Okay, I admit it… I missed Cream, the 60’s band that made quite a global splash. I truly did not entirely miss it but I just knew their name and a few tunes. Not anything like my in-depth knowledge of other early rock bands such as Yes, Genesis, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and CCR of which I, at some point could name all of their albums, hum most of their tunes, recite the bands members’ bios in semi-distorted but colorful detail, and even name the graphic designers that worked on the album covers.

At the time Ginger Baker’s Cream was at their musical apex, my father was already into jazz, world and classical music. And when I started exploring music on my own, the few remnants of a rock collection in his music library of more than a thousand albums included a couple of Credence LP’s, the White Album and some others I would not dare to mention. So, from him I learned about Lionel Hampton, Wilson Simonal and Walter Carlos with his electronic Bach. And as for my mother, she gave me my first two albums ever for a 6th grade party at our house’s basement: Led Zeppelin II and the Bee Gees’ Life in a Tin Can. And what a party we had!

Now, what I did not learn from my father, I learned from my eldest son Ivan. When I showed him this newly discovered record by Ginger Baker, he simply replied, “yes he played in Cream with Eric Clapton.” And at that moment, it all made sense to me. Ivan owed me that piece of son-to-father tutoring as I totally missed Nirvana while spending the entirety of my free time with him as a little baby in the early nineties. Ivan re-introduced me to Nirvana and many other bands years later, and we keep having good musical discussions.

While sitting with my brother Alejandro, sipping good wine and listening to tunes from his vast collection of music, I discovered this 1994 recording by the Ginger Baker Trio featuring guitarist Bill Frisell & ultra-talented, mid-westerner bassist Charlie Haden. There is seamless synergy between the three musicians, which at times appear to be playing three side-by-side, well layered solos. Some of the songs are magnificently upbeat while others are instilled with manageable and intelligent melancholy.

The album (OK, I know, it’s a CD…) conveys the underlying maturity of the trio’s members which is well entangled with an overt hunger for exploration and discovery. The tunes are perfectly well balanced and carry along beautifully. Ginger Baker’s cyncopated style offers Frisell’s sustained string vibrancy a clear pathway, while Charlie Haden’s confident but sensible bass execution provides body, mass and momentum to the album’s harmonious compositions. The CD, Going Back Home, is a must have and one cannot get enough of it. Enjoy!

Ginger Baker Website











Take a listen here at Amazon.