BBM (Bruce-Baker-Moore) "Around the Next Dream" 1994***

My first thought upon hearing of the formation of BBM was, I guess, the same as everybody else's: that it was an attempt to revive the glory days of Cream, the 60's power trio formed by Bruce, Baker and Clapton, and that Clapton's unavailability due to his successful solo career drove the other two to search for a suitable substitute - and who better than Gary Moore, who had recently abandoned metal and reinvented himself as an electric blues guitarist following in Clapton's footsteps? In truth, it had apparently started life during sessions for a new solo Gary Moore album with Jack Bruce initially engaged as a co-writer. As time progressed, it became more and more a Cream-type album containing a number of songs that fitted Bruce's voice better than Moore's. At that point, Bruce mentioned Baker as a possible drummer. The three of them (Bruce, Baker and Moore) had recently played together really well at an all-star concert marking Bruce's 50th anniversary, but Bruce and Baker had a notoriously bad working relationship in the past. In the end the sessions went smoothly, with the erstwhile Cream members only intermittently displaying a kind of sibling rivalry rather than true enmity. So, rather than being a Cream reunion with Moore substituting Clapton, this is more of a Gary Moore & guests affair. Of course, such illustrious musicians could never be demoted to Moore's backing band so it had to be an egalitarian band thing. IMO equal billing is fair to Bruce -especially since he's handling most of the vocals- but Baker's contribution seems to be rather slight: he has only one shared writing credit and, while his drumming is spot-on, he often seems to be going through the motions. That becomes more evident in the straight "electric blues" numbers: there's nothing wrong with "Can’t Fool the Blues", "High Cost of Loving" and "I Wonder Why (Are You So Mean to Me?)" - but they could have come out of any Gary Moore solo album of the 90's or 00's. Opener "Waiting in the Wings" is a "White Room" soundalike, and "City Of Gold" another, bluesier, Cream-like number. They're probably sequenced first to appease those who came hoping for a Cream reunion and to reassure listeners that yes, Moore can ably substitute Clapton if he so wishes. Both feature Bruce on lead vocal, while the aforementioned pure blues numbers featured Moore. "Where in the World" is the album's lead single, which is strange because it's the only song not featuring Baker but a session drummer - so it's BM instead of BBM. An excellent ballad nevertheless, featuring both singers, with lyrical guitar playing instead of the more bombastic on other songs here. "Glory Days" is another highlight, a perfect mix of prog and hard rock. Even Baker's playing is as adventurous as it used to be. The momentum continues into "Why Does Love (Have to Go Wrong?)", a 9 minute prog-rocker that brings the best out of everyone: beautiful vocal from Bruce, amazing drumming, fantastic guitar. An absolutely killer track! Compared to that, "Naked Flame" has a paint-by-numbers feel: just a typical Gary Moore ballad - beautiful, but he's done it before again and again. At least closer "Wrong Side of Town" (another ballad written by Moore) has a retro sensibility reminiscent of the great jazz songbooks, and a suitably fragile vocal by Bruce. The album cover is a striking image of the battered and wrinkled Baker in a black overcoat and angel wings, smoking a cigarette. I quite like it, even if the smoking angel idea isn't that original, having been used before by the likes of Van Halen and Black Sabbath. Around the Next Dream did decently commercially, even if it didn't match the success of Moore's previous releases. But the chemistry wasn't there, and the band soon disintegrated. Moore went from playing Clapton to playing Peter Green on next year's Blues For Greeny, while Bruce and Baker went back into making low-key jazz records. In the end this is an underrated album, perhaps burdened by the inevitable Cream comparisons - as if any classic rockers could match their 60's heyday, 25 years later! Clapton, Baker and Bruce finally reunited for a last concert released on DVD and CD in 2005 - if they hadn't, this CD would make for a fine postscript to the Cream story. Only a postscript, mind you. Decent, but not standing up to comparison with the canonical Cream LPs.

**** for Waiting in the Wings, City of Gold, Where in the World, Glory Days, Why Does Love (Have to Go Wrong?)

*** for Can’t Fool the Blues, High Cost of Loving, Naked Flame, I Wonder Why (Are You So Mean to Me?), Wrong Side of Town

Allan Holdsworth "Road Games" 1983***

They say that an artist's death is bad news for everyone except his record label, as it always gives his record sales a considerable boost. Now I'm not so sure this also applies to Allan Holdsworth, but in my case it did. In the music encyclopedia of my mind, under that name were just 3 words "70's session guitarist", so it was only after he died and I read his obituary in the latest issue of Mojo (he died on April 15th, 2017) that I understood how much I had underestimated him. He was a guitarists' guitarist, a veritable idol to such big names as Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen and Joe Satriani. He was also quite famous in the musos' world of jazz rock fusion, having revolutionised the electric guitar with his legato playing, producing torrents of notes that flow into each other without pause, a technique he had copied from jazz saxophonists he admired like John Coltrane. In the 70's he did play with prog bands like Soft Machine, Nucleus, U.K. and Tempest and do session work for prog rock musicians, which is how his name came to be vaguely familiar to me. This mini-album (only 24 minutes long) was the fruit of Van Halen's insistence that his label Warner Bros produce an album with Holdsworth, and was rather successful, even nominated for the 1984 Best Rock Instrumental Grammy Award. He himself wasn't fond of it because of artistic differences with the producer - supposedly he also never received any royalties for it. None of these facts was known to me, I just saw this CD at the 1 euro stall of a flea market and thought "Oh that's the guy I read about in Mojo magazine". It may also be the right place for me to start as it combines instrumentals with songs, and all-instrumental albums tend to lose my attention after some time. Listening to opener "Three Sheets to the Wind" one immediately understands why Metal guitarists are fascinated with this guy: he's very technical and fast, but his playing is also very imaginative and he doesn't always do what you expect him to. The other two instrumentals "Water on the Brain Pt. II" and "Tokyo Dream" are rather slower and sound to me similar to other jazz rock bands (e.g. Weather Report) with guitar instead of horns. His sidemen (Jeff Berlin on bass and Chad Wackerman on drums) are also very good and strictly jazz-oriented players. Rock fans will be more interested in the vocal tracks, of which "Road Games" (sung by long-time collaborator Paul Williams) is the more rock-oriented, although the guitar never limits itself to rock scales. The last two "Was There?" and "Material Real" feature the late great Jack Bruce on vocals and sound very much like 70's Colosseum and, inevitably, the softer moments of Cream (a good thing). I can't say I was blown away by this album (his playing is much too technical for my taste) but anyone interested in electric guitar should check this guy out. I hear there's also a good "best of" album out there.

**** for Three Sheets to the Wind, Road Games, Material Real

*** for Water on the Brain Pt. II, Tokyo Dream, Was There?

 

Jack Bruce "The Collector's Edition" 1986-1995(orig) 1996(comp)****

It's been six months to the day since Jack Bruce passed away. I started blogging a few weeks afterwards and didn't commemorate him at the time, but this anniversary is as good an opportunity as any. Despite a long career spanning rock, blues, jazz, progressive and metal, he was only ever mentioned in relation with Cream, the 60's supergroup he created with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker. I'll try to rectify that by presenting a latter-day compilation focused on his output for the German CMP label (1986-1995). It opens with two superb tracks from "Somethin Els", in which he's reunited with Cream alumni Pete Brown (lyrics) and Eric Clapton (trombone - just kidding! Guitar, of course). "Waiting on a Word" is a breezy number with trademark blues guitar while "Ships in the Night" a nice, romantic piano-led duet with Maggie Reilly until halfway through...when Clapton unleashes a Pink Floyd-ish solo and the song really takes off. "Childsong", the 3rd track from "Somethin Els" doesn't feature any guitar at all - it's all about acoustic bass and saxophone and reminds me of Robert Wyatt's jazz-prog fusion or the mellower moments of Van Der Graaf Generator. The songs from the "Monkjack" album ("Folksong", "Time Repairs" and blues classic "Third Degree") tread similar territory, jazzy ballads with piano at the forefront. Bruce's singing throughout is excellent but rather understated. New experimental versions of Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary" and Bruce's "Politician" and "Rope Ladder to the Moon" come from a collaborative effort with Mark Nauseef - a jazz drummer with a rock past (Elf/Ian Gillan Band/Thin Lizzy) - and Serb guitarist Miroslav Tadić. Which brings us to the live recordings from the "Cities of the Heart" album. They're all quite powerful readings of solo and Cream material and feature stellar musicians: Humble Pie guitarist Clem Clempson on proggy "Theme for an Imaginary Western" and blues "Sitting On Top of the World", Ginger Baker drumming on "Top of the World" and "NSU" and Gary Moore dispensing heavy metal solos on  "Life On Earth"and "NSU". Taken as a whole, this CD is a testament to Bruce's skill (on vocals, bass and piano) and versatility. A dive into his back catalogue will reward you with a number of rare gems scattered throughout his discography - not to mention the Cream albums, which are of course essential listening. 

**** for Waiting on a Word, Ships in the Night, Theme for an Imaginary Western, Life On Earth, Childsong 

*** for Sitting On Top of the World, NSU, Folksong, The Wind Cries Mary, Rope Ladder to the Moon, Time Repairs, Third Degree 

** for Politician, Colotomix II