![\"\"](\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/jack_bruce_silver_rails.jpg\")
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Let us consider for a few moments the current conditions of the three musicians formerly of Cream<\/strong>. Drummer Ginger Baker<\/strong> has made a career out of being disagreeable (see the film Beware of Mr Baker<\/em> for proof). Guitarist Eric Clapton<\/strong> still tours, records and performs, but the fire has seemingly long ago gone out. But bassist Jack Bruce<\/strong> \u2013 the primary voice of Cream \u2013 remains busy, and \u2013 more importantly \u2013 vital. On his latest album Silver Rails<\/em>, he’s in fine form, and his assured (and highly distinctive) vocals and bass hold things together.<\/p>\n Even though Silver Rails<\/em> is populated with a long list of marquee name players (organist John Medeski<\/strong>, guitarists Phil Manzanera<\/strong><\/a>, Uli Jon Roth<\/strong> and Robin Trower<\/strong><\/a>), Bruce’s musical personality is strong enough that it’s always his show. Working with his longtime collaborator, lyricist Pete Brown<\/strong>, Bruce still sounds like the man who sang \u201cTales of Brave Ulysses.\u201d But the music never attempts to ape previous styles. \u201cReach for the Night\u201d exemplifies Bruce’s approach, with a full arrangement that features soaring tenor sax lines, crystalline piano and subtle guitar work, but that till keeps Bruce’s vocal out front where it belongs.<\/p>\n The lyrical subject matter seems to be a series of ruminations on the present versus the past (\u201cFields of Forever\u201d). One of the few tunes not co-composed by Brown, \u201cHidden Cities\u201d does in fact feel like something one might have heard on Wheels of Fire<\/em>. The jazz sensibility that always lay just below the surface in Bruce’s work is applied to an arty rocker here. When Bruce gets mellow contemplative (\u201cDon’t Look Now\u201d) the results are a notch less successful \u2013 and his vocal seems less assured \u2013 but there’s really no filler or truly weak tracks on Silver Rails<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cRusty Lady\u201d (featuring Trower on lead guitar) lays down a thick slab of swaggering riffage that will remind listeners of \u201cPolitician.\u201d And the plaintive \u201cIndustrial Child\u201d features Jack Bruce on piano and vocal, joined only by a bit of subtle acoustic guitar work from Tony Remy<\/strong>. Bruce’s quivering vocal adds a layer of vulnerability. But then \u201cDrone\u201d heads as far as possible in another direction, with Bruce’s thick, buzzing, uber-heavy bass the only instrument other than Milos P\u00e1l<\/strong>‘s drums. The bass carries the song in ominous fashion; the sound of dive bombing WWII-era planes is implied throughout. \u201cKeep it Down\u201d (featuring Whitesnake<\/strong> guitarist Bernie Marsden<\/strong>) nonetheless strongly recalls Bruce’s 80s work with Trower on BLT<\/em> and Truce<\/em>. The album wraps with what is Silver Rails<\/em>‘ most commercial-sounding tack, the arena-rock styled \u201cNo Surrender!\u201d<\/p>\n Sacha Jafri<\/strong>‘s album cover art might suggest a classic jazz album, but Silver Rails<\/em> is a decidedly rock effort, and a pleasingly strong one at that.<\/p>\n Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on <\/a> Let us consider for a few moments the current conditions of the three musicians formerly of Cream. Drummer Ginger Baker has made a career out of being disagreeable (see the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,62,65],"tags":[1071],"class_list":["post-5741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-jack-bruce","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/icon_twitter_small.jpg\"){kind=icon}
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