It’s a little after 1 p.m. and—in true musician’s hours fashion—Kofi Baker has just awakened in time for a Zoom video interview. The advantage for a journalist here is that you get to see who you’re talking to and make eye contact. Which always makes for a better conversation then staring at a digital recorder.
You also sometimes get an insight into the daily life and surroundings of your subject. And in this case, there’s Baker with hair standing up on end in his Indiana kitchen, using an eye dropper to plop some red liquid into a water glass. When asked what it is, the already-wildly energetic drummer answers.
“It’s Vitamin B-12!” he says, pushing the bottle toward the camera. “And then there’s this!” he notes, pulling into view what looks like a professional grade juicer. “I make one with carrots and apples every day! I need it at my age because I’m getting old. Gotta keep this Cream stuff going!”
That “Cream stuff’ that the 56-year-old refers to is his current musical group, Sons of Cream. And in this case, there’s truth in advertising as his father, Ginger Baker, was the drummer for the short-lived but highly popular ‘60s band. Along with Kofi in Sons of Cream is Malcolm Bruce—son of Cream vocalist/bassist Jack Bruce—and guitarist Rob Johnson, another Baker relative (singer/guitarist Eric Clapton rounded out that original Cream lineup).
Sons of Cream will be playing a setlist largely made up of Cream classics (“White Room,” “Sunshine Of Your Love,” “I’m So Glad,” “Badge,” “Crossroads”), a couple of tunes from the later Clapton/Baker group Blind Faith, and some original material from their upcoming debut album Half and Half. They’ll pour into the Heights Theater on February 15.
As 2026 marks the 60th anniversary of Cream’s debut album Fresh Cream, Baker is stoked about the upcoming extensive tour.
“People can close their eyes and get into it. With music today, it’s so boring they have so much dancing and stuff. And that’s why I think it’s so important to keep this music going. With Cream, it was like they had three lead musicians going balls to the wall. And they took risks onstage. Yeah, they could fall off the ladder. But if you’re going to fall off the ladder, fall off the top!”
Cream’s lifespan lasted barely three years but produced four amazing records (some of which included live material) including era classics Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire.
The group named themselves as they felt they were the “cream of the crop” of players, and their music incorporated blues, jazz, and heavy rock. But the interrelations both musically and personally were combustible, especially between Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.
Kofi Baker was named for his father’s friend, Ghanaian drummer Kofi Ghanaba. Growing up, the boy thought it was “normal” to live in a house whose walls were festooned with gold and platinum records. “People tell me all the time ‘I grew up with your dad’s music.’ But I grew up with my dad. And that wasn’t always easy! He left when I was six, and my mother wouldn’t let me see him for a while.”
Ah yes, Ginger Baker. One of rock’s most notorious characters. Any average description of him would use words like “irascible,” “angry,” “argumentative,” “wild,” “violent,” “curmudgeonly,” and “mercurial.” Decades of drug and alcohol use didn’t help.
His own 2009 autobiography was called Hellraiser. And the 2012 documentary Beware of Mr. Baker shows footage of the subject physically attacking director Jay Bulger when his mood soured for some reason.
This attitude was evident even paternally when Kofi Baker started showing an interest in drumming at age three. At age six, he was already thumping along with his dad on the UK music TV show The Old Grey Whistle Test. But daddy’s lessons weren’t served sweetly.
“There was no ‘Hey son, how are you doing playing?’ It was more like he was ‘Get it right, or I’m going to beat you. If you don’t play it right, you’re useless and shouldn’t play,’” Baker recalls with a surprisingly genial chuckle.
“I mean, he once threw my go-kart through a window and told me he was already teaching someone else who would be better than me anyway and I should just quit. If I got anywhere, it was through fear! And my dad had absolutely no sense of humor.”
On the upcoming album Half and Half from Marshall Records, Sons of Cream will feature six Cream covers and six originals. The latter part done at the insistence of Malcolm Bruce, even though he originally wanted all originals.
“I told him ‘Look, they signed us because we’re Sons of Cream. They won’t go for it. And Macolm was like ‘No, man, we should do all originals!” says Baker, doing a dour impression of his bandmate. The result is the original material includes tunes written by each of the three bandmates with a couple of co-writes.
He notes that bandmate Rob Johnson is the “most blues guy” in Sons of Cream, and that his name alone is pedigree. “And I mean, it was Robert Johnson who wrote ‘Crossroads,’” Baker enthuses. “How cool is that?”
Bruce and Baker (the youngers) have previously played together in loose outfits/tours like “The Music of Cream” (which featured guitarist/singer Will Johns, a nephew of Eric Clapton). There was also “Kofi Baker’s Cream Faith” which involved Bruce at some point. Then the sons parted ways with their manager and Johns, who would then tour himself under the even more confusing moniker “The Cream of Clapton.” Finally, the current trio (Baker, Bruce, Johnson) coalesced and settled on the more marketable name “Sons of Cream.” Got that?
“It’s a much better, happier situation now because Malcolm and I can do what we want to do without a manager,” Baker notes. “If we can get along! Which we do when I keep my mouth shut! But we play so well together, and that’s the most important thing.” So, in a musical case of history repeating itself, things aren’t always kum-ba-ya with the sons in Sons of Cream. But Baker takes it all in with good humor.
As for his favorite Cream song to listen to and/or play, Baker pauses. “I like all of them, really. Especially the ones with great intros like ‘N.S.U.’ And the jam ones.” Baker also points to “Blue Condition” and “Pressed Rat and Warthog” which his father sang lead on and Kofi does now. He also points to “Toad” which, not surprisingly, is basically one long drum solo.
The original members of Cream only got back together to play on three occasions: Their 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2005 for four reunion gigs in at London’s Royal Albert Hall (captured for CD/DVD release) and three at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
But by the time the trio took their final bows in New York, any thought of continued work was scuttled. Bruce and Baker were at each other’s throats again, usually over volume. As in whether the bass or the drums would be loudest onstage. Even Clapton has said he knew this is when things were doomed. Jack Bruce died in 2014, and Ginger Baker in 2019.
Kofi Baker was at one of the New York reunion gigs and says that’s what inspired him to really dig into the band’s music and to carry it on.
“It was stupid, really, because it was all about volume!” Baker laughs about. “And Malcolm’s the same way now! The engineer will say he needs to turn down the bass, and he’ll say to the audience ‘You want more bass?’ and of course they go ‘Yeah!’ And my monitor mix from sound check is all bass and I can’t hear myself. That’s the Bruce legacy! But we get along. We just sometimes see things differently.”
Finally—since we are talking on Zoom—I hold up my copy of Hellraiser to show Kofi, complete with the cover photo of his dad looking downward, taking a drag off a cigarette, and ironically wearing a pair of angel’s wings on his back.
“That’s him! Who knows where he is now? I think those wings might have fallen off a bit!” he laughs. “If he went to heaven, I think God would go ‘Oh, you need to leave!’”
Sons of Cream play at 8 p.m. on Sunday, February 15, at the Heights Theater, 339 W. 19th. For more information, call 214-272-8346 or visit TheHeightsTheater.com. Moses Guest opens. $38 or $51.