Quarto Valley Records, the California-based independent label, has announced that “Heavenly Cream: An Acoustic Tribute To Cream” will soon be made available on all formats.
The album transports us back to the purificative ‘n’ unrestrained magic of Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Eric Clapton, and Pete Brown’s creative thought processes while tracing the relatively brief musical lifespan of this legendary British band.
London-based music producer Rob Cass (Lady GaGa, Faith Hill) produced & mixed the new album with commitment and expertise.
It is currently available for PRE-ORDER (please check the link below) and will be published by Quarto Valley Records on November 3rd on Double 180 Gramme Limited Edition Cream-Colored Vinyl, CD, and Digital on all platforms.
After forming in 1966, CREAM gained notoriety for their enervating yet tightsome impromptu approach to the blues, which included belly-tingling jamming, lengthy solo carronades, and spellbinding instrumental theatricals. Considered by many to be the original supergroup, CREAM opened the door for numerous subsequent subgenres and imitators.
in an acoustic setting [this song] deepens the impression of emptiness while also igniting beacons of pyroelectric hope & sending starquakes of deft musical sure-handedness to Cream’s true believers…
Raw Ramp Music Magazine
The bluesy feel that the superband’s members had already gained a reputation for, remained apparent in several of their early songs on the 1966 album, Fresh Cream. The disc was listed in the top 100 album charts of the US and UK respectively.
The metaphysical lyrics of Bruce & Brown, as well as guitar explorations that shimmied between shrieking pedal-assisted riffs and drifting chromatic aberrations were incorporated into Cream’s second album, Disraeli Gears (1967). On this, unique jazz tempos were interwoven by Baker’s extraordinary drumming, and Bruce occasionally used his bass as a lead instrument—methodologies that were uncommon in rock music at the time and became paradigm-shifting approaches that would affect both sides of the Atlantic.
Critics venerated the album’s second track, “Sunshine of Your Love” in particular. This number emphasised the genre’s seamless shift from a roots-based blues tradition to a far more distortional, spiritualistic, and perhaps even space-driven hyperdimensional sound.
The Quarto Valley project honors this legacy with a 15-track tribute album that features Pete Brown and Ginger Baker plus an impressive roster of guest musicians who were either acquainted with or influenced by the legendary trio. This line-up includes Joe Bonamassa, Deborah Bonham, Malcolm Bruce, Peter Bullick, Nathan James, Bernie Marsden, Maggie Bell, Rob Cass, Clem Clempson, Paul Rodgers and Bobby Rush. There were also invaluable musical contributions from Cheryl Alleyne, Winston Blissett, Moreno Buttinar, Abass Dodoo, John Donaldson, Pee Wee Ellis, Mo Foster, Neil Murray, Mo Nazam, Tony Remy, and Frank Tontoh.
While recording this tribute, Pete Brown explained, “It took me a long time before I would attempt those songs. I grew up in Jack’s shadow, like Malcolm did as well, you know. I’m not trying to be Jack. No one will ever be Jack.”
He added, “Eventually I felt, well, they’re my songs as well and eventually, I grew into those songs that Jack and I wrote.”
sunset-flipped with breathtaking acoustic expressiveness…
Raw Ramp Music Magazine
“Sunshine Of Your Love,” (shared below) the new album’s lead single, features Ginger Baker on pattering drums, Joe Bonamassa on warm-blooded guitar (and vocals,) Bernie Marsden on convivial guitar and vocals, with Neil Murray on bass, and master drummer Abass Dodoo on percussion, and Jack Bruce’s son Malcom on piano. Co-written by Bruce & Brown, this beloved song was one of Cream’s fan favourites and was featured on Disraeli Gears, released in November 1967. Psychedelic and heavy in nature, this is a musical kick-mule of combined rock ‘n’ blues influences that, on this recording, have been sunset-flipped with breathtaking acoustic expressiveness.
“I Feel Free” feat. Deborah Bonham, with Bernie Marsden and Malcolm Bruce, (the first song to be recorded by Cream) is a brilliantly passionate rendition, filled with urge & subtlety, expressive vocality, and (as you might expect) fluid theatricality.
“White Room”, often voted one of the greatest of all rock numbers, remains, in the hands of Pete Brown, Malcolm Bruce and Clem Clempson, multicentered, ingeniously unique in shape and arthood, technically spectacular, and also, in this acoustic state, glowering: like watching an approaching swarm of fireflies while you’re steadily getting tripped-out by a wolverine who is licking your face!
The blues standard “Sitting On Top Of The World” (Feat: Bobby Rush, Maggie Bell, Bernie Marsden, Malcolm Bruce) takes the poetic introspectiveness of the original sounds yet, when heard in an acoustic setting, it deepens the impression of emptiness while also igniting beacons of pyroelectric hope and sending starquakes of deft musical sure-handedness to Cream’s true believers.
This is an extremely well-polished and brilliantly executed album that includes many wonderfully captured renditions of the most iconic oeuvre-shredding moments in the history of blues music.
Sadly, Pete Brown (1940–2023), Ginger Baker (1939–2019), Bernie Marsden (1951–2023), and Pee Wee Ellis (1941–2021) all passed away since this project began, (Jack Bruce died in 2014) yet their enduring and illustrious contributions to music will never die. Their inextinguishable achievements will live on in this work forevermore.
Words: © Neil Mach
https://quartovalleyrecs.lnk.to/AATTC