“Eric Clapton’s a great guitarist, but Gary Moore’s a more exciting player”: Jack Bruce on the brilliance of Gary Moore and why Cream’s real chemistry was between Bruce and Ginger Baker

Photo of Jack BRUCE and BBM and Ginger BAKER and Gary MOORE; L-R: Ginger Baker (drums), Gary Moore, Jack Bruce performing live onstage.

Despite a long and varied career, Jack Bruce is still best known for those years he spent alongside Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker in Cream. “What we did with Cream was to take our jazz roots and apply it to a kinda rock, and came up with a new music,” Bruce told BP back in 2004. “The three of us developed a style, but the real chemistry was between Ginger and myself. So, really, it was a jazz band, we just never told Eric that he was Ornette Coleman!”

After Cream split in 1968, Bruce released a string of solo albums, and toured in Ringo Starr’s band, before joining forces with Ginger Baker and guitarist Gary Moore to form the power trio BBM (Bruce, Baker and Moore). Baker and Bruce had a famously volatile relationship. “I got a great insight into the chemistry between Jack and Ginger,” Moore told Louder in 2017. “I think Jack really looks up to Ginger, and Ginger knows it, so he’ll never tell him he’s any good. They’re like two brothers, just winding each other up.”