FROM A CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE, it's startling to realize that Cream only existed for a little over two years, from mid-1966 to late1968. But, during a period in which rock music was evolving and mutating at a dizzyingly rapid rate, the pioneering British trio attained staggering levels of creativity and influence. In its brief but eventful existence, Cream – Eric Clapton (guitar and vocals), Jack Bruce (bass and vocals) and Ginger Baker (drums) – released four groundbreaking albums that helped to radically redraw rock's stylistic and conceptual parameters. Meanwhile, their fiery live performances introduced improvisation to the rock arena, establishing Cream as the first band to fully explore the possibilities of the power-trio format. In the process, the group played a crucial role in laying the grounwork for the hard-rock and heavy metal that would flourish in decades to come. Beginning as imaginative blues revivalists, Cream quickly evolved into a far riskier, more challenging unit. Mining an audacious assortment of blues, jazz, folk, pop and psychedelic elements, Cream made adventurous, original music that reflected the restless energy of its era, yet continues to resonate nearly four decades later. Clapton's incendiary, precedent-setting guitar work gave Cream its flashiest selling point. But the threesome's musical identity was shaped equally by the innovative rhythm section of Bruce, whose commanding voice, distinctive songwriting and aggressive, melodic bass play