Ginger Baker

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Ginger Baker (1980)
Ginger Baker (2011)

Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker (born August 19, 1939 in Lewisham , London , † October 6, 2019 in Canterbury ) was a British drummer . He was nicknamed "Ginger" because of his red hair.

biography

Baker, who originally played the piano and trumpet, was from 1956 as a drummer with Bob Wallis and The Storyville Jazz Band (with which the first recordings were made). In 1957 he moved to Mr. Acker Bilk , then to Terry Lightfoot (with whom the 1958 album Tradition In Color was created) and took lessons from Phil Seamen .

In the late 1950s he met Dick Heckstall-Smith and Alexis Korner . In 1962 he replaced the drummer Charlie Watts in Alexis Korners Blues Incorporated . There he met Jack Bruce , Dick Heckstall-Smith and Graham Bond , with whom he founded the Graham Bond Organization only a short time later . Baker recorded two LPs with this formation and toured the UK extensively. He also designed the record covers and took care of the finances.

In 1966, on his initiative, the group Cream was formed with Eric Clapton on guitar and Jack Bruce on bass. In this three- piece formation, which was considered a supergroup in the late 1960s, all instruments involved - guitar, bass, drums - played side by side on an equal footing for the first time in pop history; in this way, extensive improvisations were created that were previously unknown in pop music.

After Cream broke up, Baker played with Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and Ric Grech in the group Blind Faith , which broke up in September 1969 after the release of the album Blind Faith and a subsequent, very successful tour.

In 1970 Baker had his own group, Ginger Baker's Air Force , which was disbanded in the spring of 1971. Members included Phil Seamen , Steve Winwood (org, voc), Graham Bond (org), Ric Grech (bg, vi), Denny Laine and Chris Wood . With this open formation with two drummers and a percussionist, Baker turned to African influences and also relocated to Nigeria . The influence of his close collaboration with Fela Kuti and the exploration of both African and Arabic harmonies and rhythms can be heard on later albums such as Middle Passage .

After his time with the Air Force, he worked with the brothers Paul and Adrian Gurvitz . Three albums were created with the Baker Gurvitz Army . Various jazz recordings followed in the following years.

In 1980, Baker briefly belonged to the band Hawkwind , which he left after the album Levitation .

In 1990 Baker joined the rock group Masters of Reality and played the album Sunrise on the Sufferbus with Chris Goss and Googe . In 1993 he left the Masters when they supported the rock group Alice in Chains and returned to polo and horse breeding. He toured and recorded CDs with bassist Jonas Hellborg and released an album with the all-star power trio BBM with Jack Bruce and Gary Moore .

In May 2005, the long-awaited return of the formation Cream, which presented their previous repertoire in the original line-up, took place at London's Royal Albert Hall . The concert series was evaluated for CD and DVD publication.

In 2011, after many years, he went on tour again with bassist Jonas Hellborg.

In 2012 the US movie Beware of Mr. Baker came out, a biography by US director Jay Bulger about the eventful life of Ginger Baker. The 92-minute documentary was also released in German art cinemas at the end of 2013 via NFP. In 2014 the drummer went on tour with his band Ginger Baker's Jazz Confusion .

Ginger Baker died in a hospital in south east England on October 6, 2019 at the age of 80.

Playing technique and instruments

Ginger Baker was one of the drummers who contributed significantly to the spread of playing with two bass drums . Although had Louie Bellson the double bass playing already been invented, but it was really only known by Baker in the popular area and found many imitators. Today it is practically part of the standard of metal and big band drumming , although mostly a double kick drum replaces the second bass drum.

To play a double bass drum you need three pedals, which results in the left foot constantly changing between two pedals ( hi-hat machine and pedal machine for the left bass drum).

In the time from Cream to the Baker Gurvitz Army, Ginger Baker played a drum kit made by Ludwig in the color "Silver Sparkle", which is now a sought-after vintage drum kit . Baker used two bass drums, two hanging toms and two floor toms, which is known as a double drum kit because it is exactly twice the number of the drum sets that were actually common at the time.

In addition to snare and hi-hats, Baker also used six instead of the usual two cymbals . For this, however, he only used three stands, as he mounted two basins on each stand. In addition, he had installed a small splash basin and a cowbell .

The 1966 drum solo Toad (released on the Fresh Cream album ) shows Baker's handling of this great drum kit.

At the Cream Reunion concerts in 2005, he played drums made by Drum Workshop (DW Drums) with the same number of drums, but with a different structure of the toms. In 2016, Rolling Stone listed Baker as third of the 100 best drummers of all time .

Ginger Baker's handprints on the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame

Discography (selection)

Graham Bond Organization

  • The Sound Of 65 (1965), Columbia
  • There's A Bond Between Us (1966), Columbia

Cream

see Cream # discography

Blind Faith

  • Blind Faith (1969)

Ginger Baker's Air Force

  • Ginger Baker's Air Force (1970), Polydor 2662001
  • Ginger Baker's Air Force, vol. 2, Polydor 2383029 (1970)

solo

  • Live (1971, with Fela Kuti)
  • Stratavarious (1972)
  • The Album (1981)
  • Baker and Band - Form Humble Oranges (1982)
  • Horses and Trees (1986)
  • Ginger Baker In Concert (1987)
  • African Force (1987)
  • Middle Passage (1990)
  • Unseen Rain (1992)
  • Ginger Baker's Energy (1992)
  • Ginger Baker The Album (1995)
  • Falling off the roof (1995)
  • Do What You Like (1998)
  • African Force (2001)
  • African Force: Palanquin's Pole (2006)
  • Why (2014)

Baker Gurvitz Army

  • Baker Gurvitz Army (1975), Vertigo 9103419
  • Elysian Encounter (1976) Atco 36123
  • Hearts on Fire (1976) Atco 36137
  • Flying In and Out of Stardom (2003, Anthology)

Ginger Baker and Friends

  • Eleven Sides of Ginger Baker (1976), Mountain Records TOPC 5005

Hawkwind

Masters of Reality

  • Sunrise on the Sufferbus (1992), Chrysalis Records

Baker Sharrock Brötzmann Scopelitis Kazda

  • No Material (1989), Intercord Record Service ITM 1435

Ginger Baker Trio

  • Going Back Home (1994) Atlantic 7567-82652-2
  • Falling off the Roof (1996) Atlantic 7567-82900-2

Baker Bruce Moore

  • Around the Next Dream (1994), Virgin Records CDV 2745

Ginger Baker & The DJQ2O

  • Coward of the County (1999), Atlantic Records

Fonts

  • Ginger Baker: Hellraiser. The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Drummer . John Blake, London 2010.

literature

  • Peter Brkusic & Ulli Blobel : Ginger Baker - A Natural Born Drummer. Berlin: Jazz Workshop 2012; ISBN 978-3981485226
  • Dick Heckstall-Smith: The Safest Place In The World . Quartet Books, London / New York 1989.

Lexical entries

  • Siegfried Schmidt-Joos , Barry Graves : Rock Lexicon . Reinbek 1973.
  • Christian Graf, Burghard Rausch: Rockmusik Lexikon . Frankfurt 1996.
  • Jonathan Buckley, Mark Ellingham: Rock Rough Guide . Stuttgart / Weimar 1998.

Web links

Commons : Ginger Baker  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cream: Ginger Baker is dead. In: Rolling Stone . October 6, 2019, accessed October 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Klaus Hübner: How nature created him: New book about Ginger Baker. In: Jazz newspaper . January 2013, p. 16 , accessed October 7, 2019 (review of the book Ginger Baker - A Natural Born Drummer ).
  3. ↑ Mike Dolbear: Ginger Baker. In: mikedolbear.com. April 28, 2017, accessed October 7, 2019 (English, interview).
  4. ^ Beware of Mr. Baker. In: moviepilot.de. December 19, 2013, accessed on October 7, 2019 (complete content & background information).
  5. ↑ Joachim Hentschel: "Beware of Mr. Baker" in the cinema: Genius and bone breaker. In: suedeutsche.de . December 21, 2013, accessed October 7, 2019 (review).
  6. ↑ Peter Keepnews: Ginger Baker, Superstar Rock Drummer with UK Band Cream, is dead at 80. In: NYTimes.com . October 6, 2019, accessed October 6, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Christopher R. Weingarten among others: 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time. In: Rolling Stone . March 31, 2016, accessed October 7, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Baker, Ginger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baker, Peter Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British drummer
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Lewisham , London
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 2019
Place of death Canterbury