Ginger Baker's Jazz Confusion
Musical Instrument Museum
October 18, 2013

The first thing you notice about Ginger Baker is that, for a jazz drummer, he holds his sticks wrong. Of course, despite all his flirtations with African rhythms and jazz in many forms, Baker--a founding member of psychedelic rock heavyweights Cream and Blind Faith, as well as leading outfits such as Ginger Baker's Air Force and Baker Gurvitz Army-- is at his core a rock and roll drummer.

However, that doesn't mean he isn't one hell of a jazz drummer, which was evident during his two Musical Instrument Museum sets with Jazz Confusion. Already accustomed to playing in supergroups, he assembled one for these musical explorations--Ghanaian percussionist Abass Dodoo sat next to Baker, while bassist Alec Dankworth and former James Brown saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis rounded out the quartet.