Bruce H. McCosar

Bruce H. McCosar

Sterling, United States

In existence since : 10.2005

http://bmccosar.wordpress.com/

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jazz instrumental

Albums by Bruce H. McCosar

Martian Winter

Progressive Jazz-Rock

jazz rock instrumental fusion progressive

9.5 out of 0 to 10

( 3 Reviews )

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Points of Departure

progressive jazz rock

jazz rock instrumental fusion progressive

8.8 out of 0 to 10

( 6 Reviews )

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La vie sous la mer

modern jazz instrumentals

jazz instrumental modern melodic concept postrock fusion guitar delight elements

8.7 out of 0 to 10

( 12 Reviews )

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handmade

jazz instrumental postrock fusion swing smooth notfrench guitar melodic conga 

evolution

jazz instrumental fusion postrock swing melodic lounge hammond softrock guitar 

*News* (January 2009): Bruce will be participating in FAWM 2009!

Bruce H. McCosar is a middle and high school science teacher residing in Sterling, VA, USA. He switched to teaching after a career in medicinal chemistry. He is a member of the Mvskoke (Creek) Nation, a Native American tribe originally indigenous to the Southeastern United States.

As a musician, he plays bass, guitar, Hammond organ, keys, and various drums. Many of these appear on his first album, evolution (Nov. 2006). His second album, handmade (Feb 2007), featured jazz compositions backed by hand percussion instruments only (mainly conga drums).

Then came La vie sous la mer (Oct 2007). After a long and difficult summer, this album developed as a labor of love. Jazzier, cooler, and stranger than any work he'd released before, this album tells eight interconnected stories, and even features a freely-available PDF companion book (for more details, see this page).  Points of Departure (April 2008), his fourth Jamendo album, focused more on progressive rock, although with a heavy jazz influence.

In 2008, Bruce moved from Gainesville, Florida to Sterling, Virginia.  Building a life is hard; giving it up and starting over somewhere else is even more so.  Against this background, Bruce composed his fifth album, Martian Winter.  Like Points of Departure, it focuses on a jazz-influenced rock sound; however, like La vie sous la mer, it is almost exclusively built using odd time signatures (such as 5/4 and 7/8).  In this way, although it was born in a different world, it retains its connection to the past.

Influences

Originally, Bruce was a jazz guitarist, and started a Gainesville band known as Rhythm Method. His favorite, and most influential, "mainstream" jazz artists are John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Dave Brubeck, and Chet Baker. However, Bruce also loves soul jazz --- Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff --- and jazz influenced rock, for example, Joni Mitchell's Hejira album.

And today, he has completely abandoned commercial music: he focuses exclusively on Creative Commons licensed works, such as those found on Jamendo (see the list of recommended artists above).

History

Bruce has been recording solo work since 2005. This led him to learn many more instruments: bass, keyboards, conga drums, and traditional drumset. In 2008, he began learning the art of electronic composition, mostly with Csound and freely available Linux audio software.

Bruce H. McCosar on the Web

• Wordpress -- a blog which focuses on specific topics: background information on the albums, works in progress, Linux audio, music theory, and other current projects.
• Dandelife -- a living autobiography.
• Social networks: MySpace, Facebook.
• ccMixter -- raw (unmixed) tracks from my albums and other works, available for remix artists.
• SoundClick -- "Lost" tracks, material from FAWM, and other original works.
• The Python module pcsets on Google Code.