When I first saw Ginger Baker drum with Cream in the '60s, I thought a flame that bright would surely burn out fast. But now he's reinvented himself several times, and has outlived both Jack Bruce and Charlie Hayden. He's phenomenal!
The album "Going Back Home" (1994) by Ginger Baker Trio, which includes this tune "Ginger Blues" is a real masterpiece and definitely one of my favorites.
I do not care about any of that negative crap that has been said and written about him. The fact of the matter is that he has been one of the most inspiring drummers that has ever lived and that is saying a whole lot!!!
Wow. I oft-times forget the imagination and the soft touch that can be heard in Gingers playing. He's not a bash crash player. There are textures and moods in his playing. Excellent playing.
NIce audio and camerawork on a good tune. Works for me. Thank you so much. I love the big grin and smile on Ginger's face, which is unusual! He love's Charlie's bass solo, and the band really jelled, in one tight package,
Man, I absolutely LOVE that stuff he plays on his ride bell from 2:44 to 2:50. He's having so much fun getting back to his roots here, and it shows in his playing big time.
I've commented on this before, but I just watched it again and have to say- the stuff Ginger plays from 2:44 to 2:52 is awesome. He's really enjoying himself.
a walking blues......alll 3 sound comfortable......a little jam. ginger baker is an amazing innovator. here he goes back to his roots in a jazz blues. roots for haden and billy frisell as well. sounds like joy to me. clunky critics; dont forget the joy of a toy.
Besides the fact that ginger is sounding a little bit too much like himself in rock, in regards to the drum fills and the broken rhythm, I love this video because he's so HAPPY. Rarely do you see him smile like that... That's worth it for me... i'm a big fan...
I'm a bass player. I found Gingers playing eminently easy to play with as I played along with the video. His drumming really isn't as jerky as it first seems. It really flows.
Baker started as (and considers himself) a jazz drummer. His first recorded output (with Graham Bond) is in a jazz setting before the Graham Bond organization evolved into a rhythm and blues group, and he really teamed with Eric Clapton in Cream as a way to make more money! Since the early 1980's he had his foot planted in both the rock and jazz worlds. He is a talented man who can play in many styles-including working with African drummers.
@mrfeinsinlver : Frisell is playing a Klein in this video. I believe he played the Klein almost exclusively for most of the 1990's, but he doesn't play it as much these days.
Ginger has his own style that's for sure. At first I felt like you but listen close and everything he does fits, like it or not. He plays around with the rhythm a lot. The more I listen the more I like it. Would be better if the drums wern't so loud.
autocrat111 is correct.If you go to Ginger Baker Biography on RUclips,the first 3 minutes states him as "always was and always will be a Jazz drummer."
I like the way Ginger plays jazz, reminds me a little of Paul Motian or or maybe a jazz version of Levon Helm. You don't need tons of chops to be musical.
He played Slough Tech College in I think, 1970, with Airforce. Used to help organise Ents. Ended up being taken out to feed with him and the band....was a real gent.
"Love" all these jerks slagging on Ginger for being a "rock drummer".. he's a DRUMMER who plays what he wants to play, he's not the only one to play rock when they enjoy or even prefer jazz... Charlie Watts anyone!?.. they played rock because in those days (and these days) rock paid the bills, and paid them so well that they could afford to do projects like this.
Interesting. I'll have to research that. Have you a link ? I guess Wikipedia ? I remember seeing his Ginger Baker in Africa when I was a kid. Didn't sound too jazzy to me...or his rock years either. Hmmmm.
This is excellent! Thanks for posting. Do you have any more? Disappointing to read so much critisism of Ginger's playing, though. It seems to me that Ginger is an original with his own style - he is doing something different and that is great IMHO. What would be the point of him sounding like a.n. other jazz drummer in this group? I have heard some of his early work and he certainly can play in a conventional jazz style if he wants to. He played jazz for many years as a pro from 1957
All the negative comments about Ginger's drumming are kinda lame and annoying IMO ... I doubt that many of negative posters play an instrument that well ... seems they're blinded by their jazz snobbery. Ginger is an original with a style all his own and I'm sure it was an honor for Bill and Charlie to share some sound space with this man. Yeah, a typical jazz drummer may have sounded "better" to these folks, but they're stuck in their narrow and generic view of what jazz really is. It's sad.
why is everybody a bloody critic .....this a cool bit o' music ...chilled , mature (like good wine) taek your blinkers off people and leave your expectations at the door , OK ???
Ginger harks back to a time where time is kept on the snare, rather than on the cymbals. This is why it seems a bit clunky, to me anyway. There also doesn't seem to be the telepathy you can sense in the best jazz trios, ranging from Art Tatum to Brad Mehldau. But I still like it a lot. Frisell is a wonder.
my freinds would always ask me who i thought was a better drummer ginger baker or john bonham from led zeppelin, and i would always reply to them ginger baker simply because of his style in playing was more on the jazz side, if you watch a lot of his drum solos he plays a lot of jazz where as john bonham who was also an incredible drummer was more on the hard rock, blues side, but i just liked gingers style a little better
I HIGHLY recommend people watch Beware Mr. Baker. It's a documentary about Ginger Baker and it's fantastic! It tells everything about the man, and how he came into his style. Mr. Baker IS and foremost a jazz drummer, with heavy influence from African drumming. Rock - n- roll might have made him "famous", but jazz is his "truer" calling. Watch the video.... You'll be blown away.
I don't think it's an embarrassment. There is some good playing. I don't like the tuning of the kit especially considering it's a trio, It's like when dejohnnette has that sound on some of his records when the toms sound like hitting a wet sack, it just doesn't fill out the sound. Gladly most players have moved away from that sound since the 80's and 90's. Cymbal work is nice though.
You'd think after all the booze, drugs and old age, he'd be wilted. Outstanding percussion. Funny that he ended up with jazz but I guess that would be a natural migration.
No, qwerty's right. I don't think it's terrible, the way he does. But Ginger IS kind of clunky. I know that Baker supposedly was originally a jazz drummer. That doesn't mean he was a GOOD jazz drummer.
Looks like Charlie's way on the other side of the stage. He has severe tinnitus but I've never seen him go that far away from the drummer. I love their trio album but he's just too busy and ham-fisted for me most of the time. That's not to say his work with Cream, Fela and Tony Allen and others wasn't epic.
OK, I just never heard what I would consider to be jazz influences during his R&R days. he spent a lot of time on the Toms which I don't associate with jazz...more with a rather hmmmmm.... tribal, primitive sound.
yeah. Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, Billy Cobham - all quiet drummers, right? Clueless. Forget about your neat pathetic little catagories and just listen to what the man is doing. It's unlike other jazz drummers, but it's also unlike other rock drummers. It's a signature style, love it or hate it - he's an original.
That's class.
When I first saw Ginger Baker drum with Cream in the '60s, I thought a flame that bright would surely burn out fast. But now he's reinvented himself several times, and has outlived both Jack Bruce and Charlie Hayden. He's phenomenal!
The album "Going Back Home" (1994) by Ginger Baker Trio, which includes this tune "Ginger Blues" is a real masterpiece and definitely one of my favorites.
I do not care about any of that negative crap that has been said and written about him. The fact of the matter is that he has been one of the most inspiring drummers that has ever lived and that is saying a whole lot!!!
Wow. I oft-times forget the imagination and the soft touch that can be heard in Gingers playing. He's not a bash crash player. There are textures and moods in his playing. Excellent playing.
Ginger's my all time favourite drummer,i always loved drummers who play 2 bass drums,uses the tom toms really well too.His playing just swings
Ginger Baker's one love is jazz and he is great at it. wonderful drumming
There is only one word to describe this............Smooooooooooooth!
I have listened to this clip many times. It s just keeps sounding better!!
great feel and sounds by all, ginger tearing it up beautifully.
Love it. Ginger is the best!
NIce audio and camerawork on a good tune. Works for me. Thank you so much. I love the big grin and smile on Ginger's face, which is unusual! He love's Charlie's bass solo, and the band really jelled, in one tight package,
Three marvelous musicians having all kinds of fun together, what more need be said? If you don't "get" jazz, you aren't going to enjoy it.
Well!! Ist a great team: Frisell, Baker and Haden. Beautiful, amazing!!!
These are all extraordinary musicians. But please, listen to the fantastic cooking of Haden's bass all through and through.
I ditto that. It's one of my favorite albums ever.
what a trio. my god thats great line up
very nice drum's sound killer, nice groove, thank you
Man, I absolutely LOVE that stuff he plays on his ride bell from 2:44 to 2:50. He's having so much fun getting back to his roots here, and it shows in his playing big time.
ohhhh, me encanta.... me transporta!
Fantastic. Just freaking fantastic. Thank you for posting!
DRUMMER as he wanted to be remembered LOVE YOU Ginge RIP
3 marvelous players exchanging ideas, no matter what you label it as. thank you for the post!
beautiful!!!
My favorite Frisell grouping...and almost Gingers...you need to buy both LPs...amazing.
simply superb. thanks for posting this video!
I agree, it takes a few listens but now I really dig his playing with this.
Master class technique
I've commented on this before, but I just watched it again and have to say- the stuff Ginger plays from 2:44 to 2:52 is awesome. He's really enjoying himself.
you people have to listen to the sound as a whole not just baker his drummings amazing because of what he adds as a whole to the overall sound
smooth, quite nice
BRAVO GINGER!!!
congratulations Ginger , you´re beating so much!
The world reknowned drummer for Cream, Blind Faith and many other bands in a setting that many of you may not know about - a superb jazz trio!
a walking blues......alll 3 sound comfortable......a little jam.
ginger baker is an amazing innovator. here he goes back to his
roots in a jazz blues. roots for haden and billy frisell as well.
sounds like joy to me. clunky critics; dont forget the joy of a toy.
Besides the fact that ginger is sounding a little bit too much like himself in rock, in regards to the drum fills and the broken rhythm, I love this video because he's so HAPPY. Rarely do you see him smile like that...
That's worth it for me... i'm a big fan...
Yeah, I'm hip to Paul Motian and Keith Jarrett, Treasure Island is one of my favorite Albums. Saw them live back in'74
I'm a bass player. I found Gingers playing eminently easy to play with as I played along with the video. His drumming really isn't as jerky as it first seems. It really flows.
I love Frisell's quirkiness-he reminds me a lot of Scofield,that "angular" inventive style.Nice treat hearing Ginger in this setting as well.
Baker started as (and considers himself) a jazz drummer. His first recorded output (with Graham Bond) is in a jazz setting before the Graham Bond organization evolved into a rhythm and blues group, and he really teamed with Eric Clapton in Cream as a way to make more money! Since the early 1980's he had his foot planted in both the rock and jazz worlds. He is a talented man who can play in many styles-including working with African drummers.
pudsy440: i totally agree. Ginger is original. A legend. Amazing.
@mrfeinsinlver : Frisell is playing a Klein in this video. I believe he played the Klein almost exclusively for most of the 1990's, but he doesn't play it as much these days.
RIP GInger and Charlie.
Ginger has his own style that's for sure. At first I felt like you but listen close and everything he does fits, like it or not. He plays around with the rhythm a lot. The more I listen the more I like it. Would be better if the drums wern't so loud.
autocrat111 is correct.If you go to Ginger Baker Biography on RUclips,the first 3 minutes states him as "always was and always will be a Jazz drummer."
More please, especially if you have them doing Bemsha Swing from the album they recorded about this time.
Any more from this concert? I love the song I Lu Kron. it's one of my favorite tunes.
I like the way Ginger plays jazz, reminds me a little of Paul Motian or or maybe a jazz version of Levon Helm. You don't need tons of chops to be musical.
He played Slough Tech College in I think, 1970, with Airforce. Used to help organise Ents. Ended up being taken out to feed with him and the band....was a real gent.
I suppose Louis Bellson wasn't a jazz drummer then???
The double-kick was around in jazz long before any rockers tried it.
Cymbals!!
"Love" all these jerks slagging on Ginger for being a "rock drummer".. he's a DRUMMER who plays what he wants to play, he's not the only one to play rock when they enjoy or even prefer jazz... Charlie Watts anyone!?.. they played rock because in those days (and these days) rock paid the bills, and paid them so well that they could afford to do projects like this.
Interesting. I'll have to research that. Have you a link ? I guess Wikipedia ? I remember seeing his Ginger Baker in Africa when I was a kid. Didn't sound too jazzy to me...or his rock years either. Hmmmm.
This is excellent! Thanks for posting. Do you have any more?
Disappointing to read so much critisism of Ginger's playing, though.
It seems to me that Ginger is an original with his own style - he is doing something different and that is great IMHO. What would be the point of him sounding like a.n. other jazz drummer in this group?
I have heard some of his early work and he certainly can play in a conventional jazz style if he wants to. He played jazz for many years as a pro from 1957
Haden!!!
All the negative comments about Ginger's drumming are kinda lame and annoying IMO ... I doubt that many of negative posters play an instrument that well ... seems they're blinded by their jazz snobbery. Ginger is an original with a style all his own and I'm sure it was an honor for Bill and Charlie to share some sound space with this man. Yeah, a typical jazz drummer may have sounded "better" to these folks, but they're stuck in their narrow and generic view of what jazz really is. It's sad.
Played w Ornette Coleman in '63
@kornbelt
I second that. During the first minute I thought this was a "shred" video.
Why have I never seen this side of jazz drumming
@kopi3nnn The Klein guitar looks like a headless version of the Ovation 'Breadwinner' - is there any connection?
wished i could've picked up the bass through my dinky dell latitude d600 speakers
why is everybody a bloody critic .....this a cool bit o' music ...chilled , mature (like good wine) taek your blinkers off people and leave your expectations at the door , OK ???
I've got this on cd...is this on DVD?
The blues are a 16 beat format.
Ginger harks back to a time where time is kept on the snare, rather than on the cymbals. This is why it seems a bit clunky, to me anyway. There also doesn't seem to be the telepathy you can sense in the best jazz trios, ranging from Art Tatum to Brad Mehldau. But I still like it a lot. Frisell is a wonder.
I understand why he considered Cream a jazz band!!!
Well they did two albums together so Haden and Frisell must have thought he could cut it.
my freinds would always ask me who i thought was a better drummer ginger baker or john bonham from led zeppelin, and i would always reply to them ginger baker simply because of his style in playing was more on the jazz side, if you watch a lot of his drum solos he plays a lot of jazz where as john bonham who was also an incredible drummer was more on the hard rock, blues side, but i just liked gingers style a little better
Your on the money, it's just a fact, not snobbish..
I HIGHLY recommend people watch Beware Mr. Baker. It's a documentary about Ginger Baker and it's fantastic! It tells everything about the man, and how he came into his style. Mr. Baker IS and foremost a jazz drummer, with heavy influence from African drumming. Rock - n- roll might have made him "famous", but jazz is his "truer" calling. Watch the video.... You'll be blown away.
Rick Parnell
Another great Brit Drummer with jazz skills.
How about Mitch Mitchell???
I don't think it's an embarrassment. There is some good playing. I don't like the tuning of the kit especially considering it's a trio, It's like when dejohnnette has that sound on some of his records when the toms sound like hitting a wet sack, it just doesn't fill out the sound. Gladly most players have moved away from that sound since the 80's and 90's. Cymbal work is nice though.
there are no good music whithout drugs!
You'd think after all the booze, drugs and old age, he'd be wilted. Outstanding percussion. Funny that he ended up with jazz but I guess that would be a natural migration.
hmmm
hmmmm
No, qwerty's right. I don't think it's terrible, the way he does. But Ginger IS kind of clunky. I know that Baker supposedly was originally a jazz drummer. That doesn't mean he was a GOOD jazz drummer.
just because you played with eric clapton doesnt make everything you do gold
ginger sucks
so much that its amusing though so
awesome!
Looks like Charlie's way on the other side of the stage. He has severe tinnitus but I've never seen him go that far away from the drummer. I love their trio album but he's just too busy and ham-fisted for me most of the time. That's not to say his work with Cream, Fela and Tony Allen and others wasn't epic.
OK, I just never heard what I would consider to be jazz influences during his R&R days. he spent a lot of time on the Toms which I don't associate with jazz...more with a rather hmmmmm.... tribal, primitive sound.
lol
first step to jazz drumming from playing in cream, lose the double kick drums dude
@@benstolz6503 Louie Bellson..........
yeah. Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, Billy Cobham - all quiet drummers, right? Clueless. Forget about your neat pathetic little catagories and just listen to what the man is doing. It's unlike other jazz drummers, but it's also unlike other rock drummers. It's a signature style, love it or hate it - he's an original.
I thought the blues was about soul? Not lifeless gingers..
his snare is too boxy sounding - and get rid of that lame guitar player and get a real jazz sax or piano player
that's the most embarassing comment i've ever ridden on the web. you're a true champ, really