Chords for Cream Farewell Concert 1968 - Ginger Baker Interview

_ _ _ The evening must be particularly saddening for the drummer, Ginger Baker,
since it was he, as Jack Bruce [Gb] said earlier, who persuaded the other two to
combine their differing talents in a trio whose virtuosity [Eb] has staggered [E] the
musical world.
It was also Ginger Baker who enabled the other two to develop
their free-form playing.
His [N] playing is fragmentary but insistent, devious but
relentless, meandering but precise.
To Jack Bruce's counterpoint, he gives
rhythm, and to Eric Clapton's technical virtuosity, he gives shape.
On their first
tour together, he practiced so intensively that he left behind him a
trail of hotel bills for broken furniture.
We asked him if he still
practiced as much.
No, _ I don't practice at all.
_ Not at all?
I used to, but I don't anymore.
In the distant days when you used to practice, what kinds of things did you do?
I just used to, _ _ well, first of all I learned all the rudiments and things.
I don't know whether I can play them all now, _ but I just used to play solos.
I used to sit on the drum kit and _ play it all day.
Okay, if you were going to teach me drumming, what kind of rudiments would I have to learn?
Presumably they're the same basic rhythms from which you improvise all your drumming.
Can you show us some?
Well, I use quite a lot of them.
Flam triplets.
_ _ _ You want me to play them?
Please.
_ At this time of day. _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Gb] And a variation of that would presumably depend on which drums you played it on.
You know, if you're playing them on tom-toms, you get two sounds out of it. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] You [Ab] get all sorts of things like that out of a flam triplet.
Yes, sound as well as rhythm.
So it's off on a rudiment.
Usually I just forget all about that.
Show me another rhythm pattern whose tone you can also vary by using different drums.
Four-stroke ruff, which is that. _ _ _ _ _ _
Yeah, but you're playing them on the drum, [Gb] you get_ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Keeper, I think, it's my left foot. _
_ Keep time with that.
You mean hitting the bass drum?
Play, sort of, like if you're using two bass drums, if you play a time with one,
you can fill in with the other one and it makes a pattern, the two of them together.
Can you show us?
_ _ Yeah.
It's very [D] odd, you know, when it's just sitting here and doing it.
Presumably you can also make endless rhythming patterns just with your feet.
A foot one.
_ _ [Gb] Yeah, well_
You keep in time, do you? _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ One of the remarkable things about your playing is the way you manage to get a kind of dialogue going
between your feet and your hands.
Not only are your feet each playing different rhythms, but so are your hands,
and that, of course, doesn't account for the cymbals.
It's like a one-man orchestra.
Yeah, you get good things, like on a cymbal. _ _ _
Can you give us an example of this kind of instrumental conversation?
You get it.
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Ebm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [N] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ You get it all going, you know, you're just _ _ changing things,
changing the time of it by what you play on it with your left hand.
You've got nine different kinds of cymbals.
Can you tell us what each is for?
_ _ Yeah. _
_ _ _ _ These two, in fact, these three are all ride [Dbm] cymbals, all for playing,
or _ just different sound.
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ [Gb] I use that [Fm] one for quieter things, this one, you know.
[C] That's a quieter cymbal.
And this one.
I use this one most of the time as a ride cymbal, you know.
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Abm] I use these [N] two together to get a roll on them, and that one there.
_ So you get a big roll on them while they're going. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
At the [C] end of numbers, you can use that if you want to [N] get a roll on cymbals, those two, you know. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
That's a crash [Ab] cymbal. _ _ _ _
Three light cymbals.
_ _ _ Those three are crashes.
_ _ _ And these three are playing them.
_ _ _ _ And that's, of