John Bruce Wallace Explained

John Bruce Wallace
Background:non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth Date:6 February 1950
Birth Place:Calais, Maine, United States
Genre:Avant-rock, experimental, free improvisation, free jazz, industrial, Avant-garde, Progressive Metal
Occupation:Musician
Instrument:Guitar
Years Active:1966–present
Label:Waving Bye

John Bruce Wallace is an American composer and avant-garde, free jazz, fusion, experimental, improvisational progressive metal guitarist.[1] [2] [3]

Early life

John Bruce Wallace a/k/a jacewbal was born February 6, 1950, in Calais, Maine, United States. John exhibited an affinity for the performing arts at an early age, first in acting, playing the lead roles in grade school plays, later he expanded his interests to include singing solo for his grade school classmates. Encouraged by his father to take up trumpet, he began studying clarinet while in grade school. By high school John had found "the Guitar" and would perform almost daily during summers on his family's front porch for the traffic passing by.[4] Bands formed during this time were all short lived usually breaking up due to disagreements over the musical direction that the group members wanted to go in. John's early influences included Sun Ra, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Jimi Hendrix. After high school, John moved to Portland, Maine, to pursue music. He started several groups which all failed due to musical differences, although one failed after the band's equipment was stolen. However, during this time he would fill in on guitar for a number of traveling bands that were performing in night clubs in Portland. He was also at this time becoming more influenced by Experimental music, Progressive Metal, Avant garde, Rock, and Jazz.

On an invite to come to New York City to further develop musically, John gained insight into the inner musical culture opening potential doorways to pathways for future exploration. This move focused John's attention more closely at free improvisation, jazz, and 'free jazz' as practiced in Europe, by established artists such as Ornette Coleman, Anthony Braxton, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Derek Bailey, and by certain young artists at the time beginning to work in Alphabet City on New York's lower East Side.[3]

Career

Being recognized for developing a new approach to electric guitar, the prime focus of his musical work is the expansion of the voicings of the electric guitar through improvised compositions.[2] [5] A free jazz solo performer interested in freely improvised music with a focus on generating extended sound statements within the options afforded through solo performance. His approach incorporates totally improvised sound expressions with emphasis on deconstruction of structure and pattern - while generating a narrative of the moment.[6] [7] His improvised compositions often incorporate multi-tonal qualities, dense, interwoven passages embellished with harmonic and micro-tonal sound statements, or silence further defined by irregular syntaxed rhythms and primitive beats. These extempore compositions incorporate complex musical riddles wherein are displayed the qualities of multiple instrument arrangements.[2] [3] His music was invited for performance consideration at the American Pavilion during the 1991 São Paulo Art Biennial, in São Paulo, Brazil.[3] [8] His recordings and performances have received reviews in leading foreign and domestic trade journals and publications as well as online media.[2] [3] [5] [7] [8] In the independent music magazine Forced Exposure it was written about John,"For a guy whose list of desert islands discs contains works by Scelsi, Globokar, Kagel, Xenakis & others of the same ilk, it's interesting to hear such a loud, aggressively rock-like, feedback laden approach to solo...electric guitar."[9]

Tours have included festivals in Russia and Lithuania, at the Vilnius Jazz Festival.[10] [11] In his Jazz Podium review of the Vilnius Festival Bernd Jahnke wrote "Solo guitarist John Bruce Wallace, in free improvisation, revamped the modern guitar tradition and, using the technical possibilities of his instrument, transferred it into an individual sound language."[5]

In a 1994 review of Wallace's improvisational album Loud Noises in a Corner: Engagements on Urban Terrain, Mark Jenkins wrote in Washington City Paper "Wallace is a lot less predictable than that of many guitar warriors, and the best of it has a savage beauty that Eddie Van Halen couldn't achieve with six months of overdubs."[12]

His recordings have received radio and Internet airplay across the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, Central and South America, Australia, and Asia.[13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]

With the release of the album Taming The Day he joined the roster of Throne of Bael Records[19] an experimental record label in the United Kingdom and has made his Discography available via Internet media services.[20] [21] He has recorded collaborations with Wilfried Hanrath (Hauchzart Ensemble), Pete Swinton, Antonella Eye Porcelluzzi, Vaders Orchestra (Ewald Wöstefeld), Siegfried Grundmann, and M. Nomized. In addition to his solo recordings, John has had compositions included in two compilations on Throne of Bael Records.

Recent Single Video and Audio Recordings

Collaborations and Contributions

Discography

Personal life

John finds supplemental expression through painting and computer generated art. The need to express graphically traces back to when he was in grade school. As with his musical sound statements the concern is with the human condition and how we find ourselves in an alienating environment. Figurative images have explored the emotional aspects of the human experience, painted in oil done in a style that incorporated the use of his fingers in lieu of brushes; abstract images have explored the definition of the surface, as–well-as color. He has exhibited in several shows in New York City and Washington, DC, as-well-as, shows in Chicago, Minneapolis, Missouri, Maryland, Maine, and Virginia.

He also holds degrees in Philosophy from the University of Southern Maine (USM) and Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland University College (UMUC), a Certificate in Information Management from UMUC, and a Certificate in Legal Studies from Antioch School of Law. He studied philosophy at the University of Oregon. He has published a monograph in philosophy on Solipsism titled Genesis: Involvement: Generation[113] "Deals with the philosophical issues concerning the problems of solipsism: the search for the 'self' and its relation to the world. Addressing such traditional questions as the nature of epistemological certainty, metaphysics, and the adequacy of logic and science as foundations of thought, the author expands his investigation to include an examination of the individual and the social sciences. The author draws upon the thought of various philosophers, contending that both metaphysical solipsism and epistemological solipsism are faulty notions seeded in an equally faulty endeavor The Quest for Certainty, concluding that it is necessary to return to the Socratic maxim, 'Know Thyself', as a pluralistic field of consciousness.",[113] [114] [115] as well as papers on Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness, and Information Systems Management.

In the early 1990s John became afflicted with Ménière's disease/syndrome a long term, progressive vestibular condition affecting the balance and hearing parts of the inner ear. Symptoms are acute attacks of vertigo (severe dizziness), fluctuating tinnitus, increasing deafness. As it progresses the vertigo may be less severe; however there may be periods of imbalance, adding to the distress. In the later stages tinnitus is more prominent and fluctuating hearing loss worsens. There is permanent damage to the balance organ and significant balance problems are common, presenting unique challenges to performances and recording. To overcome the hearing loss John has developed an increase in the finger sensations of how each note and cord vibrates, relying as much on the characteristic vibration of each tone as the aural/sonic identity of that tone. In 2010 his right hand was severely mangled by a dog bite, again presenting unique challenges for John since his playing style incorporates use of fingers, pick, and various other sections of the right hand in bringing forth the tones he prefers.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Lord, Tom. The jazz discography. 11 August 2011. December 2000. Lord Music Reference. 978-1-881993-23-0.
  2. Web site: International Society for Improvised Music. International Society for Improvised Music. June 20, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20180127052350/http://www.improvisedmusic.org/members_details.php?memid=841. January 27, 2018. dead.
  3. Web site: All About Jazz: John Bruce Wallace. All About Jazz. 12 June 2012.
  4. Web site: Porch Concerts: John Bruce Wallace. Tom Brennan Facebook Comment. 30 November 2017.
  5. Web site: Presentation Zeitgenoessischer Spielarten Improvisierter Musik Vilnius '91. Jazz Podium No. 1 1992. April 6, 2017.
  6. Web site: Bandcamp Releases: John Bruce Wallace. 5 January 2017.
  7. Web site: Sonicbids Artists: John Bruce Wallace. 5 January 2017.
  8. Web site: Reverbnation: John Bruce Wallace. 15 May 2017.
  9. Web site: Forced Exposure: John Bruce Wallace. 13 March 2017.
  10. Web site: Vilnius Jazz Festival. May 25, 2012.
  11. Web site: Vilnius Jazz Festival History 1991. Vilnius Jazz Festival. May 25, 2012.
  12. http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/music/article/13009526/picking-himself-into-a-corner Picking Himself Into a Corner, October 28, 1994
  13. Web site: Tilos Radio no wave 1996-03-03: mese, mese, mátka, Budapest, Hungary. May 18, 2018.
  14. Web site: MIXLR.COM, "Sounds from the Corridor #24" May 16, 2018, London, United Kingdom. May 18, 2018.
  15. Web site: WCBN Playlist for May 17, 2011. WCBN-FM 88.3 FM, Ann Arbor, MI.. May 18, 2018.
  16. Web site: WMPG 90.9 Playlist for October 17, 1998. WMPG-FM 90.9 FM Portland, ME. May 18, 2018.
  17. Web site: chartsinfrance.net/John-Bruce-Wallace-Aka-Jacewbal 2014, Levallois-Perret Cedex, France. May 18, 2018.
  18. Web site: whpk.radioactivity.fm Playlist info for: 'The Donner Party' on 03-18-2015. WHPK Radioactivity.fm, Chicago, IL.. May 18, 2018.
  19. Web site: Taming The Day Throne of Bael Records. dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20190131040547/https://throneofbael.bandcamp.com/album/taming-the-day . 2019-01-31 .
  20. Web site: John Bruce Wallace.
  21. Web site: Music John Bruce Wallace aka jacewbal.
  22. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: AfterTones Of Propaganda . YouTube.
  23. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Ablated Musings After Sundown . YouTube.
  24. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Isolated Aspirations . YouTube.
  25. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Call of Anxiety on Evening Debate . YouTube.
  26. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Interrogative . YouTube.
  27. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/7Cs-ozO6FOM. 2021-12-10. The Pundit's Theme . YouTube.
  28. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/tk8LMW-kRJM. 2021-12-10. Loss At The Scales Of Non - Such . YouTube.
  29. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/OIRXKAwV9LA. 2021-12-10. Non - Such And Pretenders . YouTube.
  30. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/gFtqRrlZ7WU. 2021-12-10. Aural Parables From Mountain Tops And Valleys . YouTube.
  31. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/mY68m_5JdWE. 2021-12-10. Improv For The Children . YouTube.
  32. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/e0Fc_O8DOTo. 2021-12-10. Incantations And Redemptions . YouTube.
  33. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/CNd_UwvWSmQ. 2021-12-10. At The Druid's Feast . YouTube.
  34. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/beHUhmDpc-E. 2021-12-10. Imperious Inferences . YouTube.
  35. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/qJEIlPdtOII. 2021-12-10. Quantum Occlusion of Time . YouTube.
  36. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/jDjAMVOfjd4. 2021-12-10. Temporal Fazia . YouTube.
  37. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/ODOrKEw0nkc. 2021-12-10. Solitary Midnight Vespers . YouTube.
  38. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Night cries of soulful reckoning . YouTube.
  39. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/_JIlwNb2kts,. 2021-12-10. 230 am Prelude to Angst . YouTube.
  40. Web site: Talisman. Spotify. 18 April 2017 .
  41. Web site: Talisman.
  42. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/z0HOBEWt0CI. 2021-12-10. Was WasNot . YouTube.
  43. Web site: Memories. Spotify. 18 April 2017 .
  44. Web site: Memories.
  45. Web site: Shoals of Lost Care, by John Bruce Wallace.
  46. Web site: Without Clear Insight, by John Bruce Wallace.
  47. Web site: Escape From Yesterday, by John Bruce Wallace.
  48. Web site: Retreat from the Egress, by John Bruce Wallace.
  49. Web site: The Jagged Edge of Tomorrow, by John Bruce Wallace.
  50. Web site: Corrosive Brainstorming, by John Bruce Wallace.
  51. Web site: Symphonic Mesoscale Convective Inversion, by John Bruce Wallace.
  52. Web site: Demurred Interjections, by John Bruce Wallace.
  53. Web site: Electronic Breakdown in the Morning (John Bruce Wallace & Siegfried Grundmann).
  54. Web site: ORGASMUSLIEDER Vol.1, by ORGASMUSLIEDER Antonella Eye Porcelluzzi 2020.
  55. Web site: Attenuated Lifeforce Articulation.
  56. Web site: ANDREAS N°24 - Virus - Compilation Fraction - 2020, by Fraction Studio.
  57. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: J M Basquiat Emotive Stroke . YouTube.
  58. Web site: Unscheduled Clarity in Flashes of Not.
  59. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/p7htRGcJH3E. 2021-12-10. Portland Waiting In Phase . YouTube.
  60. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/sAkfbQ6MhcY. 2021-12-10. Memories by john bruce wallace and Vaders Orchestra (Ewald Wöstefeld) . YouTube.
  61. https://www.facebook.com/notes/1510333115825283/
  62. Web site: Connectez-vous ou inscrivez-vous pour voir le contenu.
  63. Web site: Grail.
  64. Web site: Divisive.
  65. Web site: Angst At Noon.
  66. Web site: Time Cutouts.
  67. Web site: Threadbare Meanings.
  68. Web site: Sometime in the Year 2021.
  69. Web site: No Name Yet! Come Back Tomorrow!.
  70. Web site: Hindsight at a Paused Moment of Reflection.
  71. Web site: Waiting for the Rapture OR Pancake Breakfast.
  72. Web site: What Its Come Too.
  73. Web site: And the Gods Told Jokes.
  74. Web site: SoundCloud - Hear the world's sounds.
  75. Web site: Disturbance.
  76. Web site: Can This be Real.
  77. Web site: Retreat from the Egress.
  78. Web site: Threadbare Sexuality in regalia.
  79. Web site: Collaborations.
  80. Web site: Cruzing the Seventieth Level.
  81. Web site: So Say Us.
  82. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/RHTzO7H9cUY. 2021-12-10. So Say Us . YouTube.
  83. Web site: Saints of Later Day Politics.
  84. Web site: Zarathustra's Retreat from Plato's Cave.
  85. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/2I192rh8OtI. 2021-12-10. Zarathustra's Retreat From Plato's Cave . YouTube.
  86. Web site: Under Armor of Cloistral Aspirations.
  87. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/w_OdrugCcsU. 2021-12-10. Under Armor Of Cloistral Aspirations . YouTube.
  88. Web site: Taming the Day.
  89. live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/ijIO_pPqF18. 2021-12-10. Taming The Day . YouTube.
  90. Web site: Choice Cuts.
  91. Web site: The Boundary of Time's Sway.
  92. Web site: Shredding the Cultural Fabric.
  93. Web site: Battle of Betwixt and Between.
  94. Web site: A Long Way for Not.
  95. Web site: Aural Parables from Mountain Tops and Valleys.
  96. Web site: Lost to the Myths of Idolatry.
  97. Web site: Society: A tonal Improvisation Played Out in Nine Parts.
  98. Web site: Society Shamans and Wizards.
  99. Web site: At the Druid's Feast.
  100. Web site: The Anguished Cries of Discarded Souls.
  101. Web site: Land O Goshen.
  102. Web site: Illusion of Immanence.
  103. Web site: Sirens of a Distance Shore.
  104. Web site: Once This Way Has Passed.
  105. Web site: Chapel of Lost Soli.
  106. Web site: Angst After Evermore.
  107. Web site: Watching Time Disappear.
  108. Web site: Electro Static Timeline.
  109. Web site: Loud Noises in a Corner: Engagements on Urban Terrain. Amazon.
  110. Web site: Loud Noises in a Corner: Engagements on Urban Terrain - John Bruce Wallace | User Reviews | AllMusic. AllMusic.
  111. Web site: John Bruce Wallace – Loud Noises in a Corner: Engagements on Urban Terrain (1994, CD). Discogs.
  112. Web site: Plumbing the Depths of Reason.
  113. Web site: 9780819116901: Genesis, Involvement, Generation - AbeBooks - Wallace, John Bruce: 0819116904.
  114. Book: Genesis: Involvement: Generation. 30 June 1981.
  115. Book: Amazon.co.jp: Genesis, Involvement, Generation : Wallace, John Bruce: Foreign Language Books . .

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