David Baker

Born: 1931. Indianapolis, Indiana Died: - Biography - Works - Links - 20th Century Composer Index

Jazz trombonist and cellist, composer, author, and music educator. He was an important part of the post-bop movement, and as an educator he has helped to shape new generations of jazz performers.

David Baker grew up in Indianapolis, attending a high school that could boast among its alumni trombonists J. J. Johnson and Slide Hampton along with guitarist Wes Montgomery. This solid foundation prepared Baker for a career as a jazz trombonist, and he played with bands led by Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton, and Quincy Jones. He also played with the George Russell Sextet, a group that included such adventurous musicians as reedman Eric Dolphy and trumpeter Don Ellis. When an automobile accident in the early 1960s ended his trombone career, he turned to the cello and was one of the first to use this instrument in a jazz context. In 1966 he was hired at Indiana University (where he had received his undergraduate and master's degrees) to teach and lead the new jazz studies program. The program has become one of the largest and certainly one of the most prestigious in the world.

Baker also studied composition and has produced more than two thousand works in various genres. His music draws on a wide range of traditions, from jazz and spirituals to the atonal and serial traditions of Western art music. He has been commissioned by a number of organizations, and his honors include the NEA's Jazz Masters Award and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

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Works:

• Music for orchestra, including concertos (Levels, for solo double bass, jazz band, winds, and strings, 1973)
• Solo instrumental works (for violin, cello, clarinet, flute, and piano); string orchestra and instrumental ensembles, including 2 piano trios (Roots, 1976; Roots II, 1992), Singers of Songs/Weavers of Dreams: Homage to My Friends (1980), and Homage à l'histoire (for clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, percussion, violin, and double bass, 1994)
• Music for voice and instrumental ensemble, including Through This Vale of Tears (1986
• Choral and dramatic music, including Psalm 22 (1996); incidental music for television; multimedia works, including A Salute to Beethoven (for solo winds, jazz ensemble, and tape, 1970)
• Works (over 100) for jazz ensemble
• Writings about music, including books on Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, and textbooks on jazz composition and arranging

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Links:

• David Baker biography from the International Association of Jazz Educators

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