Happy Birthday Ginger Baker: Performing Live With Bill Frisell & Charlie Haden In 1995

Today marks what would have been Ginger Baker’s 82nd birthday. The legendary drummer was born on August 19, 1939 in the South London district of Lewisham. Baker sadly died on October 6, 2019 at the age of 80. Ginger possessed a distinctive style of drumming featuring a potent mix of jazz and rock which he brought to the groundbreaking psychedelic band Cream.

Best known for co-founding Cream with guitarist Eric Clapton and bassist Jack Bruce in 1966, Baker’s post-Cream career was highlighted by a number of collaborations including teaming back up with Clapton as well as Steve Winwood and Ric Grech in the supergroup Blind Faith. Baker also collaborated with afro-beat pioneer Fela Kuti in the mid-1970s. Ginger played with prog-progenitors Hawkwind in the ‘80s and hard rockers Masters Of Reality in the ‘90s.

In 1994, the drummer formed a trio with renowned jazz musicians guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Charlie Haden. The band released an album on October 7, 1994 titled Going Back Home. A little less than a year after the album came out, the trio performed in Frankfurt, Germany on September 29, 1995.

The set was filmed for posterity and features a number of songs from Going Back Home including opener “Ginger Blues.” The trio would also perform album tracks “I Lu Kron,” “Ramblin,” “Spiritual,” “Ain Temouhant” and “When We Go.” The performance closes out with “In The Moment.”

In honor of Ginger Baker’s birthday, watch the drummer perform with his trio in Frankfurt below via the JamBase Live Video Archive for this edition of Throwback Thursday:

Setlist

Set: Ginger Blues, I Lu Kron, Ramblin’, Spiritual, Ain Temouhant, When We Go, In The Moment