Pete Lockett is one of the world's leading multi-percussionists. An authority on Indian percussion and an expert on tablas, kanjira, and bongos, he has played and recorded with countless artists including Björk, Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, Jeff Beck, David Torn, Vikku Vinayakram, Selva Ganesh, Ustad Zakir Hussain, The Verve, Steve Smith, Nitin Sawhney, Afro Celt Sound System, the BBC Concert Orchestra, and David Arnold for the James Bond movies. He is one of the few UK musicians to be honoured with invitations to play in India in the highest circles of Indian classical musicians.
By the tender age of 27 Bill Bruford's musical character had already been forged in the fiery furnace of four of the biggest progressive rock groups of all time: Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, and UK. By nature a restless innovator uncomfortable with the well-worn path, Bill went on to a fascinating 40-year career as a band leader and writer with his groups Bruford and Earthworks. His taste for the unpredictable in live performance has led him to collaborations with countless of the world's top rock and jazz musicians, in an endless search for the innovative, the unusual and the unlikely. His work is well documented at Summerfold and Winterfold Records, and in his book Bill Bruford: The Autobiography, recently published by Jawbone Press.
Back in 1999 before he was well-known, Lockett toured with Bruford as Network of Sparks and they produced an inventive, culture-busting album called 'One.' The group was a percussion quintet covering many of the disciplines from around the world, in which the Ghanaian and North Indian Dhol traditions rubbed shoulders with progressive jazz and electronics. The music on One is an authoritative guide to the glorious colours available from more sophisticated rhythmic cultures than our own western one, and several of its ideas were carried on into the recent World Drummers Ensemble Summerfold dual-disc with percussionists Bruford, Chad Wackerman, Luis Conte and Doudou N'Diaye Rose.
Our jaded western drumset rhythms would probably have fossilised some years back if it hadn't been for the healthy infusion of the rhythms and colours of India, Cuba, Latin-America and Africa, and it seems that visiting with and borrowing from these and other cultures, while approaching their rhythmic depth with proper respect, is what is going to continue to give our popular music vibrancy. Lockett's Network of Sparks is expertly placed to guide us through the riches of other nations' rhythmic heritages.
One has been out of print for several years and Summerfold Records is delighted to bring it back to its rightful prominence as one of the earliest and best percussion quintet albums, joining The New Percussion Group of Amsterdam and The World Percussion Ensemble, also on the label.
'Pete is one of the Kings of Rhythm.' TIMES OF INDIA
'Each track is fresh and inspiring, and the performances by the drummers, hand drummers, frame drummers, hand percussionists, and malletists are emotive and challenging.' MODERN DRUMMER MAGAZINE, USA
'It is a remarkable hommage to the art of the drum and will keep you spellbound with a considerably lower jaw-line for the whole album.' WAX MAGAZINE
'In terms of taste and technique, by far the best British drummer of his and subsequent generations.' INDEPENDENT, UK
'Bruford…is always pushing forward and asking questions while never allowing his pin-sharp articulations to slacken, and keeping time as punctiliously as an atomic clock. GUARDIAN, UK
