Phil Seamen: The drummer Ginger Baker called “God”
Ginger Baker would attack his own shadow if it happened to fall in the right light. The drummer was praised for pioneering a new brand of music, but he didn’t like that: “People say Cream gave birth to heavy metal. If that’s so, we should have had an abortion.” He was also praised with the plaudits of being a living legend, but he didn’t like that either: “God is punishing me for my past wickedness by keeping me alive and in as much pain as he can.”
In short, Ginger Baker didn’t like many things. However, he had a particular loathing for being likened to fellow thunderous progenitor. In his braggadocios memoir, Hellraiser: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Drummer, Baker writes: “John Bonham once made a statement that there were only two drummers in British rock ‘n’ roll; himself and Ginger Baker. My reaction to this was: ‘You cheeky little bastard!’”
Nevertheless, Bonham was prepared to be rather more complimentary when it came to Baker. As Bonham explains in the book In Their Own Words: “[Baker] was the first to come out with this ‘new’ attitude — that a drummer could be a forward musician in a rock band, and not something that was stuck in the background and forgotten about.”
However, he also adds that Baker’s influence was not just about adding a percussive presence but also embellishing the band with his own style, continuing: “I think Baker was really more into jazz than rock. He plays with a jazz influence. He’s always doing things in 5/4 and 3/4 tempos. […] Ginger’s thing as a drummer is that he was always himself.”
In one of the few compliments he ever dished out in his life, Baker once explained where some of this style was founded. After Forbes crowned the irascible misanthropissed the greatest drummer ever, Baker casually replied: “I wouldn’t quite say that. I think I’m one of them, for sure. I had my own thing, which Phil Seamen had, which Art Blakey had. When you hear them playing, you know who it is.”
Adding, in an uncharacteristically earnest fashion: “Max Roach, ‘Philly’ Joe Jones, Elvin Jones. It goes back to ‘Papa’ Jo Jones and [Warren] Baby Dodds. All of these guys had a huge influence on me, but I didn’t copy them. Probably the biggest influence was Phil Seamen. He was God.”
Ginger met the legendary Phil Seamen in 1959, recalling: “I moved on to professional bands and into modern jazz, playing regularly at Ronnie Scott’s club and the Flamingo in London. Phil heard me play and gave me an enormous compliment—that night he played me his collection of African drum records and this was like a great big door opening, a big light went on.”
Who was Phil Seamen?
Perhaps it is no surprise that Baker found kinship in Seamen. After all, Seamen even hailed from Burton-on-Trent, the self-proclaimed beer capital of Britain. Then, when Gene Krupa encouraged him to start bashing tins of beans on his childhood ‘Heinz 57 kit’, it wasn’t long until he turned pro in late 1945 and soon started attracting controversy as other drummers deemed that he didn’t hold his sticks right. Seamen corrected them, saying that he simply didn’t hold the sticks to their liking.
This labelled him somewhat of a radical, and like Baker, he was more than happy to fill those outsider shoes. He steadily began to establish his presence in the music industry as a young man – and with that, the presence of drums. When he was part of Jack Parnell’s first band, the duo became the first pair ever to play a synchronised drum solo, and they had the audacity to debut this trick in London’s finest jazz clubs.
This led him to the Royal Albert Hall, where he demonstrated restraint playing behind Billie Holliday. But sadly, as he delved deeper into the American jazz world, the same cruxes of substance began to impact him. Alas, as an outsider, he was able to assimilate a greater array of influences, incorporating the layered taps of African playing and the rolling, thrilling nature of percussion from Cuba and the Caribbean in his work. This illuminated a fruitier future for sticksmiths in England, and Baker was enamoured. When Seamen himself spotted the future Cream man’s potential and nurtured him to the top, it was clear that drumming had changed forever, thanks to a new pounding “God”.
As Charlie Watts was also declare: “Phil Seamen was my idol, and he influenced a whole new generation of drummers. There is a legacy of players who emanate from Phil.”
