance of classic Dead tunes "Jack Straw" and "Sugaree" (which features Hornsby on lead vocal, in Jerry Garcia's absence), and Hornsby-originals "White-Wheeled Limousine" and "Rainbow's Cadillac" receive reworkings in the hands of The Other Ones.
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
, Spirit Trail
Spirit Trail
Bruce Hornsby's sixth album, a double album, is titled Spirit Trail. This is his third solo-credited album. This would be the last album before his current band, Bruce Hornsby & the Noise Makers, formed. This album can be seen in the film "World's Greatest Dad".-Track listing:-Musicians:* Bruce...
. Featuring a decidedly goofy picture of his uncle on the cover, the collection blends instrumental tracks with the story-telling, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, jazz, and other musical forms Hornsby had delved into over his career. Over the two discs, Hornsby weaves a tapestry of varied textures, from the fervent spirituality then almost gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
dirge of "Preacher in the Ring, parts I & II," to the catchy chord progressions of "Sad Moon." Among other homages, the song "Sunflower Cat (Some Dour Cat) (Down With That)" samples and loops the main lick from the Grateful Dead song "China Cat Sunflower." In some of the songwriter's most poignant lyrics to date, Spirit Trail considers "very Southern" themes with "songs about race, religion, judgment and tolerance" and "struggles with these issues." Exemplary in this regard is the tune "Sneaking Up on Boo Radley," which references the character from Harper Lee
Harper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee is an American author known for her 1960 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama...
's Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature...
.
Throughout the sequence of Harbor Lights
Harbor Lights (album)
Bruce Hornsby's fourth album is titled Harbor Lights. This is his first album credited solely to Bruce Hornsby, without his previous backing band, The Range.The album cover uses Edward Hopper's 1951 painting "Rooms By The Sea".-Track listing:...
, Hot House, and Spirit Trail, Hornsby's piano playing steadily gained further complexity, taking on a more varied array of musical styles and incorporating more and more difficult techniques, as evidenced by his two-hand-independence on Spirit Trails "King of the Hill." During this same span of solo album years, Hornsby made several mini-tours playing solo piano gigs for the first time in his career. These shows allowed Hornsby limitless possibilities for seguing songs into other songs, often blurring lines between classical compositions, jazz standards, traditional bluegrass, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, and fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
tunes, Grateful Dead songs, and, of course, reworkings of Hornsby originals. Hornsby reflected on these periods of intensive solo performances stating that these solo tours helped him "recommit [himself] to the study of piano" and "take [his] playing to a whole new level", explorations and improvisations that would not be possible in a band setting.
The Noisemakers
Hornsby's own touring band line up underwent extensive changes during the period from 1998 to 2000 as well, not the least of which was the apparent end of musical collaboration with long time drummer John MoloJohn Molo
John Molo , is an American rock and jazz drummer and percussionist. He has played with a variety of bands, combos, and soloists, including Bruce Hornsby and the Range, The Other Ones, Phil Lesh and Friends, Delaney Bramlett, John Fogerty, Keller Williams, Mike Watt, Paul Kelly, David Nelson,...
, who then became former Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
bassist Phil Lesh
Phil Lesh
Phillip Chapman Lesh is a musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30-year career....
's regular drummer in his post-Dead band Phil Lesh & Friends. A set of twenty consecutive shows performed by Hornsby and his band at Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland, CA would mark a particularly innovative period of evolution for his live shows; here Hornsby and his band were "able to explore songs in a completely spontaneous fashion". From this point to the present Bruce has avoided even planning set lists for his shows, preferring to choose songs on the spot based mainly on audience requests. As Hornsby experimented with a different sound, ushering in frequent collaborations with such musicians as Steve Kimock
Steve Kimock
-External links:** at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at Internet Archive's live music archive*, San Francisco, April 3, 1999*, Unofficial Fan Forum...
on guitar and Bobby Read on heavily effects-driven electronic woodwinds, his current band, dubbed Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers, took shape. In 2000, Hornsby chronicled this journey with a compilation live album entitled Here Come The Noise Makers
Here Come the Noise Makers
Bruce Hornsby's first live release is titled Here Come the Noise Makers. It is a double album compilation of songs recorded between 1998 and New Year's Eve 1999/2000...
, and did extensive touring with his new band featuring John "J. T." Thomas (keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
), Bobby Read (saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
s, woodwinds, flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
), J. V. Collier (bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
), Doug Derryberry (guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
), and several different drummers before Sonny Emory
Sonny Emory
Sonny Emory is a freelance touring and studio drummer. He has worked with many famous acts, including Earth, Wind & Fire, Steely Dan, Bruce Hornsby, and the B-52's.-Early years:...
took over full-time.
Here Come the Noise Makers
Bruce Hornsby's first live release is titled Here Come the Noise Makers. It is a double album compilation of songs recorded between 1998 and New Year's Eve 1999/2000...
not only captures the ambience of one of Hornsby’s concerts, but it also reflects the vibrant temperament and true stylistic diversity with which he approaches his craft, treating the live performance like a journey in search of the perfect musical moment. With this album, Hornsby is determined to create a hybrid style that encompasses rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, and classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
within a jam band
Jam band
-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...
mentality. The concert musical experience captured on the album embodied the gestures towards complete improvisatory musical spontaneity and towards recasting old songs as unrecognizably new that so much of Hornsby's solo work had been forecasting, this time in a full band setting. The album covers pieces by many of Hornsby's musical influences, George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
, Samuel Barber
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
, Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
, Bud Powell
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
, and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
among them. Hornsby directly acknowledges the influence of the Dead by performing their songs "Lady with a Fan" and "Black Muddy River" and by including a version of "The Valley Road" that seems to have "emerged from the Grateful Dead's "Wharf Rat."
His next studio album of new material was not until 2002: Big Swing Face
Big Swing Face
Big Swing Face is Bruce Hornsby's eighth album, and seventh studio album. It is Hornsby's first studio album with his current band, Bruce Hornsby & the Noise Makers, although the album is technically a solo-credit...
. This album marked Hornsby's most experimental effort to date; Big Swing Face, the only album on which Hornsby barely plays any piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, relies heavily on post-electronica beats, drum loops, Pro Tools editing, and dense synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
arrangements. The album also boasts a "stream-of-consciousness wordplay" of lyrics that are in many ways more eccentric and humorous than previous work. The jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
jam on "Cartoons & Candy" and the gesture towards Hornsby's jam band
Jam band
-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...
influence with Steve Kimock
Steve Kimock
-External links:** at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at Internet Archive's live music archive*, San Francisco, April 3, 1999*, Unofficial Fan Forum...
's extended guitar solo
Guitar solo
In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, jazz, rock and metal styles such...
on "The Chill" highlight some of the album's only familiar territory, and Hornsby cites the opening track, "Sticks and Stones," as his partial homage to Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
's "Everything in its Right Place." Big Swing Face met mixed reviews ranging from "a new and improved Bruce Hornsby" to feeling as if "someone else is singing" to the album being called one of the "strangest records of 2002." Album sales were not helped by poor promotion from RCA, perhaps prompting Hornsby's decision to leave the label.
In 2004, after 19 successful years on RCA Records, Hornsby returned to a more acoustic, piano-driven sound on his Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
debut Halcyon Days
Halcyon Days (Bruce Hornsby album)
Bruce Hornsby's eighth studio album is titled Halcyon Days. This would be Hornsby's second studio album with his current band, Bruce Hornsby & the Noise Makers, although the album is technically a solo-credit...
, which reviewers referred to as "pure Hornsby". Guests included Sting, Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, and Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
. The tracks "Gonna Be Some Changes Made," "Candy Mountain Run," "Dreamland," and "Circus On The Moon" would become quick concert staples, each showcasing the diversity of Hornsby's improvisations and the Noise Makers' live sound. Notably, Halcyon Days also includes a suite of solo piano songs—"What The Hell Happened," "Hooray For Tom," and "Heir Gordon"—which all have a "Randy Newman
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
pastiche." Although the album was markedly less-risk-taking than Big Swing Face
Big Swing Face
Big Swing Face is Bruce Hornsby's eighth album, and seventh studio album. It is Hornsby's first studio album with his current band, Bruce Hornsby & the Noise Makers, although the album is technically a solo-credit...
, it would be well-received as a "winning balance of [Hornsby's] tuneful and adventurous sides." Throughout tours following the album's release, both with the Noise Makers and in solo performances, Hornsby continued to demonstrate his desire to "grow" as a singer and performer and to expand the instrumental possibilities of the piano in various genres. During this time period, Hornsby also began to offer CD-sets/digital downloads of digitally-mastered soundboard recordings of live concerts via the Bruce Hornsby Live website; selected concerts have been offered from 2002 to the present.
In July 2006, Hornsby released a 4 CD/1 DVD box set titled Intersections (1985-2005)
Intersections (1985-2005)
Bruce Hornsby's Intersections is a 4 CD / 1 DVD retrospective boxed set. The tracks are a mixture of previously unreleased live recordings, unreleased studio recordings, and album cuts...
. The discs are thematically broken into three categories: “Top 90 Time,” “Solo Piano, Tribute Records, Country-Bluegrass, Movie Scores,” and “By Request (Favorites and Best Songs)” (2 CDs). A full third of the music is previously unreleased; many familiar tracks are presented as unreleased live versions rather than the original studio recordings, and the majority of the remaining tracks are from single “B” sides and aforementioned collaborations and/or tribute albums and movie soundtracks. Some noteworthy collaborations include a piano-and-saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
duet with Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
and a performance with Roger Waters
Roger Waters
George Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...
of Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
's "Comfortably Numb." The set also offers a number of excellent examples of Hornsby's re-inventiveness with his own compositions, particularly in a live setting, for instance three different versions of “The Valley Road” are included—a live "bluesy funk" version with the Noise Makers, a Grammy-winning bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
version with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American country-folk-rock band that has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California in 1966. The group's membership has had at least a dozen changes over the years, including a period from 1976 to 1981 when the band performed and recorded...
, and "a loose and sloppy but totally grooving boogie" take with the Grateful Dead. Critics have said that Hornsby's particular integrations of different musical genres, and his passion for reinventing his own compositions, create a kind of music many might "never hear" otherwise as it is "a kind of music no one else is making." All ticketholders on Hornsby's 2006 Solo Piano tour received a free copy of this set. Among Intersections (1985–2005) is the Grammy nominated track "Song H," a new composition which competed for Best Pop Instrumental at the 2007 Grammy Awards. In recent concerts, Hornsby has begun playing classical music. In a 2007 concert in Saint Louis, Missouri, during Hornsby's improvisational session in "The Way It Is", he began playing J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations
Goldberg Variations
The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a work for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, the work is considered to be one of the most important examples of variation form...
along with the drums. On that same tour in a different city, he played five straight Goldberg Variations over the effected drum intro of "Gonna Be Some Changes Made."
On September 15, 2009, Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers released their fourth album, to mixed reviews. The album is titled Levitate
Levitate (Bruce Hornsby album)
Bruce Hornsby's tenth studio album is titled Levitate. This is Hornsby's third studio album with his current band, Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers. This album marks Hornsby's first release with Verve Music....
. This album is somewhat musically different. Hornsby and the Noisemakers have gone as far as to not include piano solos. The first single, "Levitate", was released on June 9, 2009.
Noisemakers members
Occasionally:
|
Skaggs & Hornsby/The Bruce Hornsby Trio (2007-present)
With the arrival of 2007, Hornsby would see two new musical projects come to fruition with the release of two new albums.Bill Monroe
William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader...
bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
tribute album, Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs
Ricky Skaggs
Rickie Lee "Ricky" Skaggs is a country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, and banjo.-Early career:...
had discussed launching a project together. In March 2007, the duo, backed by Skaggs's band Kentucky Thunder, released the bluegrass album Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby
Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby
Bruce Hornsby's ninth studio album, a collaboration with bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs titled Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby, marks the debut release for the duo's new musical project. The album features reworkings of Hornsby originals as bluegrass tunes, as well as a number of traditional songs and...
, and set several tour dates together. Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby combine bluegrass, traditional country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, "a tinge of Hornsby's jazzy piano and a splash of humor" on a spectrum of songs from the traditional "Across the Rocky Mountain" and "Hills of Mexico" to new compositions such as the opening track "The
Dreaded Spoon," "a humorous tale of a youthful ice cream heist." The pair also reinvent Hornsby's hit "Mandolin Rain" as a minor key acoustic ballad and "give his cautionary tale of backwoods violence", "A Night On the Town," a treatment highlighting the "Appalachian storytelling tradition that was always at the song's heart."
The album ends a surprise cover of Rick James
Rick James
James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. , better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. James was a popular performer in the late 1970s and 1980s, scoring four number-one hits on the U.S. R&B charts performing in the genres of funk and R&B...
's funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
hit "Super Freak
Super Freak
"Super Freak" is a 1981 hit single produced and performed by Rick James. The song, co-written by James and Alonzo Miller, was first released on James' album Street Songs and became one of James' signature songs. It features background vocals from Motown labelmates The Temptations, in which the bass...
" in a bluegrass arrangement. Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby would top Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
s bluegrass charts for several weeks after its release. As Hornsby carves out a new-found place for piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
within traditional bluegrass, disproving the notion that the piano is not compatible with "string-oriented" bluegrass, critics have called his playing and songwriting "centered, focused, and inspired."
The duo of Hornsby and Skaggs put some of their collaborative material on display for a television audience on February 24, 2007 with the premier of an episode of the series CMT Crossroads. The performance featured the two artists backed by Skaggs' band Kentucky Thunder
Kentucky Thunder
Kentucky Thunder, or Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, is the band that plays with Ricky Skaggs. Many members of the band have won numerous awards. Bandleader Ricky Skaggs plays mandolin and is the lead vocalist...
and showcased songs such as "Mandolin Rain","Super Freak
Super Freak
"Super Freak" is a 1981 hit single produced and performed by Rick James. The song, co-written by James and Alonzo Miller, was first released on James' album Street Songs and became one of James' signature songs. It features background vocals from Motown labelmates The Temptations, in which the bass...
", and a bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
-influenced version of Hornsby's hit "The Way It Is".
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
album titled Camp Meeting
Camp Meeting (album)
Bruce Hornsby's tenth studio album, his first release with The Bruce Hornsby Trio, is titled Camp Meeting. Hornsby is joined in the trio by Christian McBride and Jack DeJohnette . Pat Metheny was credited as "de facto" executive producer.-Track listing:# "Questions and Answers" # "Charlie, Woody...
. Hornsby is joined in his trio by jazz giants Christian McBride
Christian McBride
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...
(bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
) and Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. He is one of the most influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, due to extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians like Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett and Sonny...
(drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
). Alongside original compositions by Hornsby, the trio delivers "newly reharmonized versions" of tunes by John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
, Bud Powell
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
, and a previously unrecorded Ornette Coleman work titled "Questions and Answers" as well as an early Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...
composition "Death and the Flower." The trio made a series of appearances in the summer of 2007, at the Playboy Jazz Festival
Playboy Jazz Festival
The Playboy Jazz Festival is an annual event sponsored by Playboy Enterprises to celebrate jazz as well as feature both established and up and coming musicians of the genre. It was founded by Hugh Hefner and was first held in Chicago, Illinois at the Chicago Stadium in 1959. However, the second...
, the Newport Jazz Festival
Newport Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. It was established in 1954 by socialite Elaine Lorillard, who, together with husband Louis Lorillard, financed the festival for many years. The couple hired jazz impresario George Wein to organize the...
, and at the Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
, among other bookings.
During 2007, Hornsby made concert appearances of historical import. On January 4, former Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
members Bob Weir
Bob Weir
Bob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...
, Bill Kreutzmann
Bill Kreutzmann
Bill Kreutzmann is an American drummer who played with the rock band the Grateful Dead for their entire thirty-year career...
and Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995...
reunited along with Hornsby, Mike Gordon
Mike Gordon
Mike Gordon is a bass guitar player and vocalist most noted for his work with the rock band Phish. Gordon is also an accomplished banjo player, and is proficient at piano, guitar, harmonica and percussion...
(of Phish
Phish
Phish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, and exploration of music across genres. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 , the band's four members – Trey Anastasio , Mike Gordon , Jon Fishman , and Page McConnell Phish is an American rock band...
and the Rhythm Devils
Rhythm Devils
The Rhythm Devils are a band led by founding Grateful Dead drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart.-Grateful Dead:The Rhythm Devils had their origins as an informal but frequent fixture in the Grateful Dead concert repertoire...
) and Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes is an American rock and blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. Haynes is best known for his work as long time guitarist with The Allman Brothers Band and as founding member of the jam band Gov't Mule. Early in his career he was a guitarist for David Allan Coe and The Dickey...
to play two sets at a post-inauguration fundraising party for Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
, the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House in the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
. They were billed as "Your House Band" and performed some Dead classics such as "Truckin'
Truckin'
"Truckin'" is a song by the Grateful Dead, which first appeared on their 1970 album American Beauty. It was recognized by the United States Library of Congress in 1997 as a national treasure....
" and "Touch of Grey
Touch of Grey
"Touch of Grey" is a 1987 single by the Grateful Dead, and is the band's biggest commercial hit. The song is known for its refrain "I will get by / I will survive". It combines non sequitur lyrics with a pop tempo. The music was written by Jerry Garcia, and the words are by Robert Hunter...
". Other performers appearing at the event included Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
, Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean is a Haitian musician, record producer, and politician. At age nine, Jean moved to the United States with his family and has spent much of his life in the country...
and Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
. Additionally, Bruce Hornsby & The Noise Makers hosted an evening of rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and progressive bluegrass on May 12, 2007, to honor America's beginnings 400 years ago at Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...
. Hornsby was joined by some of his Grammy-winning friends, including legendary funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
and R&B artist Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...
and progressive bluegrass master Ricky Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder.
Bruce Hornsby has also been writing songs for a Broadway Musical, titled "SCKBSTD
SCKBSTD
SCKBSTD is a musical with music and lyrics by Bruce Hornsby, Chip deMatteo and a book by Clay McLeod Chapman. The story is about what happens to a family when a mysterious stranger arrives in a small town bringing fear and paranoia in his wake....
". One song from this project, a playful biographical tune about real-estate tycoon Donald Trump
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
titled "The Don of Dons," made several appearances in setlists during his early-2007 solo piano performances.
Hornsby has composed the score for Spike Lee
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
's new ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
documentary, titled Kobe Doin' Work, about NBA star Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryant is an American professional basketball player who plays shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . Bryant enjoyed a successful high school basketball career at Lower Merion High School, where he was recognized as the top high school...
and his MVP season.
Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...
recently announced that their new Limited Edition Signature Piano Series will feature Hornsby. Hornsby selected ten Model B Steinway Grands to be featured in this collection, each one personalized with his signature. Hornsby owns three 9-foot Model D Steinway Grands himself.
Outside of music composition and performance, Hornsby has taken an ownership interest in Williamsburg area radio station "The Tide," WTYD 92.3 FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
, and he has endowed the Bruce Hornsby Creative American Music Program at University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
's Frost School of Music
Frost School of Music
The Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music or Frost School of Music of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, known from 1926 to 2003 as University of Miami School of Music, is a music school in the United States....
, encouraging the study of songwriting broadly across traditional genres. Hornsby played himself in a cameo role in the Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
movie World's Greatest Dad
World's Greatest Dad
World's Greatest Dad is a 2009 American black comedy film written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. It stars Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, and Alexie Gilmore. The film was released on July 24 on video on demand providers before its limited theatrical release on August 24, 2009...
, in which Williams' character plays a Bruce Hornsby fan. He continues to reside with his family outside of Williamsburg, Virginia.
Hornsby's nephew, and sometime Noisemaker R.S. Hornsby, died on January 15, 2009 in a car accident
Car accident
A traffic collision, also known as a traffic accident, motor vehicle collision, motor vehicle accident, car accident, automobile accident, Road Traffic Collision or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other stationary obstruction,...
near Crozet, Virginia
Crozet, Virginia
Crozet is a census-designated place in Albemarle County in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is situated along the I-64 corridor approximately west of Charlottesville and east of Staunton. Originally called "Wayland's Crossing", it was renamed in 1870 in honor of Colonel Claudius Crozet, the...
. He was 28.
Bruce's newest Noisemakers album, Levitate, was released on September 15, 2009. It primarily features songwriting more than instrumental fireworks, going so far as to have no piano solos. It also gives several "SCKBSTD" songs their first public release.
According to the official Bruce Hornsby website: No Tour in 2010... Many of you have asked about Bruce's touring plans for 2010. Bruce says, "I'm burned out from being on the road and am taking a break long enough to allow me to enjoy it again."
Bruce Hornsby played keyboards on “Her Dance Needs No Body” and “Red Hot Mama" with Widespread Panic to close out the 10th annual Bonnaroo Music and Art Festival on June 12, 2011.
Bruce Hornsby albums
-
- with The Range
- The Way It IsThe Way It Is (Bruce Hornsby album)The Way It Is is Bruce Hornsby and the Range's debut album, released in 1986. Led by its hit title track, the album went on to achieve multi-platinum status and helped the group to win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Other hits from the album include "Mandolin Rain" and "Every Little Kiss"...
(1986) #3 US (RIAA: 3xPlatinum) - The Way It Is Tour (1986–1987) (1987) (Japan)
- Scenes from the SouthsideScenes from the SouthsideScenes from the Southside is the second album by Bruce Hornsby and the Range. The single "The Valley Road" was Hornsby's third Top 10 U.S. hit, peaking at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, and also his first number one on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart...
(1988) #5 US (RIAA: Platinum) - A Night on the TownA Night on the Town (Bruce Hornsby album)Bruce Hornsby and the Range's third and final album is titled A Night on the Town. Following albums would be credited to Bruce Hornsby . A Night on the Town features Hornsby's last significant hit single, "Across the River", which spent one week at the top of the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart...
(1990) #20 US
- The Way It Is
- Solo work
- Harbor LightsHarbor Lights (album)Bruce Hornsby's fourth album is titled Harbor Lights. This is his first album credited solely to Bruce Hornsby, without his previous backing band, The Range.The album cover uses Edward Hopper's 1951 painting "Rooms By The Sea".-Track listing:...
(1993) #46 US - Hot House (1995) #68 US
- Spirit TrailSpirit TrailBruce Hornsby's sixth album, a double album, is titled Spirit Trail. This is his third solo-credited album. This would be the last album before his current band, Bruce Hornsby & the Noise Makers, formed. This album can be seen in the film "World's Greatest Dad".-Track listing:-Musicians:* Bruce...
(1998) #148 US - Piano Jazz, Marian McPartland / Bruce Hornsby (2005)
- Intersections (1985-2005)Intersections (1985-2005)Bruce Hornsby's Intersections is a 4 CD / 1 DVD retrospective boxed set. The tracks are a mixture of previously unreleased live recordings, unreleased studio recordings, and album cuts...
(2006) US (Legacy RecordingsLegacy RecordingsLegacy Recordings is Sony Music Entertainment's catalog division. It was founded in 1990 by CBS Records under the leadership of Jerry Shulman, Richard Bauer, Gary Pacheco and Amy Herot to handle reissues of recordings from the vast catalogues of Columbia Records, Epic Records and associated...
)
- Harbor Lights
- with The Noise Makers
- Here Come The Noise MakersHere Come the Noise MakersBruce Hornsby's first live release is titled Here Come the Noise Makers. It is a double album compilation of songs recorded between 1998 and New Year's Eve 1999/2000...
(2000) #167 US - Big Swing FaceBig Swing FaceBig Swing Face is Bruce Hornsby's eighth album, and seventh studio album. It is Hornsby's first studio album with his current band, Bruce Hornsby & the Noise Makers, although the album is technically a solo-credit...
(2002) - Halcyon DaysHalcyon Days (Bruce Hornsby album)Bruce Hornsby's eighth studio album is titled Halcyon Days. This would be Hornsby's second studio album with his current band, Bruce Hornsby & the Noise Makers, although the album is technically a solo-credit...
(2004) #86 US - LevitateLevitate (Bruce Hornsby album)Bruce Hornsby's tenth studio album is titled Levitate. This is Hornsby's third studio album with his current band, Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers. This album marks Hornsby's first release with Verve Music....
(September 15, 2009) - Bride of the Noisemakers (2011)
- Here Come The Noise Makers
- with Ricky Skaggs
- Ricky Skaggs & Bruce HornsbyRicky Skaggs & Bruce HornsbyBruce Hornsby's ninth studio album, a collaboration with bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs titled Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby, marks the debut release for the duo's new musical project. The album features reworkings of Hornsby originals as bluegrass tunes, as well as a number of traditional songs and...
(2007) US (SonyBMG/LegacyLegacy RecordingsLegacy Recordings is Sony Music Entertainment's catalog division. It was founded in 1990 by CBS Records under the leadership of Jerry Shulman, Richard Bauer, Gary Pacheco and Amy Herot to handle reissues of recordings from the vast catalogues of Columbia Records, Epic Records and associated...
)
- Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby
- with The Bruce Hornsby Trio
- Camp MeetingCamp Meeting (album)Bruce Hornsby's tenth studio album, his first release with The Bruce Hornsby Trio, is titled Camp Meeting. Hornsby is joined in the trio by Christian McBride and Jack DeJohnette . Pat Metheny was credited as "de facto" executive producer.-Track listing:# "Questions and Answers" # "Charlie, Woody...
(2007)
- Camp Meeting
- Compilations
- Greatest Radio Hits (2004)
- Bruce Hornsby Live
- (42 Album Releases)
- with The Range
Albums with associated acts
-
- with the Grateful Dead
- Infrared RosesInfrared RosesInfrared Roses is a live compilation album by the Grateful Dead. It is a conglomeration of their famous improvisational segments "Drums" and "Space."...
, Grateful Dead, (1991) - Dick's Picks Volume 9Dick's Picks Volume 9Dick's Picks Volume 9 is the ninth live album in the Dick's Picks series of releases by the Grateful Dead. It was recorded on September 16, 1990 at the Madison Square Garden in New York City during the first tour with new keyboardists Vince Welnick and Bruce Hornsby...
, Grateful Dead, (1997) - So Many Roads (1965-1995)So Many Roads (1965-1995)So Many Roads is a five disc boxed set by the band The Grateful Dead. Even though the collection is labeled a live album set, it also contains a number of tracks from the studio that were previously unreleased...
, Grateful Dead, (1999) - Dick's Picks Volume 17, Grateful Dead, (2000)
- View From The Vault, Volume TwoView From The Vault, Volume TwoView from the Vault, Volume Two is the second entry in the "View from the Vault" series by the Grateful Dead. It was released simultaneously as a three-disk CD and a one-disk DVD. This volume features the June 14, 1991 concert at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington, D.C., and bonus material...
, Grateful Dead, (2001), also released as DVD - Grateful Dead Download Series Volume 11Grateful Dead Download Series Volume 11Volume 11 is the eleventh in a series of live digital downloads of the band the Grateful Dead released by The Grateful Dead Productions. It was released on March 7, 2006 and is a three disc release of a complete show the band performed on June 20, 1991 at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, MI...
, Grateful Dead, (2006)
- Infrared Roses
- with The Other Ones
- The Strange RemainThe Strange RemainThe Strange Remain is an album by the rock band The Other Ones. It was recorded live on the Furthur Festival tour in 1998 and released in 1999. The album reached number one on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart and number 112 on the Billboard 200....
, The Other Ones, (1999)
- The Strange Remain
- Grateful Dead-related Album Contributions
- Deadicated: A Tribute to the Grateful DeadDeadicated: A Tribute to the Grateful DeadDeadicated: A Tribute to the Grateful Dead is a 1991 tribute album with music from the Grateful Dead performed by various artists. According to the sleeve notes, the compilation is a rainforest benefit album, with significant proceeds from its sale being donated to the Rainforest Action Network and...
, Various Artists, (1991) - Grayfolded : Transitive Axis, Grateful Dead / John Oswald, (1994)
- Grayfolded : Mirror Ashes, Grateful Dead / John Oswald, (1995)
- The Concert For The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Various Artists, (1996)
- Mystery Box, Mickey Hart, (1996)
- Furthur, Various Artists, (1997)
- Furthur More, Various Artists, (1997)
- GrayfoldedGrayfoldedGrayfolded is an album produced by John Oswald featuring the Grateful Dead song "Dark Star". The album's name, Grayfolded, is a homophone of "Grateful Dead".-Creation:...
, Grateful Dead / John Oswald, (1996) - Furthur Most, Various Artists, (2000)
- Over The Edge And Back, Mickey Hart, (2002)
- Gilford, NH, September 2, 2005, Ratdog, (2005)
- Atlantic City, NJ, September 4, 2005, Ratdog, (2005)
- Pure Jerry: Hampton, Virginia, November 9, 1991, Jerry Garcia Band, (2006)
- Deadicated: A Tribute to the Grateful Dead
- with the Grateful Dead