Hellraiser lived hard and to his own beat
Musician
GINGER BAKER, the volatile and propulsive British musician who was best known for his time with the power trio Cream, died on October 6. He was 80.
Baker wielded his blues power and jazz technique to help break open popular music and become one of the world’s most admired and feared musicians.
With blazing eyes and orangered hair, and a temperament to match, the London native ranked with The Who’s Keith Moon and Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham as the embodiment of musical and personal fury.
Using twin bass drums, Baker fashioned a pounding, polyrhythmic style uncommonly swift and heavy that inspired and intimidated countless musicians. But every beat seemed to mirror an offstage eruption — whether his violent dislike of Cream bandmate Jack Bruce or his oncamera assault of a documentary maker, Jay Bulger, whom he smashed in the nose with his walking stick.
Peter Edward Baker — he got his nickname for his shock of flaming red hair — was born in Lewisham, South London, on August 19, 1939.
His mother, Ruby, worked in a tobacco shop, while father Frederick was a bricklayer.
Baker began playing drums aged about 15, and in the early 1960s, he took lessons from Phil Seamen, one of the leading British jazz drummers of the postwar era.
He gained early fame as a member of the Graham Bond Organisation, a rhythm and blues group with strong jazz leaning.
Cream, formed in 1966, was among the most successful acts of its time, selling more than 10 million records. But by 1968, Baker and Bruce had worn each other out and even bandmate Eric Clapton had tired of their deafening, marathon jams, including the Baker showcase Toad, one of rock’s first extended drum solos.
Cream split up at the end of the year, departing with two soldout shows at London’s Albert Hall.
To the surprise of many, especially Clapton, he and Baker were soon part of another super group, Blind Faith, which also featured singerkeyboardist Stevie Winwood and bassist Ric Grech.
From the 1970s on, Baker was ever more unpredictable. He moved to Nigeria, took up polo, drove a Land Rover across the Sahara, lived on a ranch in South Africa, divorced his first wife and married three more times.
He recorded with Kuti and other Nigerians, jammed with Art Blakey, Elvin Jones and other jazz drummers and played with John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd.
He founded Ginger Baker’s Air Force, which cost a fortune and imploded after two albums.
He endured his old enemy, Bruce, when Cream was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and for Cream reunion concerts a decade later. Bruce died in
2014.
Baker continued to perform regularly in his 70s despite arthritis, heart trouble, hearing loss dating from his years with Cream and lung disease from smoking. Neither a stranger to vices nor a fan of modesty, he called his memoir Hellraiser: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Drummer. — AP/ Wikipedia