For a change, the late 1960s yielded up a supergroup that lived up to its hype and then some.
Ginger Baker's Air Force
was recorded live at
Royal Albert Hall
in January of 1970 -- in fact, this may be the best-sounding live album ever to come out of that notoriously difficult venue -- at a show that must have been a wonder to watch, as the ten-piece band blazed away in sheets of sound, projected delicate flute parts behind multi-layered African percussion, or built their songs up
Bolero
-like, out of rhythms from a single instrument into huge jazz-cum-R&B crescendos. Considering that this was only their second gig, the group sounds astonishingly tight, which greatly reduces the level of self-indulgence that one would expect to find on an album where five of the eight tracks run in excess of ten minutes. There aren't too many wasted notes or phrases in the 78 minutes of music included here, and
Steve Winwood
's organ,
Baker
,
Phil Seamen
, and
Remi Kabaka
's drums, and the sax playing by
Chris Wood
Graham Bond
(on alto), and
Harold McNair
, all stand out, especially the sax trio's interwoven playing on
"Don't Care."
Additionally,
Denny Laine
plays louder, flashier, more virtuoso-level guitar than he ever got to turn in with
the Moody Blues
, bending notes in exquisite fashion in the opening of
Air Force
's rendition of the
Cream
standard
"Toad,"
crunching away on rhythm elsewhere, and indulging in some more introspective blues for
"Man of Constant Sorrow."
The original CD reissue, which sounded pretty good, was deleted in the early '90s, but this album has been remastered again and repackaged as part of the
Ginger Baker
retrospective
Do What You Like
on
Polygram
's
Chronicles
series. It's a must-own for jazz-rock, Afro-fusion, blues-rock, or percussion fans. ~ Bruce Eder