Ginger Baker

Ginger Baker is, in my book, the drummer who proved the kit could be the lead instrument. His work with Cream made him "rock's first superstar drummer," and the phrase isn't hype: he folded jazz phrasing and African rhythms into rock and effectively prefigured both jazz fusion and world music. He was famously volatile, and that combustibility seemed inseparable from his playing. I love that he never settled for keeping time when he could push the whole band somewhere stranger and wilder. He died in 2019, but those thunderous solos still feel like a dare to every drummer who followed.

Name (English)

Ginger Baker

Name (Japanese)

ジンジャー・ベイカー

Reading

じんじゃー・べいかー

Born

August 19, 1939 – October 6, 2019

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Rabbit

Origin

Lewisham, United Kingdom

Occupation

rock drummer / jazz musician / songwriter / percussionist / singer

• Official sitehttps://www.gingerbaker.com/
• Xhttps://x.com/GingerBDrums
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger%20Baker
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%99%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AB%E3%83%BC
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q122232

Tags

• rock drummer
• jazz musician
• songwriter

Last updated

2026-06-17

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.