Ginger was cream of the drummers
COLUMNIST Craig Brown seems to think Ginger Baker invented the drum solo: ‘Until he came along, drummers had been retiring figures, employed to sit behind their kits at the back of the stage and help the others keep time.’ Baker was a jazz drummer who learned his trade from the great Phil Seamen in the early Sixties. He would have been aware of the showman jazz drummers of the Thirties, Forties and Fifties, such as Chick Webb, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich, plus British counterparts, including Jack Parnell. as for Ringo Starr, he is what Duke ellington once called his drummer Sonny Greer: a ‘percussionist reactor’. The drum solo is alive and well. I saw Seventies progressive rock group Focus in Whitby last week, where we were treated to a magnificent, sixminute, jazz-influenced solo by Pierre van der linden during Hocus Pocus. Ginger would have approved. PAUL CLEGHORN, Bridlington, E. Yorks. CRAIG BROWN’S article about the great drummer Ginger Baker reminded me of when I joined my first band, Okeh Rhythm Kings, in Bristol, as the drummer. We played classic jazz of the Twenties and Thirties — wonderful music. The first thing band leader and pianist Gerry Bath said to me was that if he could hear me, I was playing too loud!
BOB PHILLIPS, Southampton. GINGER BAKER has joined Gene Krupa and all the other great jazz drummers for the Big Session. He was not a rock drummer, and would have punched anyone who suggested it. Ginger was a jazzman who learned from, played with and was friends with legends such as art Blakey, Phil Seamen, elvin Jones and Max Roach. Rock drummers trailed in his wake. I am a drummer and I saw Ginger performing in the Sixties at the Black Prince, Bexley, with The Graham Bond Organisation, and again just five years ago in Worthing with his band, Jazz Confusion. He learned from the great african drummers, on whose rhythms much of jazz drumming is based. Whatever his private life, Ginger gave us the gift of excitement and we should be forever grateful. Rest in peace.
MIKE O’HARA, Birchington, Kent. I HOPE Craig Brown was being ironic about Ginger Baker. I presume Mr Brown is not a drummer and has never witnessed the greats of the drumming world from the beginning of popular music. The finesse of many of these can raise the hairs on the back of your neck. as a drummer who hates to solo, I am aware that the public loves them, as the constant requests when I am playing would indicate.
PAUL BAILEY, Torquay, Devon. YET another article on rock and pop music that suggests there was nothing before The Beatles. I remember seeing a drum solo from Bill Haley & His Comets, and such performances were popularised by the two drummers in The Shadows, Tony Meehan and Brian Bennett. Ginger Baker was not even heard of when Bennett recorded the iconic little ‘B’, which, by the time of The Shadows’ final tour, developed into a wildly acclaimed ten-minute solo opus. Phil Collins cites Bennett as an inspiration. Thanks in part to his film and TV composing success, Bennett has arguably been our greatest rock drummer. The lack of drunken scandals won’t have helped his recognition.
MIKE BARNES, Chester.