Give
Ginger Baker this: He sure knows how to choose his sidemen. In fact, there is a certain pleasant symmetry to his recording career between the mid-'60s and the mid-'90s. It is a career bookended by power trios, first with his partnership with fellow virtuosos
Eric Clapton and
Jack Bruce in
Cream, and then, almost 30 years later and well after most would have written him off as a relic from a bygone era, this trio with
Charlie Haden and
Bill Frisell. More surprising even than this unlikely partnership is the fact that the album actually works. Most memorable are the
Baker-penned compositions, which sport melodies that seem to have more in common with British or Arabic
folk music than
bebop. As a
jazz drummer,
Baker is surprisingly convincing on most of the material. The timbre of his drums, unusual for a
jazz album, adds a pleasing earthiness to the proceedings, and intersects well with
Haden's rich bass. Everything
Frisell touches turns to gold, and this album is no exception. Here he is at his quirky, impressionistic best, tossing off
Monk quotations as effortlessly as he sculpts darkly ambient textures. Despite these fine achievements,
Going Back Home is not perfect. On some of the material,
Baker's heavy
rock hand shows a bit too much, as on
"Straight, No Chaser." The results are charming in their own way, but one wishes that
Baker could ease up on the
"Sunshine of Your Love" tom-tom fills once in a while. Also, the closer,
"East Timor," features an annoying voiceover by
Baker that ends the record on an off note. However, the "rockisms" work more often than they don't, and even when they don't, the groove never suffers, and the trio members always sound like they're having fun. By turns hauntingly melancholy and fearlessly experimental, this record is sure to please
Frisell and
Haden fans, and likely to pleasantly surprise those who enjoy
Baker's work with
Cream. ~ Daniel Gioffre
