Ginger Baker's Air Force
by Ginger Baker's Air Force

The line-up of musicians on this record is incredible. The one who might be easy to miss, even for knowledgeable people, is Phil Seamen. He was a legendary drummer in the energetic English jazz scene of the fifties and sixties, and he was a teacher and guru to Ginger Baker. You can find an interview where Baker calls Seamen his biggest influence, and calls him "God." So having Seamen in this band and doing extended jams together in these performances must have been a HUGE deal to Baker.

Typically stupid for Robert Christgau, who is an idiot but a famous one, to grumble in his "D+" review (!) about how much time is devoted to drum "solos" (duets and trios, more like) on this album. It's like complaining that Coltrane plays too much saxophone. If you don't like drums to take the spotlight, be advised that this is a drummer's album with special drummer guests. Really, Christgau wasn't the problem, it's whatever idiot editor at the Village Voice decided to give him a platform, that's who should have been taken out and shot. Anyway...

The vocals aren't great on a lot it. I don't know Cake, the group Jeanette Jacobs was in, but I don't think she was a very good singer...? She was Chris Wood's wife, though, and he's great, so she's in the band. Graham Bond's wife got in the band later, too, it was like that. Except Denny Laine's rather good little folk ditty, this album gets better when the singing stops and the jamming starts. The African stuff is very interesting--both Baker and Graham Bond were putting African music into their stuff at this time; there were African musicians doing stuff in London, Osibisa and whatnot, but not many white musicians embracing it as deeply as Baker at the time. It's a live album, the sound is so-so and it's a bit of a mess, but it's fantastic. They basically just set up grooves and go for it, it's their version of head-banging music, and it gets better as you turn it up.