Bruce Mixes Cream Hits, New Material

Like a hard-rock Mary Poppins, Jack Bruce knows the vital role sugar can play in helping medicine go down.

It’s been a long time--nearly 3those decades--since Bruce, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker started Cream, rock’s first supergroup and the band that threw open the door to acid rock and, in turn, heavy metal.

Bruce obviously recognizes that fans will forever be clamoring to hear his voice and bass guitar on the Cream standards, so he scooped a couple to sweeten the medicinal newer material that made up the bulk of his performance Sunday at the Galaxy Theatre, just as he does on his latest solo album, “Shadows in the Air.”

The album has the added marquee power of Clapton for new renditions of “Sunshine of Your Love” and “White Room,” which are modestly reworked with Latin percussion underpinnings. Minus Clapton at the Galaxy, the Glasgow-born Bruce brought two drummers and a third percussionist along with two more of his album collaborators, Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid and veteran keyboardist Bernie Worrell.

The percussion section claimed most of the show’s highlights, because much of Bruce’s recent material sounded like first drafts. That may be the kind of looseness and spontaneity the 58-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist-keyboardist is aiming for these days, but the lack of fully developed song structure often rendered the music repetitive.

Bruce’s soaring tenor hasn’t lost an ounce of its power, nor has Bruce lost his affection for a huge sound that helped Cream rise to the top.