Editing Ginger Baker (section)

== Style and technique ==
Baker cited [[Phil Seamen]], [[Art Blakey]], [[Max Roach]], [[Elvin Jones]], [[Philly Joe Jones]] and [[Baby Dodds]] as main influences on his style.<ref>{{Cite web| title=Ginger Baker interview November 2010| work=retrosellers.com| url=http://www.retrosellers.com/features337.htm| access-date=16 August 2014| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819084429/http://www.retrosellers.com/features337.htm| archive-date=19 August 2014| df=dmy-all}}</ref> Although he was generally considered a pupil of Seamen, Baker stated that he was largely self-taught and he only played some exercises with Seamen.<ref name="idrummag">{{Cite web | title=Baker's back|work= idrummag.com| url=http://www.idrummag.com/interviews/bakers-back/ |date= 10 February 2013 |access-date=27 December 2016}}</ref>

Baker's early performance attracted attention for both his musicality and showmanship. While he became famous during his time with Cream for his wild, unpredictable, and flamboyant performances that were often viewed in a vein similar to that of [[Keith Moon]] from [[the Who]], Baker also frequently employed a much more restrained and straightforward performance style influenced by the British jazz groups he heard during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although he is usually categorised as having been a "rock drummer", Baker himself preferred to be viewed as a jazz drummer, or as just "a drummer".<ref>{{Cite AV media | people=Baker, Ginger | title=Cream: Classic Artists | medium=DVD | publisher=Image Entertainment, Inc. | year=2006}}</ref>

Along with Moon, Baker was credited as one of the early pioneers of [[Bass drum#Double bass drum|double bass drumming]] in rock.<ref name="idrummag" /><ref name="Nyman (Baker & Moon)">{{Cite web|last1=Nyman|first1=John|title=Double Bass Legends: A Short History|url=http://drummagazine.com/double-bass-legends-a-short-history/|website=Drum!|access-date=30 December 2017|date=22 March 2013}}</ref> He recollected that in 1966 he began to adopt two bass drums in his setup after he and Moon watched drummer [[Sam Woodyard]] at a [[Duke Ellington]] concert.<ref name="idrummag" /><ref name="Jazzwise (Baker & Moon)">{{Cite web|title=Ginger Baker - Drums|url=http://jazzwisemagazine.com/features/jazzwise-the-player/11113-ginger-baker-drums|website=Jazzwise|access-date=29 December 2017|date=29 January 2010}}</ref> According to Baker:

<blockquote>Every drummer that ever played for Duke Ellington played a double bass drum kit. I went to a Duke Ellington concert in 1966 and Sam Woodyard was playing with Duke and he played some incredible [[Tom-tom drum|tom-tom]] and two bass drum things, some of which I still use today and I just knew I had to get a two bass drum kit. Keith Moon was with me at that concert and we were discussing it and he went straight round to Premier and bought two kits which he stuck together. I had to wait for Ludwig to make a kit up for me, which they did—to my own specifications. So Moonie had the two bass drum kit some months before I did.<ref name="Jazzwise (Baker & Moon)" /></blockquote>

[[File:Ginger baker Drm Set 3210570969 5fe3599bb1.jpg|thumb|Baker's [[Drum Workshop|DW]] drumset (2009)]]

Baker preferred light, thin, fast-rebounding [[drum stick]]s (size 7A), usually held using a [[matched grip]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baker |first=Ginger |title=Hellraiser: The Autobiography of The World's Greatest Drummer |publisher=John Blake |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-8445-4966-5}}</ref> Baker's playing made use of [[syncopation]] and [[ride cymbal]] patterns characteristic of [[bebop]] and other advanced forms of jazz, as well as the frequent application of [[Rhythm in Sub-Saharan Africa|African rhythms]].<ref name="Ziker">{{Cite web | title=10 Ways To Sound Like Ginger Baker |first= Andy |last= Ziker |work= drummagazine.com| url=http://drummagazine.com/10-ways-to-sound-like-ginger-baker/ |date= 10 October 2014 |access-date=27 December 2016}}</ref>

In his early days, he developed what would later become the archetypal rock drum solo, with the best known example being the five-minute-long instrumental "[[Toad (instrumental)|Toad]]" from Cream's debut album ''[[Fresh Cream]]'' (1966). Baker was one of the first drummers to move his left foot between his left bass drum pedal and hi-hat pedal to create various combinations.<ref name="Ziker" /> Somewhat atypically, Baker mounted all of the tom-toms on his drum kit in a vertical fashion, with the shells of the drums perpendicular to the floor, as opposed to the more common practice of angling the rack toms toward the player.<ref name="Ziker" />

Baker's most recent kit was made by [[Drum Workshop]]. He used [[Ludwig Drums]] until the late 1990s. All of his [[cymbal]]s were made by [[Avedis Zildjian Company|Zildjian]]; the 22-inch rivet ride cymbal and the 14-inch [[hi-hat]]s he used were the same ones he used during the last two [[Cream (band)|Cream]] tours in 1968.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ginger-baker.com/|title=Ginger Baker's drum kit|publisher=ginger-baker.com|access-date=13 February 2010}}</ref>