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Bruce
Lofgren, composer/guitarist
P.O. 176
Altadena, CA 91003
email: 3daysuckers@brucelofgren.com
BA
University of Washington
English Literature and Science
"Bruce
Lofgren compositions are unique and compelling and
transcend several music genres including Latin, new
age, jazz, blues, classical, and pop, portending great
emotional complexities while remaining grounded in
the process of discovery."--rj
crane
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BRUCE
LOFGREN: The composer
and guitarist
today
"First,
the music has to please me. Writing has always been a passionate
thing for me. If a germinal idea, when it occurs, doesn't bring
some kind of heightened emotional awareness, I probably won't
follow through with it, research it or explore its possibilities.
But if it does bring an emotional response, then I will want
to explore it to give it a chance to show its secrets....it's
partly intellectual, partly hard work and partly excitement
at the vistas around each turn."--From
an interview with Bruce Lofgren that
appeared in
the LA Jazz Scene, May 2001, issue No. 165, pp. 3-4, by Myrna
Daniels
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Bruce
Lofgren has composed and/or arranged and produced eight CDs
which are currently available: Wind and Sand (Night Bird) - a new CD that's just been released, Southwest Portals (Night Bird), The Bruce Lofgren Jazz Trio (Sea Breeze), Eventide (Sea
Breeze), Red Shift (Sea Breeze),
The Blues and Other Passions (Sea Breeze)
and Heart of the Night (Sea Breeze) -
all three with the BLJO, and Sky Sailor
(Night Bird). You can find more information
about these CDs and where you can buy them and read
reviews for them on this web site.
The
Bruce Lofgren Jazz Orchestra is a popular attraction
at Typhoon Restaurant in Santa Monica where they perform
frequently. In May 2001 The Bruce Lofgren Jazz Orchestra
was featured at the Playboy Jazz Festival in Pasadena.
The BLJO is available for a limited number of festival
bookings outside the L.A. area as their schedule permits
in order to reach new audiences from other areas. If
you would like to schedule the Bruce Lofgren Jazz Orchestra,
you can contact Bruce or
email
him for more information.
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BRUCE
LOFGREN : The formative years |
Bruce
has had a long and varied musical career with its beginnings
in Blues and Rock. He was influenced by artists and groups that
were popular when he began forming early musical impressions
growing up in Seattle: Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, B. B. King,
and Billy Butler (guitarist with the Bill Doggett Combo).
But
there were other influential people who also played significant
roles in the progression of Bruce's musical development, such
as his parents; both singers and piano players who exposed their
son to music at a very early age and later paid for his guitar
lessons. Then there was Bruce's friend, Dan Olason, (a talented
and accomplished guitarist at age 12), whose friendship resulted
in Bruce buying his first guitar with his own hard-earned money:
a brand new Sears-Roebuck blue and white Silvertone.
There
were two significant guitar instructors: Don Alexander, a patient,
semi-retired pro, who taught Bruce how to read music, insisting
this was an essential ingredient for learning how to play and
who also filled his imagination with stories of great jazz guitarists
of the past; and Al Turay, a gifted and talented jazz guitarist
and music educator, who owned a private guitar studio in Seattle
and taught Bruce the more advanced disciplines of music/guitar
theory, and jazz hamony while he was a student at the University
of Washington.
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BRUCE
LOFGREN: Early rock 'n roller/blues artist
Bruce
Lofgren's future career as a guitarist and composer first began
to emerge when he formed his garage band the Vegas,
who recorded his first composition, Ambush, when he was
only 17. By the time he left the Seattle area for California
in 1970, his musical experiences and accomplishments also included
leading the Barons Blues Band, house band at the
popular St. Michael's Alley (a weekend dance hangout) from 1964-66;
player and arranger for the locally popular Pacific Northwest
Territory Band for which he wrote over
fifty musical arrangements; private guitar instructor at the
Al Turay Guitar Studio (1967-70); and student of big band arranging
with composer/arranger Ralph Mutchler. It was also in the Pacific
Northwest where Bruce discovered jazz upon finding a Tal Farlow
album in a local record store and subsequently hearing the Barney
Kessel Quartet play at The Cellar, a Vancouver, B.C. jazz night
spot. From that point on Bruce was passsionately consumed with
the language of jazz--a language of a higher plane, exciting
and free like the blues, but with a much larger variety of moods
and feelings.
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BRUCE
LOFGREN : Pre-jazz orchestra days
When
Bruce arrived in CA he found work playing with local
latin bands in East L.A., but then took a gig with a
travelling show called Brother Love (later
Pratt & McClain of Happy Days). Lofgren
and his new friend, bassist Brian Vidor (now owner of
Typhoon Restaurant in Santa Monica) worked Las Vegas,
Tahoe, Miami and Hawaii with that band for almost a
year.
While
in Las Vegas, Bruce hooked up with Ray Anthony,
whose dazzling 10-piece show band (and Bookend Review)
was headlining at the lounge of the Frontier Hotel along
with Brother Love. Bruce brought some of his original
charts to one of Ray's rehearsals which led to him and
Ray making plans to cut an LP of Lofgren jazz-rock originals.
Bruce gave notice to his friends with Brother Love (who
knew this was an opportunity) and signed on with Ray
Anthony's band. After a year on tour with Ray's band,
and with the album project finished, Bruce decided to
settle in Los Angeles. In late 1972 Bruce began to make
contact with other L.A. based players and organized
some rehearsals in the club rooms of Local #47. You
can find more information
about the Bruce Lofgren Jazz Orchestra including its
early history on this web site.
(Pictured
above: Early BLJO trumpet section with Ron King, Roy
Poper and Mike Artega)
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BLJO
Outside Typhoon Restaurant in Santa Monica, CA
"Lofgren's music
is provocative, potent, sometimes blatantly sexy, played by
a contingent of young and enthusiastic musicians...this seems
to add a dimension of
freshness and exuberance. Lofgren and
his men have been around for quite a number of years, distilling
this heady brew of jazz fusion; lately however, they seem to
be gaining momentum, and look like they're bound for wider exposure....this
band is undoubtedly one of the most exciting of its kind around."--Frankie
Nemko, Music Connection Magazine, review of Bruce Lofgren Jazz
Orchestra performance
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BRUCE
LOFGREN: A few notable earlier guitar credits |
As
the BLJO was in its developmental stages, Bruce began working
more frequently in the L.A. jazz and pop scene, scoring gigs
with such notable and influential artists as: Bobby Darin,
Percy Faith Orchestra, Pat Upton and the Spiral Starecase,
Brazilian percussionist Airto Morierra, and singer, Flora
Purim. This expanded his knowledge of Brazilian music and
odd meters.
As
a guitarist Lofgren also gigged with Tony Rizzi and his Five
Guitars plus Four, a unique and challenging group which
performed the music of Charlie Christian harmonized for five
guitars. In this group were such great players as: Tony
Rizzi, Jimmy Wyble, Pete Christlieb, Grant Geissman, Tim
May, Tom Ranier, and Jeff Hamilton, Tommy Tedesco, and Steve
Carnelli.
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BRUCE
LOFGREN: A few notable composing and arranging credits |
From
the mid 70's Lofgren was constantly composing his own works
for jazz orchestra as well as arranging music for other artists.
He wrote for The Osmonds, Donny and Marie Show,
Doc Severinson's Tonight Show Orchestra, Loggins and
Messina and Donna Summer. He had his jazz/rock composition
Three Day Suckers recorded by the Buddy Rich
Orchestra on the successful album Big Band Machine.
Lofgren received a gold record for work done on the CBS project
Native Sons by Loggins and Messina, a gold single
for arranging Yes, I'm Ready for Teri De Sario
(produced by K.C. and the Sunshine Band). He wrote two
arrangements for Donna Summer on the platinum album Live
and More, and co-wrote the theme for the syndicated
T.V. show Johnny Carson's Comedy Classics. He
has composed music for many industrial films and hundreds of
radio and T.V. commercials. Songwriter Lofgren also penned a
song to honor Kirk Douglas at an LAUSD ribbon cutting ceremony
with Kirk Douglas. Lofgren arranged music for Keith Emerson's guest appearance at the Led Zeppelin reunion concert at London's O2 Stadium.
You
can view a complete list of Bruce's composing, arranging, and
live performance credits on this
web site. You can read a
review and view photos
of the LAUSD ribbon cutting ceremony with Kirk Douglas.
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