Trailblazing drummer who performed alongside Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce in the 1960s rock supergroup Cream
According to Neil Peart, the drummer from the Canadian band https://www.theguardian.com/music/rush" rel="nofollow - Rush : “Every rock drummer since has been influenced in some way by Ginger, even if they don’t know it.”
Baker found fame with https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/apr/17/jack-bruce-cream-tour-cancellation-ginger-baker-eric-clapton" rel="nofollow - Cream , the 1960s rock trio also featuring https://www.theguardian.com/music/ericclapton" rel="nofollow - Eric Clapton and https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/26/jack-bruce" rel="nofollow - Jack Bruce ,
whose two-year career inspired a new wave of blues-based rock bands.
Cream is now seen as the first “supergroup”, comprising outstanding
musicians each of whom was blazing a trail on his respective instrument.
Baker brought a freewheeling energy to his drumming, prompting
comparisons to the jazz drummer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQt2QMtDDiI" rel="nofollow - Art Blakey .
He was not abnormally fast or flashy, but he was innovative, using twin
bass drums and displaying a flair for African-influenced beats, to
which he had been introduced by the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR4ZfCh601k" rel="nofollow - British jazz drummer Phil Seamen .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on0ZgGa1ejY" rel="nofollow - Baker often claimed he never practised ,
but relied on spontaneous inspiration when playing with other
musicians. Cream’s stage shows often featured improvisations lasting 20
minutes or more, and the group’s 1968 double album Wheels of Fire
included a 16-minute version of the Willie Dixon song Spoonful, and 16
more minutes of Baker’s drumming showcase Toad.
The idea of using the drumkit as a solo instrument was an innovation
ascribed to Cream, though one that listeners would find a mixed blessing
in years to come. The band was undeniably adept, however, at creating
unusual but commercially potent singles. Hits such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9BwfcrN9hw" rel="nofollow - I Feel Free (1966) , White Room (1968), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16h6vLy6n4A" rel="nofollow - Sunshine of Your Love
(1968), Tales of Brave Ulysses (1967) and Badge (1969) are some of the
most atmospheric, rhythmic and distinctive compositions of their era.
In 1962 Baker, then a jobbing drummer in London’s jazz clubs, had been recommended by https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/27/charlie-watts-it-wouldnt-bother-me-if-rolling-stones-split" rel="nofollow - Charlie Watts ,
the future Rolling Stones drummer, for a job with Alexis Korner’s Blues
Incorporated, where he first encountered Bruce. Along with Graham Bond
and the saxophonist https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/dec/22/guardianobituaries.arts" rel="nofollow - Dick Heckstall-Smith , the pair formed the https://www.last.fm/music/The+Graham+Bond+Organisation" rel="nofollow - Graham Bond Organisation ,
playing a form of jazzy rhythm and blues that won them a devoted
following. However, they also developed a hostility that eventually led
to Baker firing Bruce from the band.
Baker then approached Clapton, the rising star of British blues, with
a view to forming a new group. Clapton was enthusiastic, but insisted
on bringing in Bruce on bass. Despite misgivings, Baker agreed. Cream’s
debut single, Wrapping Paper (1966), was uncharacteristic light jazzy
pop, but their debut album, Fresh Cream, released that December, found
the group already hitting its distinctive stride in powerful tracks such
as NSU, I’m So Glad and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPKQJQWQhKo" rel="nofollow - Spoonful . It reached No 6 on the UK album chart.
The band released two further albums during its lifetime. Disraeli
Gears (1967) was a formidable demonstration of their instrumental and
compositional skills, while the live half of Wheels of Fire – a US
chart-topper – illustrated the self-indulgence they were capable of in
concert. The group split up in November 1968, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2016/01/21/famous-rock-feuds-jack-bruce-on-ginger-baker-and-ginger-literally-on-jack/#4f537600a147" rel="nofollow - at least partly because of the violent antagonism between Baker and Bruce ,
and a fourth album, Goodbye, appeared in February 1969. Despite being a
short and scrappy collection of live and studio tracks, it gave them a
UK No 1, and their four albums sold 15m copies between them.
Following Cream’s demise, Baker joined a new “supergroup”, Blind
Faith, with Clapton, Steve Winwood (from Traffic) and bassist Ric Grech
(from Family). Despite the huge success of Blind Faith’s eponymous 1969
album, which topped both the US and British charts and sold half a
million copies within a month of release, the band disintegrated that
October, after completing a US tour. Baker was bitterly disappointed to
find that Clapton was jumping ship (he departed to form Derek and the
Dominoes) and decided he would form a band of his own.
He brought Winwood and Grech into a new jazz-rock fusion project,
Ginger Baker’s Air Force. The 11-piece lineup included drummers Seamen
and Remi Kabaka, Bond on Hammond organ and saxophone, Denny Laine on
guitar and a trio of brass players. The music was an exuberant and
improvisational blend of blues, R&B, jazz and African music. Baker
was always bitter that Bruce and the lyricist https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pete-brown-feels-cream-244014/" rel="nofollow - Pete Brown
(the unofficial “fourth member” of Cream) had claimed most of the
songwriting royalties from Cream, and so with Air Force and most of his
future projects he figured prominently in the writing credits.
Winwood and Grech stayed long enough to appear on the group’s first
album, a double LP live recording of a concert at the Royal Albert Hall
in January 1970, before departing to join a reunited Traffic. Without
Winwood or Clapton, however, Baker could not pull the crowds.
When the now nine-piece Air Force embarked on a US tour, it was met
by miserable ticket sales and a lack of interest at radio stations. A
second album, Ginger Baker’s Air Force 2, was released in December 1970,
but it failed to recapture the spontaneous magic of its predecessor,
and both album and band slid into obscurity.
After a near-fatal cocaine overdose that September, Baker realised he
needed a complete break and, travelling by Land Rover, went to Lagos,
Nigeria, where he opened a 16-track recording studio, Batakota (ARC)
studios, and became close friends with local – later global – superstar https://www.theguardian.com/music/fela-kuti" rel="nofollow - Fela Kuti . Baker fully immersed himself in the rhythms of African music, and also joined the http://lagospolo.com/" rel="nofollow - Lagos Polo Club . He retained his enthusiasm for horses and polo for the rest of his life.
During his spell in Lagos, Baker featured on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yrqYiFhcWY" rel="nofollow - Kuti’s 1971 album Live! ,
while Kuti appeared on Baker’s Stratavarious (1972). In 1973 Paul
McCartney and Wings recorded Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me), from
Band on the Run, at ARC, on which Baker shook a tin of gravel as
percussion, though he was disgruntled that McCartney recorded the rest
of his album at EMI’s Lagos studios.
In 1974 Baker formed the hard rock band Baker Gurvitz Army back in https://www.theguardian.com/uk/london" rel="nofollow - London ,
with brothers Adrian and Paul Gurvitz (on the guitar and the bass
respectively), but after three albums – the last two of which failed to
chart – in two years, the group fizzled out.
Finding himself penniless and reduced to selling drugs, Baker left
his wife, Liz (nee Finch), whom he had married in 1959, and their three
children, and headed for Tuscany with his girlfriend, Sarah, to try to
survive as an olive farmer (the pair married in 1983, but divorced the
following year).
He was rescued by the record producer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Laswell" rel="nofollow - Bill Laswell , who tracked Baker down and took him to New York to play on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7RGMndpadw" rel="nofollow - Album (1986) ,
the fifth studio album by John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd (PiL). “The
farm was a disaster,” Laswell commented of Baker’s Tuscan retreat.
“There was no electricity, and he had this tiny bed he would sleep in
with his dogs. It’s a miracle that he was still alive.”
Born in Lewisham, south-east London, Peter Baker – his red hair
earned him the unoriginal nickname of “Ginger” – was the son of Ruby
Streatfield, who worked in a tobacconist’s, and Frederick Baker, a
brick-layer who was killed while serving with the Royal Corps of Signals
in 1943. The young Ginger was aimless and unmotivated until he
discovered a passion for competitive cycling.
This ended abruptly after his bike was wrecked in a collision with a
London taxi. Then he experimented with playing drums belonging to a
friend from Shooter’s Hill grammar school, which inspired him to buy his
own set for £3. “I thought, good God, at last there’s something I can
do,” he recalled.
He began playing music part-time while working as a signwriter and
then with an advertising agency, but after earning £12 for a week’s work
with the https://www.discogs.com/artist/990817-Storyville-Jazz-Band" rel="nofollow - Stor https://www.discogs.com/artist/990817-Storyville-Jazz-Band" rel="nofollow - yville Jazz Band he decided to turn professional. By the end of the decade he had played with https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/mar/19/terry-lightfoot" rel="nofollow - Terry Lightfoot ’s New Orleans Jazzmen and bands run by the jazz clarinettist https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/03/acker-bilk" rel="nofollow - Acker Bilk and the jazz guitarist https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/apr/15/diz-disley-obituary" rel="nofollow - Diz Disley .
However, the opinionated, combative Baker found himself frustrated by
both his bandmates and the music’s stylistic limitations. An unfortunate
side-effect of his stints in London jazz clubs was a heroin habit that
would dog him into the 80s.
Baker weaned himself off the drug in that decade and, following, his
work with PiL, continued to collaborate with Laswell, with his own album
Horses & Trees (1986), an eclectic set featuring the violinist L
Shankar and percussionist Aïyb Dieng, and Middle Passage (1990), a mix
of Afrobeat, rock and jazz-fusion.
In 1988 Baker had moved to Los Angeles, where he met and married his
third wife, Karen Loucks. In 1993 he moved to a ranch in Colorado to
raise polo ponies. Also that year he recorded Sunrise on the Sufferbus
with the hard rock band Masters of Reality, an album that produced the
hit single https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beyj3BE7RPY" rel="nofollow - She Got Me (When She Got Her Dress On) .
He managed to fit in stints with the Ginger Baker Trio, with the guitarist Bill Frisell and the bassist https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jul/13/charlie-haden" rel="nofollow - Charlie Haden , and even briefly reunited with Bruce alongside the guitarist https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/07/gary-moore-obituary" rel="nofollow - Gary Moore in BBM. However, in the late 90s, problems with the tax and immigration authorities forced him to leave the US for good.
He bought a farm in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, but upset the
local all-white polo club by importing a team of black Nigerian players.
Again forced to move, he resettled in Tulbagh in the Western Cape. In
2010, he was married for the fourth time, to a Zimbabwean woman, Kudzai
Machokoto.
In 2005, Cream reunited for a series of concerts at the Royal Albert
Hall and New York’s Madison Square Garden, preserved on the album https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Albert_Hall_London_May_2-3-5-6,_2005" rel="nofollow - Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Albert_Hall_London_May_2-3-5-6,_2005" rel="nofollow - 2005 .
In 2009 Baker published Hellraiser: The Autobiography of the World’s
Greatest Drummer, co-written with his daughter Nettie. Jay Bulger’s
documentary https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/may/16/beware-of-mr-baker-review" rel="nofollow - Beware of Mr Baker premiered at the https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/mar/14/sxsw-beware-mr-baker-gimme-loot" rel="nofollow - S https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/mar/14/sxsw-beware-mr-baker-gimme-loot" rel="nofollow - XSW festival in 2012 ,
and its raw portrayal of Baker’s extraordinary life won it the grand
jury award for best documentary feature. The same year, an impoverished
Baker had to sell up and leave South Africa. He returned to London and
formed a new quartet, Jazz Confusion, which in 2014 released Why?
Baker, who had been suffering from degenerative osteoarthritis and a
smoking-related pulmonary condition, is survived by Kudzai, his
children, Nettie, Leda and Kofi, and a stepdaughter, Lisa.
• Peter Edward “Ginger” Baker, drummer, born 19 August 1939; died 6 October 2019
from www.theguardian.com