1970s
After the break-up of Cream and the short-lived Blind Faith, Ginger Baker formed his own group Air Force, initially for just two concerts, and asked Seamen to join.
The première was at the Royal Albert Hall on 17 January 1970. Seamen did a series of concerts with Air Force, but by May found the music too shallow. "Too bloody loud!" was his comment. But this taste of super-stardom seemed to jolt Seamen into some kind of new found self-respect. He formed a quartet with Derek Humble in 1970, but Humble died in January 1971. Seamen then worked regularly with the Brian Lemon Trio, and played with Tony Coe and Tubby Hayes.
In May 1972 the co-operative group Splinters, an initiative by Stan Tracey, played their first gig. An all-star improvising group, the object was to bring together musicians with different backgrounds: Tubby Hayes, Trevor Watts, Kenny Wheeler, Tracey, Jeff Clyne, John Stevens and Seamen. Seamen had always been wary of 'free jazz' but here, as he had done in Joe Harriott's freeform quintet, he played 'time'. However, Seamen died the following October.
Seamen was almost as well known for his dishevelled lifestyle as for his drumming, battling both drug addiction and alcoholism until his death. He was equally known for his sharp wit. Demonstrating his skills as a raconteur, an entire side of the LP The Phil Seamen Story was devoted to Seamen's spoken retrospective on his career. In 2009, highlights of his playing from between 1953 to 1972 was released as The Late Great Phil Seamen on SWP Records.
Whereas he had been a jazz star and acclaimed drummer throughout the 50s, as the 60s progressed his heroin addiction caused him big problems and there were periods when he had sunk pretty low. On 13 October 1972 Phil Seamen, then 46, fell asleep in a chair in his flat in Old Paradise Street in Lambeth, south London, and didn't wake up.
A photograph of Seamen is included in the collection at the National Portrait Gallery
He can be seen on DVD backing the great multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk in the documentary film Sound (1967), and there are two other video clips of him playing to be seen on YouTube - one with Don Rendell and one backing Al Cohn and Zoot Sims.
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