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Ginger Baker's Air Force was a short-lived jazz-rock group led by drummer Ginger Baker.
Shortly after he put together his fantastic live album with his new band, Ginger Baker started work on a follow-up, this time recorded in the studio. The line-up by then had changed, the only founding members left being Baker himself (drums & percussion), Graham Bond (sax & keyboards) and Bud Beadle (sax). The new members were Ken Craddock (guitars & keyboards), Colin Gibson (bass), Steve Gregory (sax & flute) and Neemoi Acquaye (drums & percussion), plus singers Diane Stewart and Catherine James. Baker, Craddock and Bond also contributed vocals. Ginger Bakers Air Force 2 followed in the footsteps of its predecessor, with a similar heavy, percussion-driven jazz-rock style. It was produced by Baker and Bond with past band members Denny Laine and Ric Grech (who both make brief cameos as well). The songs included a new version of his old Cream number "Sweet Wine", and "Let Me Ride" by Roebuck Staples (i.e. Pops Staples of The Staple Singers). It turned out to be the last album under the Air Force name, as by the end of the year Baker had finished the group and moved on to pastures new.
Ginger Bakers Air Force (1970) <|
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Ginger Baker's Air Force was a short-lived jazz-rock group led by drummer Ginger Baker.
Ginger Baker rose to prominence as one of rock music's most important drummers in the 
1960s through his role in the band Cream, with Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton. Previously he had played with pioneering British blues groups Blues Incorporated and The Graham Bond Organization.After Cream's dissolution in 1968, he joined up with Steve Winwood, Ric Grech, and Clapton again to form the supergroup Blind Faith. After that group also broke up, Clapton went on to other things, and Baker looked to form his own band. Winwood and Grech both stayed with him. Among the others who joined in were his old bandleader Graham Bond and Winwood's Traffic bandmate Chris Wood. The full eleven-piece line-up consisted of Baker himself (drums/percussion/vocals), Winwood (organ/bass/vocals), Grech (bass/violin), Bond (sax/organ/vocals), Wood (sax/flute), Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Harold McNair (sax/flute), Bud Beadle (sax), Jeanette Jacobs (vocals), Remi Kabaka (drums/percussion) and Phil Seamen (drums/percussion). Hardly a typical rock band line-up, with four sax players and three drummers.Ginger Baker's Air Force could best be described as a jazz-rock fusion group, but with such a strong emphasis on percussion, their sound was really quite heavy. Various members sang, but the focus was mostly on instrumentals. Their first album was a live one, taken from a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. With a lot of focus on jamming, many of the songs clocked in at over ten minutes. Unsurprisingly, it features alot of drum solos. The songs themselves included numbers from his days with The Graham Bond Organization ("Early In The Morning"), Cream ("Toad") and Blind Faith ("Do What You Like"). Also featured a version of the traditional tune "Man Of Constant Sorrow", arranged and sung by Laine.
|> Ginger Baker's Air Force 2
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Shortly after he put together his fantastic live album with his new band, Ginger Baker started work on a follow-up, this time recorded in the studio. The line-up by then had changed, the only founding members left being Baker himself (drums & percussion), Graham Bond (sax & keyboards) and Bud Beadle (sax). The new members were Ken Craddock (guitars & keyboards), Colin Gibson (bass), Steve Gregory (sax & flute) and Neemoi Acquaye (drums & percussion), plus singers Diane Stewart and Catherine James. Baker, Craddock and Bond also contributed vocals. 
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