DRUMMER EXTENDS DAD’S LEGACY

KOFI BAKER, THE SON OF GINGER BAKER, IS NOW ON TOUR WITH THE MUSIC OF CREAM

Like many musicians and fans who came of age in the 1960s, drum dynamo Kofi Baker had an epiphany the first time he heard the pioneering blues-rock-and-beyond power trio Cream perform. Unlike most of them, he did not see a performance by Cream — which disbanded in 1968, a year before he was born — until the trio’s very brief 2005 reunion. The concert he attended at New York’s Madison Square Garden was eye-opening for the English-born musician, whose father, rock drum legend Ginger Baker, co-founded Cream in 1966 with guitarist Eric Clapton and bassist Jack Bruce.

Kofi Baker was 35 at the time. He had, until then, worked primarily as a fusion-jazz drummer and teacher who had earned acclaim — but not fame — for his virtuosity and jaw-dropping technique. Hearing Cream live made him realize that what his father’s band did was not that far removed from his own musical pursuits.

“Cream was a jam band, a jazz group playing rock and blues. So Cream was a fusion band; they just had some pop-oriented songs,” said Baker, who brings his The Music of Cream tour to San Diego’s Balboa Theatre on Sunday.

The four-man group, which Baker formed in late 2017, also features guitarist Will Johns, who is Eric Clapton’s nephew by marriage. Until recently, the group’s lineup also included Jack Bruce’s son, Malcolm, but he left to focus on making his own music. The current tour features Baker and his band performing Cream’s classic 1967 album “Disraeli Gears” in its entirety.