Across 135th Street – Beats We Like: A Tribute To Jack Bruce

Jack Bruce is certified rock’n‘roll royalty – world-renowned for holding down bass and vocal duties in treacherous power trio *Cream* in the late 60s alongside Eric Clapton and *Ginger Baker*. But amongst longtime hip hop beat-heads Bruce’s biggest musical contribution is his 1971 solo album *Things We Like*. Leading a UK jazz quartet featuring *John McLaughlin*’s distinctively distorted angular fretwork and Dick Hextall-Smith’s chirpy reeds, Bruce’s frenzied post-bop originals and treatments of standards would catch the ears of adventurous hip hop producers some 20 years later, making *Things We Like* one of the most liberally sampled LPs of the decade. On the latest episode of *Across 135th Street*, Chairman Mao pays homage to Bruce’s unlikely sample source bonanza, interweaving passages of the original LP with classic 90s tracks from *Showbiz & AG*, *Diamond D*, *Smif-N-Wessun*, Artifacts, *Souls Of Mischief* and others.