Don’t call Sons of Cream a “cover” or “tribute” band.
The musicians — bassist Malcolm Bruce, drummer Kofi Baker and Rob Johnson — are carrying on the sounds of 1960s improvisation rockers Cream. Malcolm, Kofi and Rob are the sons of Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, and Ginger’s grandnephew, respectively.
“A tribute act to me is people who dress like them and remake that band,” Kofi said.
“We don’t do that. We don’t dress up like our parents. We don’t play the music exactly the same. We put our own twist on it and improvise. The jams are completely our own music. It’s not really a tribute. It’s more of a legacy band.”
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When Sons of Cream performs Tuesday, Feb. 10, at the Fox Tucson Theatre, the set list will include classic Cream songs and two Blind Faith tracks, Baker said. Peppered throughout the set are stories about Cream and the band’s music.
Founded in 1966, Cream featured bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker. They released their debut, “Fresh Cream.” The set recalls Cream’s improvisational sets, blending blues, psychedelic rock. During its brief run, Cream released “Wheels of Fire” — the first platinum‑selling double album — and songs like “Sunshine of Your Love,” “White Room” and “Crossroads” in 1968. They broke up in 1968 due to internal tensions, providing a farewell with the album “Goodbye” in 1969.
When Clapton was approached about Sons of Cream, he told Kofi to take improvisation “as far as they could.”
“They definitely did longer gigs,” Kofi said. “Cream did some shorter gigs, too, where they only played two songs the whole night. I think there was a gig where they played 45 minutes or 50 minutes with two songs.”
Kofi’s first live performance was with his father on the cult U.K. TV music show “The Old Grey Whistle Test” at 6 years old. In the early ’80s, Kofi and his father played drum duets throughout Europe, sharing their complex African polyrhythms. Later, Kofi toured with John Ethridge (Soft Machine) and gigged in London with Steve Waller (Manfred Mann) and Randy California (Spirit). He also toured Europe with Steve Marriot’s Humble Pie.
Between 2017 and 2022, he was performed with The Music of Cream 50th Anniversary Tour, which began in Australia and New Zealand. He has subsequently played hundreds of shows across Australasia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Malcolm is a composer, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has toured, performed, recorded and appeared on records with musicians, including Little Richard, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Dr John, Steve Cropper, Joe Satriani, Joe Bonamassa, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne, Simon Phillips (Toto, The Who, Jeff Beck), Leslie West and Corky Laing (Mountain), Tony Butler and Mark Brzezicki (Big Country) and his father.
Malcolm curated a tribute to his father in October 2016 with Pete Brown (Cream lyricist) at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire and performed with legends such as Lulu, Eddi Reader, Maggie Reilly, Paul Young, Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones), Dennis Chambers (Santana, Parliament / Funkadelic), Gary Husband (Level 42, John McLaughlin), David Sancious (Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Stanley Clarke) and Ginger.
In 2017, he released “Salvation,” a collection of 10 songs recorded at Kevin McKendree’s The Rock House Studio in Franklin, Tennessee, and mixed by Steve Orchard (Paul McCartney, Chris Cornell) and toured the United States and United Kingdom.
Between 2017 and 2019 Malcolm played around 100 shows in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and New Zealand with The Music of Cream, a tribute to his father’s band, alongside Kofi Baker. Some of the shows featured special guests Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath) and Robben Ford (Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell).
In 2018 and 2019, Malcolm served as co-executive producer, arranger and performer for Heavenly Cream, a project helmed by Cream lyricist Pete Brown that recorded at Abbey Road Studios. The collection featured the likes of Ginger Baker, Joe Bonamassa, Bobby Rush, Paul Rodgers, Deborah Bonham, Bernie Marsden (Whitesnake), Pee-Wee Ellis (James Brown) and Abass Dodoo. Produced by Rob Cass. The album along with a documentary, “The Cream Acoustic Sessions,” was released by Quarto Valley Records in November 2023. He’s currently working on a new album, Fake Humans and Real Dolls.
“Eric [Clapton] said we should take it as far as possible because that’s what they did,” Kofi recalled. “So, yes, we’re doing it.”
Sons of Cream will release its debut album in the spring, entitled “Half and Half,” on Marshall Records. The 12-song record will feature new songs and six covers of Cream songs— “I Feel Free,” “N.S.U.,” “SWABLR,” “Sweet Wine,” “We’re Going Wrong” and “Tales of Brave Ulysses.”
Kofi, who lives in the Chicago area, is proud to honor Cream’s music. But the environmentalist is just as thrilled with his touring van.
“I built it all myself,” he said. “I insulated it with $1,100 worth of sheep’s wool, which is biodegradable. You don’t need a vapor barrier. When you build a house, you have to have a vapor barrier, so the condensation doesn’t get into the walls and make the insulation moldy.
“It’s a whole scientific thing to make a really insulated room. The insulation in people’s homes is so toxic. I didn’t want to really be sleeping in the van with toxic insulation in it.”
Still, the gigging is great, he said. However, he wishes the concerts were longer than 90 minutes. At some venues, Sons of Cream plays one hour and 15 minutes for the first set, and an hour for the second set. Kofi said Sons of Cream is playing music that can’t be found today.
“The Grateful Dead is a jam band and no jam bands are like them,” he said. “There are some jam bands out there. However, Cream played and improvised the blues.
“Malcolm sounds and plays like his dad, actually. He’s not really a musician who practices and studies. They get very technical. If they study a lot, it loses a bit of that feel sometimes. But Malcolm has this freshness when he gets on the bass.”
Technical playing and representing Cream are important to Kofi, now that his dad has died.
“While he was alive, it wasn’t so important to me,” Kofi said.
“I did it because I enjoyed playing the music. After [Cream’s] 2005 reunion, I thought, ‘This is great music. I love playing it.’ Their music was groundbreaking and people need to keep that going. We keep up the whole jam, improvisation part of music. I think we need to keep that up with what we’re doing with Sons of Cream.”
Information
Information: Sons of Cream perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10, at the Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress St., Tucson. Tickets start at $35; visit foxtucson.com.
Sons of Cream: sonsofcream.com
Sons of Cream’s Facebook: facebook.com/sonsofcreamofficial
