A rock musician unites with two jazz-oriented players, and the result is a work so deliciously free of fusion that it practically signals a new era of crossgenre interaction. Drummer Ginger Baker, guitarist Bill Frisell and acoustic bassist Charlie Haden make instrumental music that draws on a mutual love of the swing of jazz, the sonic effusiveness of rock and the lyricism of the blues. There's no pretense here: Baker isn't a jazzman, and Frisell and Haden aren't rockers. They find common ground on a bedrock of American vernacular music – rather than in the world music that Baker has explored in the past.
and arranging – details that supersede improvisational grandstanding. The tunes are downright catchy, among them Baker's easeful blues songs "Ain Temouchant" and "I Lu Kron," Haden's gospel-soaked "Spiritual" and Frisell's lovely anthem "Rambler." The trio also takes on two durable jazz standards, offering a respectful stab at Thelonious Monk's "Straight No Chaser" and transforming Ornette Coleman's Southwestern-tinged "Ramblin'" into a glorious, jostling romp.
The three men are uniquely suited to one another: Frisell, the so-called guitar nonhero, his eccentric phrasing conveying mood rather than ego; Haden, a lyrical player whose every measured note speaks of deeply felt passion; and Baker, with his loose, swinging cross-rhythms. The united-mind groove of the Baker-Haden rhythm section frees Frisell to contribute the most spirited playing of his recorded career. On "East Timor" (the only piece that specifically invokes Cream with its use of the vamp from "We're Going Wrong" and Baker's time-warp recitation à la "Pressed Rat and Warthog"), Frisell's playing takes on a slamming, near-ecstatic vigor.
Going Back Home signals Baker's evolution from a rock footnote to a vital musician. More than a quarter century after Cream called it a day, Baker has delivered his masterwork. (RS 693)
STEVE FUTTERMAN
