PETER SPRAGUE: Sunshine of Your Love—Peter Sprague Plays Cream

Over the course of a career stretching more than four decades and counting, guitarist and composer Peter Sprague has at different points immersed himself in bop jazz, Brazilian jazz, modern classical, and even instrumental pop.

Listening to him play classic rock and electric blues on his latest outing is a bit like hearing pianist Monty Alexander revisit the reggae sounds of his youth: There’s a warm familiarity enriched by a lifelong immersion in jazz that adds a certain something extra to the proceedings.

For this project, mostly (but not strictly) devoted to the music of rock’s first supergroup, Cream, Sprague has assembled longtime cohort Duncan Moore on drums, Justin Grinnell and Mack Leighton on bass, with Danny Green on piano, and a horn section of Steve Dillard (trumpet) and Andy Geib (trombone). Leonard Patton handles most of the lead vocals, with Rebecca Jade also helping out.

On blues-infused tracks like “Had to Cry Today” and “Take It Back,” Moore hearkens back to his days backing local soul singer Ella Ruth Piggee to lay down a seamlessly percolating beat. Patton’s high-register vocals recall much of the spirit and elan of the late Jack Bruce, primary vocalist for Cream (and, many years later, jazz impressario Kip Hanrahan).

But we pick up a Peter Sprague album for the guitar playing.

On the classic Stax track “Born Under a Bad Sign,” Sprague picks out a syncopated lead, leaning equally on Steve Cropper and Albert King with clean, crisp notes played with a fat, rich tone. Patton’s vocal refrain captures that same Stax spirit before a be bop-flavored bridge leading into an extended saxophone solo by Sprague’s brother, Tripp, takes it even further into orbit. Danny Green’s economical comping on organ undergirds Tripp’s extrapolations, while Peter Sprague takes the second solo, working the jazz angles. Patton again takes the reins, and centers proceedings firmly back in the blues while also scatting his own improvisational riffs right to the end.

“Sunshine of Your Love” opens with a bowed intro on acoustic bass before Sprague and Green dually introduce the theme on guitar and piano, while Moore provides a shimmering background on the cymbals. Patton, recalling his days in live theater, then narrates a spoken first verse that transitions into a fairly straight-ahead cover of the Cream version for a chorus, which then fades out before Patton literally turns things over to Moore for a drum solo. It is all playful and creative and fun.

The opening track, “Badge,” comes the closest to straight reading, at least for the opening verse and chorus before Peter Sprague plays a relaxed jazz solo on guitar.

Biggest surprise? Hearing Peter Sprague sing (!) on the rollicking blues “Take It Back,” while Patton challenges him before swapping vocal verses with him. When they sing at the same time, the vocal harmony is exquisite. And Sprague shows a deft touch at playing straight-up blues, alternating leads with harmonica player Johnny Minchin.

The overall result sounds very much like what it in fact is: energetic rock music played by top-rank jazz musicians.