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Ginger Baker
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Ginger Baker's real name was Peter Baker, and he was born in 1939 in Lewisham, in south London. He got his nickname from his flaming red hair. His father was killed in 1943 in the Second World War. Around the age of fifteen he began drumming, and in the early 1960s he took lessons from Phil Seamen, one of the best British jazz drummers. He played in Blues Incorporated and the Graham Bond Organisation, both times with the bassist Jack Bruce, with whom he was constantly quarrelling.
Music and breakthrough
Nevertheless, in 1966 Baker and Bruce formed Cream together with the guitarist Eric Clapton. The trio mixed blues with psychedelic rock and hard rock and made four albums in a little over two years. In 1968 the group broke up, partly because of the clashes between Baker and Bruce. Afterwards he played with Clapton and Steve Winwood in Blind Faith and started Ginger Baker's Air Force. In the 1970s he travelled across the Sahara to Nigeria, where he set up a studio in Lagos and played with Fela Kuti. Later he played with, among others, Hawkwind and Public Image Ltd.
Influence
Baker brought jazz and African rhythms into rock and is sometimes called the first superstar among rock drummers. He played with two bass drums instead of one, after the example of the jazz drummer Louie Bellson. In the Cream song Toad he played a long drum solo, one of the first on a rock record. His life was wild and often self-destructive, and his short temper made long collaborations difficult. In 2016 Rolling Stone put him third among the best drummers of all time. He died in 2019.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1971Why Black Man Dey Suffer
- 1972Stratavarious
- 1986Horses & Trees
- 1987African Force
- 1990Middle Passage
- 1992Unseen Rain
- 1999Coward of the County
- 2014Why?
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 4: When Rock Was Still PopNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Blues rock Genre
Cream, the trio of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, took the blues to the big halls, with long solos and loud amplifiers; Clapton played Robert Johnson's Cross Road Blues as Crossroads.