Ginger Baker's Air Force

On a purely musical level, Ginger Baker's Air Force was arguably the pinnacle of the legendary drummer's achievements of the 1960's. Even allowing for the many and varied virtues of the Graham Bond Organisation, Cream, and Blind Faith, they didn't approach the breadth or ambition that characterized Air Force's sound. Sadly, despite their prodigious musical attributes, Ginger Baker's Air Force is mostly remembered in the music business as one of the great non-starters among the heavily press-hyped super-groups of the late 1960's and early 1970's. Air Force essentially grew out of Ginger Baker's six-month stint with Blind Faith, a super-group that collapsed after generating one album and finishing one tour. Baker's ex-Cream bandmate Eric Clapton abandoned that venture in favor of the vastly different (yet more rewarding) musical styles of Delaney And Bonnie, but Baker persuaded Steve Winwood and Rick Grech, the other members of the band, to stay on with him. Baker planned to put together a new band that would explore music on a new scale, and in new directions, different from Blind Faith or the Cream--the projected band, christened Air Force, would embrace jazz, r&b, blues, folk, and African music.

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