Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker (19 August 1939 – 6 October 2019) was an English drummer. His work in the 1960s and 1970s earned him the reputation of "rock's first superstar drummer", for a style that melded jazz and African rhythms and pioneered both jazz fusion and world music.
Baker gained early fame as a member of Blues Incorporated and the Graham Bond Organisation, both times alongside bassist Jack Bruce, with whom Baker would often clash. In 1966, Baker and Bruce joined guitarist Eric Clapton to form Cream, which achieved worldwide success but lasted only until 1968, in part due to Baker's and Bruce's volatile relationship. Following Cream, Baker worked again with Clapton in the short-lived band Blind Faith and formed Ginger Baker's Air Force. In the 1970s, Baker spent several years living and recording in Africa, often with Fela Kuti, in pursuit of his long-time interest in African music. He created the Baker Gurvitz Army with brothers Paul and Adrian Gurvitz in 1974. Among Baker's other collaborations are his work with Billy Preston, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Hawkwind, Atomic Rooster, Public Image Ltd, Gary Moore, and Andy Summers.
Baker's drumming is regarded for its style, showmanship, and use of two bass drums instead of the conventional single one, after the manner of the jazz drummer Louie Bellson. In his early days, he performed lengthy drum solos, most notably in the Cream song "Toad", one of the earliest recorded examples in rock music. Baker was an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Cream in 1993 and of the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2008. He was ranked 3rd on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Drummers of All Time" in 2016. Baker was noted for his eccentric, often self-destructive lifestyle, and he struggled with heroin addiction for many decades. He was married four times and fathered three children.
Peter Edward Baker was born on 19 August 1939 in Lewisham, South London; he was nicknamed "Ginger" for his shock of flaming red hair. His mother, Ruby May (née Bayldon), worked in a tobacco shop. His father, Frederick Louvain Formidable Baker, was a bricklayer employed by his own father, who owned a building business. Frederick Baker also served as a lance corporal in the Royal Corps of Signals in World War II; he died in the 1943 Dodecanese campaign. Baker went to Pope Street School, where he was considered "one of the better players" in the football team, and then to Shooter's Hill Grammar School. While at school he joined Squadron 56 of the Air Training Corps, based at Woolwich and stayed with them for two or three years.
Baker began playing drums at around 15 years of age. In the early 1960s he took lessons from Phil Seamen, one of the leading British jazz drummers of the post-war era.
In the 1960s he joined Blues Incorporated, where he met bassist Jack Bruce. The two clashed often, but would be rhythm section partners again in the Graham Bond Organisation, a rhythm and blues group with strong jazz leanings. Their relationship was so volatile that Baker once attacked Bruce with a knife during a concert.
In March 1963, Baker played in the Johnny Burch Octet with Burch, Jack Bruce, Mike Falana, Stan Robinson, John Mumford and others.
Despite this volatile relationship, Baker and Bruce reunited in 1966 when they formed Cream with guitarist Eric Clapton. A fusion of blues, psychedelic rock and hard rock, the band released four albums in a little over two years before breaking up in 1968.
Baker then joined the short-lived "supergroup" Blind Faith, comprising Eric Clapton, bassist Ric Grech from Family, and Steve Winwood from Traffic on keyboards and vocals. They released only one album, Blind Faith, before breaking up.
In 1970 Baker formed, toured and recorded two albums with fusion rock group Ginger Baker's Air Force.
Following Air Force, Baker created the short-lived "Ginger Baker Drum Choir", which released a sole single on Atco Records (and Polydor in Germany) in 1971. The 45 RPM record featured a three-piece drum ensemble and "call and response" vocals, with the song "Atunde! (We are here)" and "Atunde! (part 2)" on its A and B sides.
In November 1971, Baker decided to set up a recording studio in Lagos, then the capital of Nigeria. He decided that it would be an interesting experience to travel to Nigeria overland across the Sahara. Baker invited documentary filmmaker Tony Palmer to join him and the film Ginger Baker in Africa follows his odyssey as he makes his journey and finally arrives in Nigeria to set up his studio. After many frustrating setbacks and technical hitches, Batakota (ARC) studios opened at the end of January 1973, and operated successfully through the seventies as a facility for both local and western musicians. Paul McCartney and Wings recorded the song "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" for Band on the Run at the studio, with Baker playing a tin can full of gravel.
Baker sat in with Fela Kuti during recording sessions in 1971 released by Regal Zonophone as Live! Fela also appeared with Baker on Stratavarious (1972) alongside Bobby Gass, a pseudonym for Bobby Tench from the Jeff Beck Group. Stratavarious was later re-issued as part of the compilation Do What You Like (1998). Baker formed Baker Gurvitz Army with brothers Paul and Adrian Gurvitz in 1974 (encouraged by manager Bill Fehilly). The band recorded three albums, Baker Gurvitz Army (1974), Elysian Encounter (1975) and Hearts on Fire (1976), and the band toured through England and Europe in 1975. The band broke up in 1976, not long after the death of Fehilly in a plane crash.
After the failure of the recording studio in Lagos, Baker spent most of the early 1980s on an olive farm in a small town in Tuscany, Italy. During this period, he played little music.
In 1980, Baker joined Hawkwind after initially playing as a session musician on the album Levitation. He left in 1981, after a tour. Live material and studio demos from that period which Baker participated in were included on two Hawkwind albums, released later in the 1980s. In 1985, he worked with producer Bill Laswell on Horses & Trees and then performed as a session musician on Album by Public Image Ltd.
Baker moved to Los Angeles in the late 1980s intending to become an actor. He unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of the Homeless Man in the 1989 "Weird Al" Yankovic comedy film UHF and appeared in the 1990 TV series Nasty Boys as Ginger.
In 1992 Baker played with the hard rock group Masters of Reality with bassist Googe and singer/guitarist Chris Goss on the album Sunrise on the Sufferbus.
BBM (Bruce Baker Moore) formed in 1993. The short-lived power trio with the line-up of Baker, Jack Bruce and Irish blues rock guitarist Gary Moore recorded the album Around the Next Dream, released 1994.