Ginger Baker is considered the inventor of the rock drums solo. In lists of the best drummers ever, Peter Edward Baker, born in London in 1939, often ranks high. Because of his red hair friends called the boy, who had already lost his father in the war at the age of four, "Ginger".
With the drumming, Ginger Baker began as a 15-year-old to find an outlet for his energy. He studied under jazz drummer Phil Seaman and became known in the early sixties as the drummer of the Graham Bond organization. Here he already played together with the bassist Jack Bruce, with whom Baker founded the band Cream in 1966.
Cream was the supergroup of the British scene between blues, rock and jazz, she was next to Baker and Bruce and the guitarist Eric Clapton. All three immersed themselves in long improvisations, as they were known only from jazz - but played with the dynamics and volume of rock and pop appeal in the melodies. All four of her albums have been charted. Songs like "Sunshine of Your Love", "White Room" or "I Feel Free" are classics of the genre.
In particular, the conflicts between Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker made sure that the band announced their resolution in mid-1968. It was followed by a last album ("Goodbye") and a farewell tour, then parted ways of the musicians. However, over the years Cream's fame grew even further, with reunions of the trio following its admission to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, as well as appearances in London and New York in 2005. Jack Bruce died in 2014 first the three musicians.
Baker founded in 1969 together with Clapton another "supergroup", Blind Faith, but which dissolved after an album again. In 1971, Baker decided to build a recording studio in the Nigerian metropolis of Lagos. Recognizing the potential of African music, he was inspired by his own play and recorded sessions of African musicians, including Afrobeat superstar Fela Kuti. Together, Kuti and Baker can be heard on Baker's solo album "Stratavarious" from 1972, for example. Paul McCartney recorded Wings Music for the album "Band on the Run" at Baker's studio in Lagos with his band.
After his African years, Ginger Baker lived in Italy, where he grew olives, got rid of heroin and occasionally guested as a session musician, among others for Public Image Limited. Because of his passion for polo, he moved to Colorado in the 1990s, in the 1990s to South Africa, where he bought polo horses and supported a veterinary clinic. There he was taken by his personal assistant for part of his fortune, she was convicted of fraud. Baker's life was documented in 2012 in the movie "Beware of Mr. Baker". (Read a review.)
In between, Baker had appearances in changing formations again and again, before he forced in February 2016 heart problems to cancel all other appearances. At the end of September 2019, his family announced that Ginger Baker was seriously ill in prison. On Sunday, Baker's social media account announced the death of the musician. A spokesman for the family confirms the report that Baker had died peacefully in the morning in the hospital. He was 80 years old.
