John Burch (6 January 1932 – 18 April 2006) was an English pianist, composer and bandleader, equally at home playing traditional jazz, bebop, blues, skiffle, boogie-woogie and rock. In the early 1960s he led a quartet and an octet (the Johnny Burch Octet) with Graham Bond, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Ray Warleigh, Peter King, Hank Shaw, and future Cream founders Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce.(More from Wikipedia)
During the 1950’s, Ginger Baker was a member of several of what were known in England as “trad jazz” bands, i.e., Dixieland jazz. Charlie Watts recommended Baker as the drummer for Blues Incorporated after he left the band. Ginger Baker crossed paths with lead vocalist, saxophonist and organist Graham Bond and bassist Jack Bruce; together with another alumnus of the band, saxophone player Dick Heckstall-Smith, the four began jamming together before enthusiastic crowds while performing with a band called the Johnny Burch Octet. Bond initially formed the Graham Bond Quartet with Bruce, Baker and guitarist John McLaughlin (an important figure in jazz fusion who performed on Miles Davis’s first gold record, Bitches Brew); when Heckstall-Smith joined up, the group was renamed the Graham Bond Organisation. It was in this period that Ginger Baker developed his signature drum solo, “Toad”.
(May 2014)
