Album review : JACK BRUCE – Halfway To The Stars – The Recordings 2001-2003 (5 CD Boxset)

April 18th, 2026 by brianmc

Cherry Red [Release date : 24.04.26]

Shadows In The Air (2001)
More Jack Than God (2003)
Live At The Milky Way part 1 (2001, with the Cuicoland Express)
Live At The Milky Way part 2 (2001, with the Cuicoland Express)
Live At The Canterbury Fayre (Blu-ray, 2002, with the Cuicoland Express)

Voted as one of the world’s Top Ten Bassists by Rolling Stone magazine, and frequently recruited to back leading artists, yet Glasgow boy Jack Bruce and his music always seems to have been made in a world within a world. And we’re on the outside looking in.

Maybe that was as much down to his choice of lyricists, primarily Pete Brown, whose counter culture beat poetry was laced with unconventional imagery. “Silver horses run down moonbeams in your dark eyes” from ‘White Room’. Who else but Brown?

Bruce’s duo of “solo” albums, Shadows in The Air and More Jack Than God at the beginning of the new millennium have gained a significant reputation over the years.

To Pete Brown, Bruce had added New York native and famed producer, Kip Hanrahan to the writing team. Hanrahan possessed a long and distinguished career in the jazz world, as a composer and producer. Brown was in good company.

Across the two albums, each song writing duo (usually Bruce plus one) continually prove themselves to possess the rare ability of creating confident, multi ethnic music with a narrative thrust. Music with wide appeal… Hanrahan’s fluency within that idiom was invaluable in the recruitment of talent for both of these albums, and their spicy Latin American flavours.

The higher profile material from Bruce’s past got another moment in the sun, ‘Out Into The Fields’ from his Bruce, West, Laing recordings, plus ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’, ‘White Room’, ‘I Feel Free’ and ‘Politician’, four from the Cream era, still sounding fresh in this intoxicating musical environment.
Equally impressive, guest players included Eric Clapton, Dr.John, Gary Moore and Vernon (Living Color) Reid.

Live, the ensemble upped the ante. The Cuicoland Express players – Congas, accordions, a brass section and more all conspired to convert the songs from the two studio albums into live art.
But by creating complexity, the music – especially on Live At The Milky Way – crowds in on itself and sometimes overstays its welcome. Only ‘Windowless Rooms’ and ‘Surge’ emerge with any real credit.

On the ‘…Canterbury Fayre’ live recording, streamlined versions of the same songs work so much better. The melodic twists and ear catching hooks, buried at the Milky Way gig, make their way easily to the surface, obviously and loudly appreciated by a vocal audience. See it all on Blu-ray.

Informative and colourful liner notes guide us through the assembly of the band and the recording process. The important details are contained in music journalist and author, Paul Sexton’s vibrant prose.

All in all a fitting testimonial to the late, great Jack Bruce. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

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