POP MUSIC REVIEW : Some New Insights From Ex-Cream Rocker Jack Bruce

For some ‘60s-vintage rockers, 1989 was the year to cash in by playing the same old stuff. For others it was a year for proving that being fortysomething doesn’t mean you can’t find fresh energy and new insights.

Before he even walked on stage at the Coach House on Wednesday, Jack Bruce had established his credentials as one of the ‘60s veterans entering the ‘90s attuned to the Muse instead of sodden by Mammon. Bruce’s new album, “A Question of Time,” stands with the ’89 releases of Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Lou Reed as evidence that graying rockers can remain alert to their times and to new creative possibilities.

Bruce’s show was like his new album: He went for invention and immediacy at almost every turn, while still managing to please a packed audience clamoring to lap up Cream (an appetite whetted by the participation of Cream’s Ginger Baker on drums). The second half of the show featured the still-prodigious Baker, who took over on drums after an opening hour in which Tom Goss kept a more standard sort of time on songs from “A Question of Time” and some less well-known selections from Cream and Bruce’s fine early solo albums.

The talent-laden band, which also included Bernie Worrell on keyboards and teen-age guitar phenom Blues Saraceno, used the Cream oldies as points of departure for extended instrumental explorations. Only “White Room” was a disappointment, coming across with its drama blunted. Although Bruce’s husky voice was unable to match the clear tenor flights that he musters on his new album, he proved to be a resourceful singer with a distinctive approach to the blues in this blues-dominated show. He also was a monster bassist, an enthusiastic performer and a humorous quipster who took visible pleasure in interacting with his band mates.