Bill Bruford

Bill Bruford is an English drummer who first became known as a founding member of Yes. After leaving Yes in 1972 he spent the rest of the 1970s with King Crimson (1972 to 1974), Roy Harper (1975) and U.K. (1978), and toured with Genesis in 1976. In 1978 he formed his own group, Bruford, which was active until 1980.

He returned to King Crimson for three years from 1981 to 1984, formed the electric jazz band Earthworks in 1986, and played with former Yes bandmates in Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, which led to a very brief second stint in Yes. His third and final King Crimson period ran from 1994 to 1997, and Earthworks later continued in an acoustic form. In the 1980s he was also an enthusiastic user of electronic drums and helped popularize them.

Bruford retired from professional drumming on 1 January 2009, received a PhD in music from the University of Surrey in 2016, ranked number 16 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest drummers, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes in 2017.