Ginger Baker says his new band's debut album took just two days to record.
The iconic drummer – famous among rock fans mainly for his work with Cream – is set to tour in support of the debut record form his group, Ginger Baker’s Jazz Confusion. The album, called Why?, was released this week.
Saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis, bassist Alec Dankworth, and percussionist Abbas Dodoo are Baker’s bandmates in the new project.
And while Baker, 74, had fin recording it in the space of just 48 hours, he isn’t looking forward to hitting the road.
He tells Esquire: We were all very pleased with it. It took us just two days. All the guys are great musicians, you know? We listen to each other and play off of each other. We enjoy it.
“If I had my choice I’d have a little button beside my chair here and I’d just press it and I’d turn up at a gig. Right after the gig I’d press it and I’m back home again. A beam-me-up-Scotty machine.”
Baker is living in England again, after years spent on a South African ranch. He was the subject of last year’s documentary Beware Of Mr Baker, which he has criticised as “bloody stupid.”
Meanwhile, he has ruled out any chance of a Cream reunion, saying the touring would be too much for him. Although he is still in touch with former bandmate Eric Clapton. Baker tells the Chicago Sun-Times: “I enjoy the gigs part of it, but the traveling part of it I loathe and detest because it’s very painful.”
