Sons Of Legendary 60s British Rock Band Cream To Play Metro Detroit….

Sons of Cream, a bluesy British rock band that features two members whose fathers were original members of the legendary 1960s British rock band Cream, will play metro Detroit this August.

The band is scheduled to play Ferndale’s Magic Bag, located off Woodward Avenue, just north of Nine Mile Road, at 7 p.m. Aug. 8.

The show is part of a tour that will see 14 shows in the United Kingdom and 11 shows across the U.S. You can find ticket information for the Ferndale show here.

Two of the band’s members, bassist Malcolm Bruce and drummer Kofi Baker, are sons of two of the original members of the legendary Cream – Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.

The band’s third member is guitarist Rob Johnson, who is a grandnephew of Ginger Baker.

As all three members are successful musicians in their own right, Bruce told Patch in a phone interview, the band was put together to honor Cream’s music

The band was legendary for its 1960s rock and roll British bluesy sound, which was influenced and improvised from Black American music, such as the blues and jazz dating back to the 1920s.

Those sounds influenced early 1960s British band Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, whose past members included future rock and roll icons, including Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.

They went on to form Cream along with Eric Clapton a few years later, Malcolm Bruce said.

“We’re really the offshoot of that, we’re not quite a part of it, but we grew up with our dads, and we made music with our dads and were influenced by them and learned from them,” Bruce said. “This is a way of us honoring that.”

Bruce said that fans can expect to hear Cream’s classics, including “Sunshine of Your Love,” “I Feel Free” and “White Room,” with the same blistering bluesy rock sound, but with their own touches, such as extending and improvising on the songs, something that the original Cream was well known for throughout their brief career.

“Because the music is based on some much on improvisation, we’re able to sort of reinvent it ourselves, which is what Cream did as a band,” Bruce said.

“They didn’t just play songs note to note each night when they were on tour, they improvised around it.”

That improvising is what sets the Sons of Cream apart from a true tribute band, which typically plays exactly the same as the original, Bruce explained.

He also joked that it takes pressure off him from trying to play exactly like his dad, whom he said was such a unique artist.

“We’re just reinventing the music the same way they [Cream] did,” Bruce said. “We just have fun with it and do the best we can in each moment.

It’s a very spontaneous creative process with this kind of music.”

While Bruce and other members of the band work on their own music and projects that are a bit different from Cream’s original style, he did say that Cream’s music helps him stay connected to his father, who died almost ten years ago.

The British musician also feels that Cream’s music and similar bands played an important role in history, especially in terms of expressing freedom and creativity through art.

“It means so much to me, to play this music,” Bruce said.

“Whenever I play this music, it gives me that sense of being able to get into the moment and feel that freedom and that spontaneity.”

Asked about playing in Ferndale as the band continues touring across the United Kingdom this week, Bruce said he’s looking forward to visiting the Detroit area and playing at the Magic Bag, which is actually the last date on the band’s current tour.

“Detroit has an incredibly rich music history,” Bruce said. “Coming to the Detroit area is always a joy and a pleasure.”