After the breakup of Cream in 1968, it became a point of fascination to see what was next for the three members.

Eric Clapton got together with Steve Winwood to form Blind Faith, which lasted from late 1968 to the end of the summer of ’69, producing one album and an ill-fated tour. He then took up with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett in their touring band, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. That led to Clapton’s first self-titled solo album, produced by Delaney, which still stands as one of Clapton’s very best.

Ginger Baker quickly formed an all-star band of sorts after Blind Faith, dubbed Air Force and recorded a double live and a studio album under the name. It was short-lived. He went through many other musical vehicles in the ’70s and ’80s but always seemed to produce his best work when recording what we now call World Music, then in the ’90s recorded two extraordinary jazz albums with Bill Frisell and Charlie Haden.

As for Bruce, he had already recorded a straight jazz album, which bordered on free jazz, in August of ’68, Things We Like, even before the Farewell Cream tour of that fall.

That was followed by Songs For A Tailor (September, 1969), a truly amazing mix of R&B, soul, blues, folk and rock blended with his Celtic sensibilities, particularly in his vocals, and the enigmatic yet compelling lyrics of his writing partner from Cream days, Peter Brown.

After Songs For A Tailor, probably his most successful commercial album, he has continued to blaze his own path with a string of artistic achievements in his solo career and with others, particularly Kip Hanrahan in the ’80s and ’90s, that has in most cases escaped the music world at large and especially the rock press. That notwithstanding, it can be easily argued Bruce has been the most creative and successful artistically of the three members from Cream.

In early 1970 Bruce put an intriguing and accomplished band together to tour in support of Songs For A Tailor. Called Jack Bruce & Friends, I noticed they were to play at the Fillmore East the weekend of January 30-31 as the opening act for Mountain! Leslie West’s group, at the time, was of course doing very well commercially in the wake left by Cream, but it startled and somewhat annoyed me that Bruce would actually be opening for them.

Nonetheless, my girlfriend and I secured tickets and went to one of the early shows. As I recall it was the Saturday night performance, although it’s possible it was Friday. In the 1990s, I became aware of a recording of one of the shows from that weekend. That kind of stunned me at the time, but it’s now happened more often than you would think possible. At first I believed it was the actual show we attended but I have seen it variously listed as either early show Jan. 30 or late show Jan. 31. So it’s impossible to pin down.

Suffice to say, the setlist is the same as the show we saw. And the recorded document confirms that although this band had not been together that long, it was producing dynamic and intricate versions of Bruce’s tunes, mainly from Songs For A Tailor.

They opened with a Cream song, Politician, which I thought at the time was a little strange. Why would Bruce want to immediately identify himself with the past when he had produced such a small but strong body of new songs. But in retrospect it probably made perfect sense, putting the crowd at ease with something familiar, giving the musicians a chance to stretch out in a blues format and also giving the audience the kind of improvisation-based performance by Bruce they had come to recognize and luxuriate in.

At about seven minutes, this was a relatively short workout for the band. From the start, Bruce’s voice was in fine shape and his playing on the Gibson E-3 he had used in Cream still had that characteristic mid-range quality with an edge of distortion that made his patterns and solo lines distinct.

Coryell, one of the few guitarists who can easily flow between jazz and rock, showed the type of force he can become in an electrified group, alternately holding forth with a rich melodic sense and feel and pyrotechnic runs based on various and not always conventional jazz scales.

Mitchell, in a lull away from Jimi Hendrix who had just completed a recording obligation with The Band Of Gypsys, was perfect for this quartet, exhibiting a much more jazz-oriented style than his work with The Hendrix Experience, yet still holding down the rock grooves capably and embellishing those feels with the same type of fills and rolls that permeate his playing with Hendrix.

Mike Mandel, late out of Berklee School (later College) of Music, filled the sound in nicely, making it distinctly different than the power trio format and he took some interesting and adept turns during his solo spots.

I remember very clearly the medley of three tunes from Tailor that followed in a format Bruce would use later in his band with Mick Taylor and Carla Bley for Weird Of Hermiston/Tickets To Waterfalls/Theme For An Imaginary Western. This was the highlight of the show. It displayed the new direction in which Bruce was headed, showing artful song craft and imaginative arranging and playing. The third number was one also covered by Mountain, which had a success of its own with it.

HCKHH Blues is a title from Things We Like and here it is a long improvisatory vehicle based on blues changes and chord vamps with a full range of dynamics. The next two were somewhat unexpected but quite memorable, the beautiful We’re Going Wrong, from Cream’s Disraeli Gears, very infrequently played by Cream live, and The Clearout, a furious, taut, rocking showstopper with hard-boiled and terse lyrics from Tailor.

A very long, perhaps overlong, Sunshine Of Your Love was up next with plenty of room for free playing. It merged with an instrumental based on Smiles & Grins, which would appear on Harmony Row, Bruce’s next album, a wild, intricately timed track. But there were also returns in these last two tunes to previous themes and quotes from earlier in the program. That closed it. No encore.

It was a moving and remarkable performance and although the crowd was enthusiastic throughout and often recognized songs from Tailor at the start of tunes, to some extent the show may have been over the heads musically of some of the audience.

Mountain came out to a thunderous, standing ovation, but we stayed for perhaps one-half of their first song. It just wasn’t a group with which I was enamored. To me, they would always be a pale follow-up to Cream, which was really a unique and innovative combination at the time they were together. Not to say Leslie West and bassist-producer Felix Pappalardi didn’t produce some worthy offerings, but not on this night. It belonged to the brief but indelible mark left by Jack Bruce & Friends, one of the most memorable concerts I’ve had the good fortune to attend.