Ginger Baker – Horses & Trees
CELLULOID
Jazz / Contemporary / FusionVintage Vinyl LP / 15 EUR
Media VG+ / Sleeve VG
Produced by Bill Laswell.
On this spectacular recording, Ginger Baker teams up with virtuoso bassist Bill Laswell as well as other great musicians such as Nicky Skopelitis and a lot of great African musicians to record what is arguably his greatest solo album. Horses & Trees is hard to pin down as far as genres go, but if anything, it’s jazz fusion and world fusion. Probably his most rhythmic and accessible album. Ginger nails the drumming yet again on this album. Entirely drum-driven and relying on repetitive melodies, it’s a trip to West Africa as the Mande music influences on the album are more than evident. At times it sounds like a drum and bass album way before that term was even coined. At 34 minutes there is plenty of repetition on Horses & Trees, and you want it to go on forever as it’s one of those albums you’ll want to have on constant repeat.
An exceptional musician at the top of his game, rejecting the “rock” lifestyle and “celebrity” culture to pour his soul into an album that can’t be pigeonholed, as its only mission is to push music forward — a classic.