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Bruce Cassidy Bruce Cassidy was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick
in eastern Canada and was self - taught for his first
few years. In his late teens he attended the Berklee
College of Music in Boston. He also studied psychology
and received a BSc from Dalhousie University in Halifax,
Nova Scotia. His formative playing years were spent
in Montreal then later he moved to Toronto, the epicentre
of Canadian music.
Bruce is perhaps best known for his playing and writing
work with the Jazz-Rock Band Blood Sweat and Tears,
was also a member of the Grammy Award winning big band
The Boss Brass as well as the 70's hit Band Lighthouse.
While on tour with BS&T he fell in love with Cape Town
and after leaving the band moved there to write film
music for a production company there. While in South
Africa he wrote many Commercial tracks and several local
and international film scores. He has always fronted
jazz bands wherever he has been. In South Africa these
include Conversations with Barney Rachabane, Timeless
with Pops Mohamed and his 10-piece funk band Hotfoot.
"Timeless" an Ambient World Music CD was released to
critical acclaim in 1997 and in April 1998 it won the
(South African Music Awards) SAMA award for best instrumental
performance.
An album of music with Barney Rachabane Conversations
is in the planning stages. The premiere Hotfoot album
is about to be released at this writing. His eclectically
styled healing band Bruce Cassidy's Body Electric also
has an album in production. The healing power of music
is a very important part of all of Bruce's work and
he has been involved in meditation pursuits all of his
life. His Library Music Album releases include two CDs
of African music for World Wide Music, several tracks
of African music for Parry Music in Canada and a CD
of Comedy music for the German company Sonoton. In 2001
he produced an EP - CD with the controversial rapper
Waddy Jones for Sony Records and they are working on
a second "Trip-Hop" styled project. In 2003 he arranged
and produced the album Our World for the Soweto String
Quartet (SSQ) for BMG. This includes orchestral as well
as loop-based techniques and often mixes of them both.
In September 2003, shortly after leaving South Africa
he returned to arrange and conduct a string orchestra
setting for the famous South African diva Sibongile
Khumalo. The concert was recorded and is under review
by Sony for release.
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