About this product

Product Identifiers

ProducerGinger Baker; Jimmy Miller

Record LabelLemon Recordings

UPC5013929762220

eBay Product ID (ePID)23050217899

Product Key Features

EditionLive

Run Time78 Mins 3 Seconds

Release Year1970

FormatCD

GenreRock

StyleArt Rock

ArtistRick Grech, Chris Wood, Steve Winwood, Denny Laine, Air Force/Ginger Baker/Ginger Baker's Air Force, Graham Bond

Release TitleGinger Baker's Air Force

Additional Product Features

Number of Discs1

DistributionInfinity Entertainment Gr

Country/Region of ManufactureUSA

EngineerAndy Johns; Roy Thomas Baker

ReviewsGoldmine - Sound 4 Stars

Additional informationPersonnel includes: Ginger Baker (drums); Steve Winwood, Denny Laine, Rick Grech, Graham Bond, Chris Wood. Personnel: Ginger Baker (drums, timpani, percussion); Graham Bond (vocals, alto, alto saxophone, piano, organ); Ken Craddock (vocals, guitar, piano, organ); Steve Winwood (vocals, guitar, organ, keyboards); Denny Laine (vocals, guitar); Jeanette Jacobs (vocals, keyboards); Catherine James, Diane Stewart, Aliki Ashman (vocals); Rick Grech (violin); Harold McNair (flute, alto flute, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Chris Wood (flute, saxophone, tenor saxophone); Steve Gregory (flute, tenor saxophone); Bud Beadle (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone); Colin Gibson (bass guitar); Phil Seaman, Remi Kabaka, Neemoi Acquaye (drums, percussion); Kwasi "Rocky" Dzidzornu (percussion). Liner Note Author: Nigel Williamson. Recording information: Royal Albert Hall. Arrangers: Denny Laine; Ginger Baker. 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

Number of Audio ChannelsStereo