British drummer, Ginger Baker, renown for his collaboration with Fela Kuti and others, has died at the age of 80.
Baker’s Facebook page said he “passed away peacefully” on Sunday morning.
His family had previously announced that he was critically ill and asked fans to “please keep him in your prayers”.
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Baker was born in 1939 in Lewisham, south London.
His father was killed in action in 1943 during the Second World War.
He began drumming in his mid-teens, remembering in 2009: “I’d never sat behind a kit before, but I sat down – and I could play! One of the musicians turned round and said, ‘Bloody hell, we’ve got a drummer’, and I thought, ‘Bloody hell, I’m a drummer!’”
Baker was a member of the bands, Cream and Blind Faith.
The drug-related death of his friend, Jimi Hendrix, in 1970 persuaded Baker it was time to leave the London music scene.
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Baker was in Lagos in 1971, building a recording studio and collaborating with Fela, whom he’d known since the early 60s when the latter – then studying in London – had begun hanging around Soho’s jazz and blues clubs.
A tireless booster of Fela’s work, Baker had helped him get gigs around London while still a member of Blind Faith.
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Their relationship gave birth to the 1971 album, Fela with Ginger Baker Live!, and Fela’s subsequent studio album, Why Black Man Dey Suffer.
Fela returned the favour, appearing on Baker’s solo album, Stratavarious.
Stories about what eventually happened to Baker vary, but he reportedly lost his studio and left Nigeria virtually penniless.
