Bruce Aitken
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Bruce Aitken (born 1953, Invercargill, New Zealand) is a rock and jazz drummer now living in Canada.
At an early age, Aitken started performing with Roger McLachlan (later bassist of the Little River Band) in New Zealand’s youngest beat band Rogers Dodgers. Through his formative years Bruce played with leading New Zealand recording artists such as Sir Howard Morrison, Sir Ray Columbus, John Grennell, and Maria Dallas.
In the early 70’s Aitken played with Battle of the Bands winners Heathen Grace, and during the mid 70’s toured New Zealand with Pye Records artists Gratis Kinetic.
Aitken traveled to Sydney, Australia in the late 70’s performing with a number of bands. He returned to New Zealand in the early 80’s and formed Wellington's first jazz fusion band Raz and recorded many of his original tunes.
In 1993, Aitken relocated to Melbourne, where he performed and recorded with the Rosicrusians, and went on to join guitarist Lobby Loyde (Australian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee) and form Fish Tree Mother.
Aitken immigrated to Canada in 1998 and now lives in Marion Bridge, just out of Sydney, on Cape Breton Island. In 2003 he became a Canadian citizen. He has performed and recorded with many of the region's best known artists including Gordie Sampson, J. P. Cormier, Angelo Spinazzola, Terry Edmunds, Andrea Curry and acclaimed blues artist John Campbelljohn with whom Aitken has toured Canada three times and Europe once. Aitken appears on many tracks on Campbelljohn’s latest CD, the ECMA-nominated “Weight of the World”.
Aitken and Keith Dawson, Jr. formed Project A.D. in 2004, and their debut cd “Together Alone” was ECMA nominated in 2005.
Aitken endorses 9 major American and Canadian drum company products, is a feature writer for Canadian Musician, and a drum set educator and clinician. He and his wife Gloria Jean Aitken are the owners and operators of the Cape Breton International Drum Festival.
Aitken been nominated for numerous ECMA and MNS awards, and was named Musician of the year in 2004. In 2006 Bruce was nominated 5 times in the Nova Scotia Music Awards, including Musician of the year and Educator of the year. In 2006 Bruce & Gloria Jean won a Hype Award for Excellence in International Development. Bruce has been on the cover of an international drum magazine (New Zealand Drum Connexions) and has also appeared in Modern Drummer (USA) Drums Etc (Canada), Canadian Musician and England’s Rhythm Magazine.
The CBC television program On The Road Again aired a segment on Aitken's life and achievements that has been shown nationally and internationally.
