With our 13th selection, 263rd overall, AliceLoveGarden is proud to select in the drummer category, the great Ginger Baker!
Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker (born
19 August 1939,
Lewisham,
South London) is an
English drummer.
Baker 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!" 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.
Ginger Baker is probably my favorite classic rock drummer not named John Bonham. Legendary is really the only word to describe him. The equals among his peers are mostly dead really.
Some visuals....The bookends are both "Toad".
With a reunited Cream. Keep in mind, dude was 66 years old here. Unreal.
With Fela Kuti...can you say, versatility?
Finally, again as a member of Cream, this time as a 29 year old @ Royal Albert Hall.