The Inazuma Super Session took place at the Inkstick Shibaura Factory in Tokyo and featured Jack Bruce on bass and vocals with drummer Anton Fier and Japanese guitarist, Kenji Suzuki. The band performs mostly Cream material and present it with a slightly more modern and edgy feel. Kenji’s guitar playing is probably closer to Van Halen here than Clapton but overall comes across well with some amazing playing. Jack sounds on top of his game and his bass has a dominant presence in the recordings and vocally sounds just as strong as he did in the late sixties. Both live recordings are excellent soundboard while having somewhat of a dry, small venue sound to them.
The live tracks from the first half of the disc were recorded on May 10th and aired on FM radio on May 12th for Suntory Sound Market.
Alternate frontcovers
“White Room” is very tight. Anton Fier gives these songs a rock solid feel sometimes lacking a bit of the looseness that we are used to hearing associated with these tracks. “First Time I Met The Blues” is incorrectly listed as “First Time I Met The Bruce” and is a very Cream style slow blues number that will loosen things up. A personal highlight from the disc for me would be “A.P.K.”. This is a really cool hard rock funk instrumental track that showcases the power of the trio. Jack blows on his harmonica to start “Sitting On Top Of The World” but quickly switches back to bass as the band comes in. Everyone lets loose in “Politician” which ends up segueing into “Sunshine Of Your Love” where Bruce covers both vocal parts in the absence of a second lead vocalist.
The latter portion of the disc was recorded the following day on May 11th and is taken from the CD Absolute Live! It features less tracks than the broadcast, featuring only four Cream tracks, and includes the audience singing “Happy Birthday” to Jack. It also has the benefit of a ten minute version of “Spoonful”, not included in the broadcast of the previous day. The CD closes out with some hip-hop style music playing over the PA, indexed separately as “Beat Of Rock”.
Inazuma Super Session is a very interesting release and definitely recommended for fans of both Jack Bruce and Cream.
Personnel:
Jack Bruce (bass, vocals, harmonica)
Anton Fier (drums)
Kenji Sizuki (guitar)
Tracklist:
01. Generation Breakdown (Suzuki) 4.35
02. White Room (Bruce/Brown) 6.24
03. Out Into The Fields (Lai/Bruce/West/Brown) 7.17
04. Working Harder (Fier/Harris/Blegvad) 5-42
05. A.P.K. (Jack, Anton & Kenji) (Suzuki) 4.07
06. Sittin’ On Top Of The World (Burnett) 4.45
07. Sunshine Of Your Love (Clapton/Bruce/Brown) 9.22
08. Crossroads (Johnson) 2.57
09. Spoonful (Dixon) 11.34
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