NYS Music 20​19

Tag: Kofi Baker

  • The Music of Cream Announces 2020 Disraeli Gears Tour

    The Music of Cream, the pedigree of the hallowed ’60s trio Cream: Kofi Baker (Ginger Baker’s son), Malcolm Bruce (Jack Bruce’s son) and Will Johns (Eric Clapton’s nephew), have announced an exciting new tour for 2020. Honoring the legendary band’s landmark album, the 40-date North American tour will feature Disraeli Gears performed in its entirety followed by a set of additional hits and rarities from Cream, Clapton, Blind Faith and more. The upcoming tour finds The Music of Cream continuing their celebration of the extraordinary music and legacy their family members created more than 50 years ago via their extensive live show and personal stories and footage of their fathers and mentors.

    Will Johns, Kofi Baker, Malcolm Bruce

    Kicking off February 28th in Victoria, BC, Canada, the Disraeli Gears Tour will travel all across North America stopping everywhere from Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Phoenix, Boulder, Baton Rouge and Fort Lauderdale to Birmingham, Atlanta, Annapolis, Long Island, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Milwaukee, Omaha and all that’s in between, before wrapping May 3rdin Austin. See below for the full list of tour dates. Tickets are on sale starting this Friday, October 18 at 10 a.m. local time; visit www.musicofcream.com for ticketing information.

    With primal riffs, soaring operatic choruses, poetry, fashion and theater rolled into one, Disraeli Gears defined the era in which it was written. The super-group’s second studio album, released in November of 1967, is often considered Cream’s crowning achievement. Disraeli Gears, featuring the singles “Sunshine of Your Love” and “Strange Brew,” was their American breakthrough reaching #4 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart before ultimately becoming a platinum-seller in the U.S. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and Rolling Stone included Disraeli Gears in their list of the Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time saying, “Cream’s sharpest, most linear album focused its instrumental explorations into colorful pop songs.” In addition to critical acclaim over the decades, the original band members themselves praised their work on Disraeli Gears. Ginger Baker noted, “You can’t escape the fact we were having such fun playing with each other,” while Jack Bruce said, “This was a whole new beginning for the band and I loved that time very much,” and Eric Clapton added, “We had found ourselves…it was a pivotal point in the history of popular music.”

    Malcolm Bruce

    For the members of The Music of Cream, who first launched their celebratory 50th Anniversary World Tour in 2017 and have since performed over 100 shows together worldwide, including a string of recent sold-out UK shows, honoring Disraeli Gears and the storied history their family members created on this new tour was an easy choice.

    “To follow our 50th Anniversary Tour, it was a no-brainer to go out and celebrate Disraeli Gears in its entirety,” shares Kofi Baker (drums). “There are songs that are quite different, they wanted to challenge everything! And from a personal point of view, it gives me the opportunity to perform another song my dad wrote called ‘Blue Condition’ that I really like. I also loved the artwork for the album; my sister and I used to laugh because we said you could see up my dad’s nose. Happy memories that we can bring to the stage.”

    Kofi Baker

    “Why Disraeli Gears? Well, that’s easy for me,” says Will Johns (guitar, vocals). “It was the birth of the wah-wah pedal and you gotta love the wah-wah! That we can interpret such groundbreaking music and continue to tell Cream’s story is as exciting for us as we know it was for the band when they recorded it all those years ago. Like my uncle, I am a blues man through and through, and on this record there’s some fantastic interpretations of this genre, the likes of ‘Lawdy Mama’ and ‘Outside Woman Blues,’ so it doesn’t get better than that!”

    “There are many reasons I love the idea of performing Cream’s second album Disraeli Gears,” adds Malcolm Bruce (bass, vocals). “Many of Cream’s best-known songs are on the record including ‘Sunshine of Your Love,’ ‘Strange Brew’ and ‘SWLABR.’ But importantly to me, perhaps my favorite Cream song, and I think my Dad’s too, ‘We’re Going Wrong’ is on there as well. It has always been such a special song to perform, so open in its possibilities for improvisation, and lyrically, the song works on a number of levels, both personal and universal. I also love some of the less well-known songs on the album like ‘World of Pain’ and ‘Dance the Night Away.’ It even contains comedy elements in ‘Mother’s Lament.’ Overall, it is a very cohesive set to perform. We are looking forward to it!”

    Will Johns

    During its heartbreakingly short lifespan, Cream was an explosive musical cocktail that provided the super-group blueprint for others to follow. Their third album, Wheels of Fire (1968), was the world’s first platinum-selling double album, and collectively Cream sold more than 15 million copies of their albums worldwide. Not surprisingly, Rolling Stone ranked the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group (inducted in 1993) as 67th in their 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list. The trio originally said farewell on a 1968 U.S. tour, and apart from a brief reunion in 2005 at London’s Royal Albert Hall and New York’s Madison Square Garden, Cream retained an almost mythological status in the music world, right up until the passing of Jack Bruce in 2014. This, for many fans, marked the end of an era and an acceptance that there would never really be another opportunity to celebrate the group’s legacy. That is, until The Music of Cream emerged. And with the recent passing of Ginger Baker, the new trio (Kofi, Malcolm, Will) look forward to sharing more of their stories as well as Cream’s incomparable music with fans new and old to keep Cream’s legacy alive.

    For more information on The Music of Cream, visit:

    www.musicofcream.com

    www.facebook.com/musicofcream

    • THE MUSIC OF CREAM – DISRAELI GEARS TOUR DATES
    Friday, February 28
    		Victoria, BC @ McPherson Playhouse
    Saturday, February 29
    		Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
    Sunday, March 1
    		Bellingham, WA @ Wild Buffalo House of Music
    Tuesday, March 3
    		Seattle, WA @ Triple Door
    Wednesday, March 4
    		Spokane, WA @ Bing Crosby Theater
    Thursday, March 5
    		Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theatre
    Friday, March 6
    		Mill Valley, CA @ Sweetwater Music Hall
    Saturday, March 7
    		Santa Barbara, CA @ Soho Restaurant and Music Club
    Sunday, March 8
    		San Diego, CA @ Balboa Theatre
    Tuesday, March 10
    		Folsom, CA @ Harris Center for the Arts
    Wednesday, March 11
    		San Juan Capistrano, CA @ The Coach House
    Saturday, March 14
    		Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
    Sunday, March 15
    		Tucson, AZ @ Fox Tucson Theatre
    Tuesday, March 17
    		Beaver Creek, CO @ Vilar Performing Arts Center
    Thursday, March 19
    		Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theatre
    Saturday, March 21
    		Greenville, TX @ Texan Theater
    Sunday, March 22
    		Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon
    Tuesday, Mach 24
    		Ponte Vedra, FL @ Ponte Vedra Concert Hall
    Wednesday, March 25
    		Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ The Parker Playhouse
    Thursday, March 26
    		Lakeland, FL @ Youkey Theatre
    Friday, March 27
    		Bonita Springs, FL @ Southwest Florida Event Center 
    March 28-31
    		Miami, FL @ Flower Power Cruise
    Thursday, April 2
    		Birmingham, AL @ Workplay
    Friday, April 3
    		Atlanta, GA @ Center Stage
    Monday, April 6
    		Greensboro, NC @ Carolina Theatre
    Tuesday, April 7
    		Annapolis, MD @ Rams Head On Stage
    Thursday, April 9
    		Alexandria, VA @ The Birchmere
    Friday, April 10
    		Glenside, PA @ Keswick Theatre
    Tuesday, April 14
    		Ridgefield, CT @ The Ridgefield Playhouse
    Thursday, April 16
    		Huntington, NY @ The Paramount
    Friday, April 17
    		Montclair, NJ @ The Wellmont Theater
    Saturday, April 18
    		Derry, NH @ Tupelo Music Hall
    Sunday, April 19
    		Boston, MA @ The Wilbur
    Tuesday, April 21
    		Pittsburgh, PA @ Jergel’s Rhythm Grille
    Friday, April 24
    		Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre 
    Sunday, April 26
    		Chicago, IL @ Park West
    Tuesday, April 28
    		Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater
    Wednesday, April 29
    		Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
    Friday, May 1
    		Jackson, MS @ Duling Hall
    Sunday, May 3
    		Austin, TX @ 3Ten ACL Live

  • The Music of Cream: 50th Anniversary World Tour

    The pedigree of hallowed ‘60s trio Cream – Ginger Baker’s son Kofi Baker, Jack Bruce’s son Malcolm Bruce and Eric Clapton’s nephew Will Johns – return to the United States this spring for a new leg of The Music of Cream – 50th Anniversary World Tour. The outing celebrates the extraordinary music and legacy their family members created on the heels of the 50th anniversary since the original lineup’s farewell U.S. tour of 1968.Kicking off March 22nd in Newton, NJ, the 23-date spring tour will travel throughout the East Coast and south stopping in such places as New York City (March 20th at Sony Hall), Lancaster, Rochester, Columbus, Nashville, Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota, New Orleans, Houston and Dallas before wrapping April 20th in San Antonio.

    First launched in 2017 to rave reviews in Australia and New Zealand, The Music of Cream performed over 40 shows in 2018 across North America and the United Kingdom. Throughout the extensive multi-media show, Kofi Baker (drums), Malcolm Bruce (bass, vocals) and Will Johns (guitar, vocals) perform songs such as “Sunshine of Your Love,” “Crossroads,” “Spoonful” and “White Room” and tell personal stories, while footage of their fathers and mentors is shown on the big screen.

    Now, Baker says, “I feel more positive that we played the music the way Cream did; we were able to stretch out and improvise and the audience was right there with us. I really enjoyed playing with Will and Malcolm as we share a bond over this music that our fathers created. And meeting the fans after the shows and hearing their thoughts really validated and inspired me to keep playing this music.”

    Bruce adds, “The uniqueness of the approach to Cream’s music means that I learn and grow every night we play. There is always something new to be discovered in the music: tempo, feel, groove, notes, dynamics, inflection. It is truly wonderful to be able to improvise onstage.”

    “The audiences seemed to appreciate, and enjoy, that we were not just copying and actually putting our own slant on things,” notes Johns.

    During its heartbreakingly short lifespan, Cream was an explosive musical cocktail that provided the super-group blueprint for others to follow. The group’s third album, Wheels of Fire (1968), was the world’s first platinum-selling double album, and collectively they sold more than 15 million copies of their albums worldwide. Not surprisingly, Rolling Stone ranked the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group (inducted in 1993) as 67th in their ‘100 Greatest Artists of All Time’ list.Apart from an equally brief reunion in 2005 of seven shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall and New York’s Madison Square Garden, Cream retained an almost mythological status in the music world, right up until the passing of Jack Bruce in 2014. This, for many fans, marked the end of an era and an acceptance that there would never really be another opportunity to celebrate the group’s legacy. That is, until The Music of Cream – 50th Anniversary World Tour emerged.

    Click here for or more information on The Music of Cream – 50th Anniversary World Tour.