POP MUSIC : Yes’ Bruford Now Follows Two Different Drummers

British-born Bill Bruford is one of the most respected drummers of the rock era. He’s best known for his work with seminal British progressive-rock bands Yes and King Crimson, and he was recently inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame.

These days, the 42-year-old Bruford is keeping two very different beats with two very different bands.

Friday night, he’ll be appearing at the Bacchanal in Kearny Mesa with his 4-year-old jazz fusion group, Bill Bruford and Earthworks.

Sometime next year, he’ll very likely be back in town, headlining some major concert hall with Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe, or ABWH--four-fifths of the early-1970s group Yes. (They can’t call themselves Yes because bassist Chris Squire, the lone holdout, owns legal rights to the name.)

It’s quite a balancing act, being in two bands at the same time, particularly since one is nothing like the other. But Bruford maintains it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.

“I think the two are symbiotic; they both feed each other on many levels,” Bruford said. “The jazz side is where you do research and development, and some of that leads up to what you do in a rock group.

“And conversely, certain aspects of the rock side--the lack of obscurity, the cleanliness, the fact that you can’t fiddle around as much--feed down to the jazz side.

“The rock side also feeds the jazz side financially. You get grossly overpaid in rock, and grossly underpaid in jazz, so this way you spread the money around.”

Bruford formed Earthworks in 1986, two years after King Crimson broke up.

“With the demise of King Crimson, there was no longer any rock band in which I could do whatever I wanted to do,” Bruford said. “I wanted to experiment with electronic percussion, to play this hybrid keyboard-drum set that allows me to play chords and pitches and come up with various rhythmic motifs.

“So I decided to avail myself of the growing British jazz scene, to go that route and see if I could come up with something.

“I see Earthworks as standing in direct opposition to all these high-powered L.A. fusion groups--Chick Corea, that sort of thing. We’re not control freaks; we’re much more concerned with texture and atmosphere and coincidence and happy accidents.”

In 1988, when the subject of a Yes reunion was first broached, Bruford agreed to participate.

“Certainly, it’s more limited, because people want hits,” he said. “It’s a brutal, commercialized world out there, owned by two or three big record companies, and if you wish to exist at all, on an audible level, in rock, you do what you are told.

“And yet I wouldn’t play any music I don’t enjoy. I think you can be commercial and good. I’m really not in the nostalgia game, and part of ABWH is to look forward. Of course, we play some old songs, but we’re also developing a fresh repertoire.”

Bill Bruford and Earthworks has performed at major jazz festivals all over Europe, including the Glasgow International Jazz Festival in Scotland. The group is in the midst of a monthlong U.S. tour in support of its second album, “Dig.”

Over the summer, Bruford took a break from touring with Earthworks to record the second Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe album in France, a follow-up to the group’s platinum 1989 debut. It is due out next spring.

“And I expect some sort of tour will be required, in which I would participate,” Bruford said. “I have no particular axes to grind--rock, jazz, progressive or any of that stuff.

“I like the drums and I like drumming, and basically I’m just trying to make a contribution to my instrument.”