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Sunday, January 23, 2011
Ginger Baker's Airforce: Don't Care
If you can remember Ginger Baker's Airforce then you probably weren't in it. So it is just as well that there is an introduction to the band's history on Ginger Baker's website.
This loose group was put together by Baker after Eric Clapton walked out on Blind Faith. It issued two LPs in 1970, but few people played on both. This song is taken from the first LP, which was live and involved, among others, performers plucked from wreckage of Blind Faith and Traffic.
As far as I can discover, there are three saxophonists playing here: Graham Bond, Chris Wood and Harold Macnair. Steve Winwood is playing the organ and shares the vocals with Jeanette Jacobs. Jacobs was a member of the American girl group Cake and married Wood before dying at the age of 32.
Long, possibly substance-enhanced tracks of this sort can often descend into tedium and noodling, but here the sheer musicianship of those involved keeps things interesting.
I fondly remember the one concert by the Airforce in the early 70s somewhere near Frankfurt that I went to.
ReplyDeleteAfter wearing a tie and suit all week at the bank I put on my jeans and sat on the wooden floor of that big hall surrounded by GIs (Frankfurt airbase was an important centre for the US forces) who passed their joints freely - since I had to work the next day again, I politely declined those offers, but settled for beer instead ...
There still was that Woodstock feeling around ...
PS: Have you also listened to or even been to a concert by that "fusion group" GO ?
Wolfi
ReplyDeleteI have heard a couple of Go tracks. Did you see them live?
No, Jonathan, I'm sorry to say, didn't have the time then ...
ReplyDeleteI think they only played live in Paris.
But the several records they made (GO and GO live) are now available on CD and worth listening to!