Career
Early At 12 years old, he would spend every spare moment in the rec room playing pinball and listening to all of the popular music of the day. As he entered high school, he put together a band and they had gigs at local frat-house parties and teen dance hops. After high school he enrolled at L.A Valley College in 1963.
In college all he did was attend parties and had fun because he was so interested in music
He went to a frat "kegger" one night and the question "Can anyone here keep a beat? Our drummer passed out!" sprung out. He ended up saving this party by getting up there and playing the drums.
He ended up meeting Frank Zappa and they began a two-drummer band. Started They began playing in Hollywood Clubs.
He seemed as if he could not jump the hump because when he first got started.
He had an 6-month bout with infectious mononucleosis. He never returned back to the group because Zappa could not afford a third drummer but they just remained friends and parted ways. As he recovered from his sickness, Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes dropped by to check on his progress and invited him to join their band.
They added two guitarists Matt Andes and Mark Andes.
With these two being added they formed a group called "Western Union". Jack Nitzsche dropped into a Hollywood rehearsal hall to find Western Union practicing their show.
He liked their music so he told them to repeat the song and he loved their style and offered the group an record deal. Unfortunately the label deal fell through and Western Union disbanded with Ferguson and Mark Andes moving on to form "Spirit." After the group split up, Bruce was band less.
Then came two of his former bandmates, Jimmy Carl Black and Bunk Gardner, they already had a band and they also signed a management contract with Bruce.
He later became A&R consultant to the Blue Thumb Records label, working with such artists as Ike and Tina Turner, Albert Collins, John Hiatt, Albert Lee and Earl Hooker. While working for Vanguard Records he started producing John Fahey and through him, he began his management and producer"s relationship with Leo Kottke. He produced all seven albums for Kottke on Capitol Records.
He later joined with Chrysalis Records to purchase Fahey"s Takoma Records label.
He signed The Fabulous Thunderbirds, T-Bone Burnett and George Winston to the new Takoma label. He served as popular music consultant to University of California, Los Angeles"s Department of Fine Arts as well as at the Austin Performing Arts Center in Austin, Texas.
Denny is now co-owner and Chief Executive Officer of Benchmark Recordings, which distributes albums by The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Mike Bloomfield.
