Bruce Gordon profile picture

Bruce Gordon

About Me

Bruce Gordon was born in London, England to parents of Scottish and German heritage. He immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of six. They first moved to Edmonton, Alberta but after only a year relocated to Oakville, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto.

His exposure to bands such as the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag and Bad Brains inspired him to pick up the bass guitar at the age of fifteen. He quickly took to the instrument and within a few months had joined a Toronto punk band called Intensive Chaos. Primarily self taught, Bruce continued to play in a string of basement bands and soon graduated to the independent scene where he started playing local gigs with Jonathan Cummins (Bionic, Doughboys) and Cam and Brad Maclean in Circus Lupus.
After finishing high school, Bruce enrolled in the jazz program at Humber College to further his musical knowledge. Around the same time the demise of Circus Lupus led him to join the newly formed Rocktopus . Rocktopus released several independent cassettes and an EP on Lone Wolf Records. The band toured regularly across Ontario and Quebec and successfully completed two cross Canada and one North American tour before finally calling it quits.

In 1993, only one month after Rocktopus split, Bruce joined I Mother Earth who had already signed a worldwide deal with Capitol records. A few short weeks after Bruce joined the band they embarked on a pre-album release tour across the states. Over the next ten years Bruce would release five multi-platinum albums with I Mother Earth, be presented with MuchMusic and Juno awards and tour relentlessly around North America and Europe.

In 2003 the band parted ways to pursue different projects. Bruce expanded his teaching practice privately and at the Twelfth Fret and began to explore new musical endeavors. He tried his hand at as many different musical styles as possible, including various jazz and blues artists, and for a year worked with songwriter Alison Maclean in her band Fourstar. He also performed with the funk improv band Hot Fo Ghandi and the lo-fi jazz combo the Tiny Specks.

In early 2005 Bruce was hired by Blue Man Group to help open up a new Toronto based show. He continues to perform with the eclectic ensemble on a variety of instruments that include electric zither, chapman stick and talking drum.

Earlier this year Bruce joined with fellow Blue Man musicians Dave Steele and Steve Ballstadt to form the instrumental spy-go-go-surf-noir trio Experiment In Terror. His latest project is live electro groove collective called Ostrich he formed with friend and drummer Steve Ballstadt.


Bruce moved to Orlando last year to open up a new Blue Man Group show at Universal Studios where he performs most nights of the week.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 06/07/2006
Influences: Bands/Artists

ACDC, Afghan Wigs, All, David Axelrod, Bad Brains, Beastie Boys The Beatles, Beck, Big Drill Car,Black Flag, Blue Man Group, George Clinton, John Coltrane, Dead Kennedys, Die Kreuzen, Nick Drake, Experiment In Terror, Marvin Gaye, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, James Jamerson, Led Zeppelin, Living Proof, Bob Marley, Massive Attack, Meat Puppets, Charles Mingus, Mogwai, Thelonius Monk, Ennio Morricone, The New Deal, No Mind, Ostrich, Shuggie Otis, Outkast, Astor Piazzolla, Pixies, Public Enemy, Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Red Snapper, Sonny Sharrock, Sly & The Family Stone, Son of Bazerk, The Stranglers, Thin Lizzy, Amon Tobin, Toots & the Maytels, Violent Femmes, The Who, Stevie Wonder

Bass Players

J.J. Burnell, Bootsy Collins, Klaus Flouride, Larry Graham, Charlie Haden, Carol Kaye, James Jamerson, Alisdair Jones, Brian Ritchie, Mike Watt


Type of Label: Major

My Blog

moving to florida!

Well, I never saw a move to Florida in my future but it looks like it's happening regardless! Since the Toronto run of Blue Man has closed they have asked my wife and I to relocate to Orlando to open ...
Posted by on Tue, 16 Jan 2007 23:05:00 GMT

gear for sale

I'm selling off some more equipment before I move down to Florida. Here are some of the items.Ernie Ball original 5 string bassFender StratocasterCE-1 vintage boss chorus pedalQuadraverb effects rack ...
Posted by on Mon, 14 Aug 2006 10:10:00 GMT