Ginger Baker

Ginger Baker
Ginger Baker (Left) with Cream bandmates Jack Bruce (Centre) and Eric Clapton (Right)
Background information
Birth name	Peter Edward Baker
Born	19 August 1939 (1939-08-19) (age 68) London, England
Genre(s)	Blues-rock, hard rock, psychedelic rock, jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician Drummer
Instrument(s)	Drums Percussion Vocals
Years active	1958-present
Associated acts	Cream Blind Faith Ginger Baker's Air Force BBM John Mayall's Bluesbreakers Masters of Reality
Website	[1]

Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker (born 19 August 1939, Lewisham, South London) is an English drummer who gained fame as a member of the Graham Bond Organization (GBO) and Cream from 1966 until 1968. He later joined Cream bandmate Eric Clapton along with Ric Grech and Steve Winwood in the 1969 group Blind Faith. In the early 1970s, Baker toured and recorded with a fusion rock group, Ginger Baker's Air Force. Baker's drumming attracted attention for its flamboyance, showmanship, and his pioneering use of two bass drums instead of the conventional single 'kick' drum. He is also noted for using a variety of other percussion instruments and for his application of African rhythms to much of his drumming. Evidence of this African influence can be appreciated in Ginger Baker's work in association with Fela Ransome-Kuti where he sat in for Fela's drummer Tony Allen in recording sessions published in 1971 by the Regal Zonophone / Pathe Marconi Label under the record title "Fela Ransome-Kuti and The Africa '70 with Ginger Baker Live!"

Cream backstage at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction

While at times performing in a grandiloquent manner similar to that of Keith Moon of The Who, Baker was also capable of the more restrained playing he had heard with British jazz groups during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Baker also performed lengthy improvisational drum solos, his most famous of all being the thirteen-minute drum solo from "Toad", heard on Cream's double album Wheels of Fire. Since 1986, Baker has released several albums of ethnic fusion and jazz percussion, and has toured with various jazz, classical music, and rock ensembles, including a reunited Cream. He has collaborated often with Bill Laswell. As well as bands carrying his own name, such as Ginger Baker's Air Force, Baker Gurvitz Army (1974-1976), Ginger Baker's Energy (1976), and the Ginger Baker Trio, which included jazz bassist Charlie Haden and Bill Frisell on guitar (recordings released in 1994 and 1996), Baker has also at various times been a member of Hawkwind (1980), Atomic Rooster (1980), Public Image Ltd (1986) and Masters of Reality (1990). In 1994 Baker joined BBM (Bruce-Baker-Moore),a short-lived power trio formed along with Jack Bruce and guitarist Gary Moore.

Discography

Cream Discography

• Fresh Cream (1966)
• Disraeli Gears (1967)
• Wheels of Fire (1968)
• Goodbye (1969)
• Live Cream (1970)
• Live Cream Volume II (1972)

Cream in 2005

• Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6 2005 (2005)

Solo Discography

• Ginger Baker's Air Force (1970)
• Ginger Baker's Air Force II (1970)
• Stratavarious (1972)
• Eleven Sides of Baker (1977)
• From Humble Oranges (1983)
• Horses & Trees (1986)
• No Material (1987)
• Middle Passage (1990)
• Going Back Home (1994)
• Ginger Baker's Energy (1995)
• Do What You Like (1998) - compilation
• Coward of the County (1999)
• African Force (2001)

Other

• Levitation by Hawkwind in (1980)
• Zones by Hawkwind in (1980-1982)
• This Is Hawkwind, Do Not Panic by Hawkwind in (1980-1984)
• Unseen Rain with Jens Johansson and Jonas Hellborg in (1992)
• Sunrise on the Sufferbus by Masters of Reality (1993)
• Around The Next Dream by BBM in (1994)
• Band On The Run by Paul McCartney and Wings in 1973

Gear

Baker's kit is DW but used to be Ludwig back in the 60's and 70's; all cymbals are Zildjian. The rivet Ride cymbal and the HiHats were used on the last Cream shows in '68. Drums 10"x 8" 12" x 8" 13" x 10" 14" x 12" Toms (all on stands) 20"x 14" & 22" x 14" Bass Drums 13" Craviotto DW Snare 14" Leedy Snare (Spare) DW 5000 Bass Drum Pedals 4 DW cymbal stands 1 DW HiHat Stand 1 DW Snare Stand Zildjian Ginger Baker 7a sticks Cymbals: 16" K Crash 14" Hi Hats 8" Splash 8" EFX #1 Splash 10" EFX #1 Splash 8" Splash 13" Hat 23" Rivet Ride 18" China 18" Medium Crash 2 Cowbells DW heads were used for the Albert shows, but now Ginger will be using Remo heads.

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• He and Cream bandmates Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton have all played together in other musical groups. Baker and Bruce played together in the Graham Bond Organisation and Blues Incorporated, Bruce and Clapton played together near the end of Clapton's tenure with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and Clapton and Baker played together in the short-lived supergroup Blind Faith right after Cream's breakup.
• Prior to the Cream reunion at the Royal Albert Hall, the band had never played "Pressed Rat and Warthog" live.
• Baker always insisted on having his two bass drums nailed to the floor at the venue he was playing live.
• Baker replaced Charlie Watts in Blues Incorporated. Watts later became the drummer for the Rolling Stones.
• As a firmly stated jazz drummer, he hates it when people refer to him as a "rock drummer."^[1]

Ginger Baker is known to have used only redwood drum sticks from the Northern California forest of Muir Woods, stating "Californians have the hardest wood in the world."

References

http://www.nps.gov/muwo/

1. ^ Cream: Classic Artists

External links

• The Ginger Baker Site
• Detailed chart of Baker's band contributions
• Ginger Baker at All Music Guide