RIP Ginger Baker

As Rock and Roll was turning into Rock in the Sixties, most of the great power trios retained their “roll” thanks to drummers who were rooted in jazz. When Cream entered the scene, it featured the jazziest rhythm section of them all, with Ginger Baker’s rolling, tom-tom based grooves harking back to Chico Hamilton. Baker later experimented with African music and returned to his jazz roots with a power trio of a different sort. “Time moves differently with Ginger,” Frisell once told Rolling Stone. “You could find 100 drummers to play the same tune, and Ginger would find something different to do with it.”

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