Ginger Baker

At 80 years old, Ginger Baker has this physical status:

Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker (1939-1939-1939 – 6 October 2019) was an English drummer and co-founder of the rock band Cream.

For a style that melded jazz and African rhythms and pioneered both jazz fusion and world music, Baker earned him the reputation of "rock's first superstar drummer" in the 1960s and 1970s, and he later took lessons from English jazz drummer Phil Seamen.

In the 1960s, he joined Blues Incorporated, where he met bassist Jack Bruce.

The two characters clashed often, but they would become rhythm section partners in the Graham Bond Organisation and Cream again, the former of which Baker co-founded with Eric Clapton in 1966.

Cream was a hit around the world but it didn't last until 1968, in large part due to Baker's and Bruce's tumultuous relationship.

Baker spent many years in Africa, much with Fela Kuti, after briefly working with Clapton in Blind Faith and leading Ginger Baker's Air Force, often with Fela Kuti, in search of his long-time passion for African music.

Among Baker's other collaborations are his work with Gary Moore, Masters of Reality, Public Image Ltd, Hawkwind, Atomic Rooster, Bill Laswell, jazz guitarist Charlie Haden, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, and Ginger Baker's Energy. Baker's drumming is known for its appearance, showmanship, and use of two bass drums rather than the traditional one.

He performed long drum solos, most notably in the Cream song "Toad," one of the first recorded examples of rock music.

Baker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Cream in 1993, the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2008, and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2016.

Baker was praised for his eccentric, often self-destructive lifestyle, and he suffered with heroin use for many years.

He was married four times and fathered three children.

Early life

Peter Baker was born in Lewisham, South London, and he was known as "Ginger" because of his flaming red hair. Ruby May (née Bayldon) was his mother, and he worked in a tobacco store. Frederick Louvain Formidable Baker, a bricklayer who owned a building company and was a lance corporal in the Royal Corps of Signals during World War II; he died in the 1943 Dodecanese campaign. Baker attended Pope Street School, where he loved being on the football team and was deemed "one of the best players" then moved onto Shooter's Hill Grammar School, where he was first named "one of the top players" and then graduated. He joined Squadron 56 of the Air Training Corps, based in Woolwich, and spent two to three years with them while attending school.

Personal life

Baker was known for his violent temper and his clash with musicians and followers. "You get close to Baker at your peril," Rolling Stone reporter David Fricke wrote in 2012 that even in old age.

Baker was married four times and fathered three children. Ginette Karen, Baker's first child, was born on December 20, 1960, by Baker and his first wife, Liz Finch. Leda Baker's second daughter, Leda, was born on 20 February 1968. Kofi Streatfield Baker's son was born in March 1969 and named after Baker's colleague, Ghanai drummer Kofi Ghanaba. Kofi is also a drummer, best known for his time with Uli Jon Roth and Glenn Hughes.

Baker battled with heroin use throughout his life, beginning using the drug in the 1960s as a jazz drummer in London clubs. Any time he went to Africa, he'd get sober for a brief period of time, but then it would return to recover. He estimated that he stopped using the drug 29 times through his life, but that he was only able to stop permanently after moving to a small Italian village in 1981, where he resumed olive farming.

Baker claimed in February 2013 that he suffered with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as a result of heavy smoking, as well as chronic back pain from degenerative osteoarthritis. Baker was diagnosed with "serious heart disease" in February 2016 and dropped all future gigs. "Just seen doctor... really shocked; no more gigs for this old drummer... of course, I never thought it would be my heart," Baker said on his blog in late March 2016. "There are two options for surgery, and depending on how strong my old lungs are, they may do both." "Cardiologist is brilliant," he said. He inserted a tube into my right wrist and carried it all the way to my heart yesterday, which was quite an experience. He was photographing my heart from inside—amazing technology. He says he'll get me playing again! "Thanks everyone for your continued support." It was announced in June 2016 that he was recovering from open heart surgery, but that he had also suffered from a bad fall, which had resulted in swollen legs and feet.

Baker's family announced that he was seriously ill in hospital on September 25 and begged on by supporters to keep him in their prayers. Baker died on October 6, 2019 at the age of 80, at a Canterbury hospital. A private funeral service was held in Canterbury, Kent, on Sunday, involving close family and friends.

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Career

Baker began playing drums at the age of 15. He took lessons from Phil Seamen, one of Britain's top jazz drummers of the post-war period.

He joined Blues Incorporated in the 1960s, where he met bassist Jack Bruce. The two musicians clashed often, but the two bands would meet again in the Graham Bond Organisation, a rhythm and blues band with strong jazz leanings. Baker once assaulted Bruce with a knife during a concert, making their friendship so tumescent.

Despite this tumultuous marriage, Baker and Bruce reunited in 1966 when they formed Cream with guitarist Eric Clapton. The band's fusion of blues, psychedelic rock, and hard rock made four albums in a little over two years before breaking up in 1968.

Baker then joined the short-lived "supergroup" Blind Faith, which included Eric Clapton, bassist Ric Grech from Family, and Steve Winwood of Traffic on keyboards and vocals. They only had one album, Blind Faith, before it fell apart.

Baker's Air Force, a 1970s fusion rock band, formed, toured, and recorded with fusion rock band Ginger Baker's Air Force.

(We are here)" and "Atunde!

Baker decided to open a recording studio in Lagos, Nigeria's capital. He decided that traveling across the Sahara Desert would be an exciting trip. Baker invited documentary filmmaker Tony Palmer to join him and the film Ginger Baker in Africa follows his odyssey as he travels and finally arrives in Nigeria to set up his studio. Batakota (ARC) studios opened at the end of January 1973 and continued as a theatre for both local and western musicians through the seventies. At the studio, Paul McCartney and Wings recorded the song "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" for Band on the Run, with Baker playing a tin can full of gravel.

Fela Kuti appeared on Record Sessions in 1971, which were released by Regal Zonophone as Live! Fela appeared with Baker on Stratavarious (1972), with Bobby Gass, a Jeff Beck pseudonym for Bobby Tench. Stratavarious was later re-released as part of the compilation Do What You Like (1998). In 1974, Baker formed Baker Gurvitz Army with brothers Paul and Adrian Gurvitz (encouraged by boss Bill Fehilly). Baker Gurvitz Army (1974), Elysian Encounter (1975), and Hearts on Fire (1976), and the band toured through England and Europe in 1975. The band formed in 1976, not long after Fehilly's death in a plane crash.

Baker spent the majority of the early 1980s on an olive farm in a small town in Tuscany, Italy, following the demise of the recording studio in Lagos. He did not play much music during this time.

Baker joined Hawkwind in 1980 after appearing on the album Levitation as a session musician. After a tour, he left in 1981. On two more Hawkwind albums, live footage and studio demos from that period were included. He worked with producer Bill Laswell on Horses & Trees in 1985 and then appeared as a session musician on Album by Public Image Ltd.

Baker planned to become an actor in Los Angeles in the late 1980s. He unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of the Homeless Man in the 1989 Yankovic comedy film UHF, and he appeared in the 1990 television series Nasty Boys as Ginger.

Baker performed with the hard rock band Masters of Reality in 1992, with bassist Googe and singer/guitarist Chris Goss on the album Sunrise on the Sufferbus.

BBM (Bruce Baker Moore) was established in 1993. Gary Moore, a short-lived power trio, released the album Around the Next Dream in 1994, featuring Baker, Jack Bruce, and Irish blues rock guitarist Gary Moore.

Baker lived in Parker, Colorado, between 1993 and 1999, in part due to his love for polo. Baker not only appeared in polo at Salisbury Equestrian Park, but he also sponsored a continuing series of jam sessions and concerts at the equestrian center on weekends. His drug use in the past gave him more difficulties with US immigration, so in 1999, he sold his Parker house and moved to South Africa. With bassist Charlie Haden and guitarist Bill Frisell, he formed The Ginger Baker Trio in 1994.

Baker reunited with Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce for a series of Cream concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and Madison Square Garden on May 3, 2005. Royal Albert Hall, London, was recorded and released as Royal Albert Hall London on May 2-3-6, 2005. (2005). Bruce is quoted in a Rolling Stone article published in 2009 as saying, "It's a knife-edge thing between me and Ginger." We're happily coexisting in different continents now [Bruce, who died in 2014, lived in Britain, while Baker lived in South Africa], but I'm thinking of asking him to leave. He's still a little too close.

Lindiwe Noko, a bank clerk, was charged with defrauding Baker for almost R500,000 ($60,000). Baker said he had recruited Noko as a personal assistant, costing her £7 a day (roughly R100) for various errands, and that she used this position to reveal his private banking information and make illicit withdrawals. After Noko and Baker became lovers, she and Baker became a gift. "I have a scare that only a woman who had a thing with me would know." It's there, but she has no idea it's there." Noko did not plead not guilty, but was found guilty of dishonesty. She was sentenced to three years of "correctional care," a form of community service in October 2010. The sentence, according to Baker, was "a travesty."

In 2009, Hellraiser's autobiography was released. He appeared with the Ginger Baker Jazz Confusion, a quartet made up of Baker, saxophonist Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis, bassist Alec Dankworth, and percussionist Abass Dodoo throughout 2013. Why? Baker signed with Motéma Music in 2014 to record the record Why?

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