David Baker
Encyclopedia
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Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
) is a leading symphonic jazz composer at the Indiana University
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...
Jacobs School of Music
Jacobs School of Music
The Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music...
in Bloomington.
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, David Baker attended Crispus Attucks High School
Crispus Attucks High School
Crispus Attucks High School of Indianapolis Public Schools in Indianapolis, Indiana is named for Crispus Attucks , a black laborer killed at the Boston Massacre whom many regarded as a revolutionary leader...
. He was educated at Indiana University, receiving both his Undergraduate and Masters in Music Education from that institution.
He thrived in the Indianapolis jazz scene of the time, serving as a mentor of sorts to Indianapolis-born trumpeter Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
. Originally a talented trombonist, he was forced to abandon that instrument after a jaw injury left him unable to play (although he played brilliantly on the George Russell Sextet album Ezz-thetics
Ezz-thetics
Ezz-thetics is an album by a sextet led by the jazz composer and music theorist George Russell. It features a re-reading of Russell's title composition and a radical reworking of Thelonious Monk's standard "Round Midnight" with an extended solo by Eric Dolphy. The title song, "Ezzthetic", was...
after sustaining the injury).
Following the injury, he learned to play cello, a rare instrument in the jazz world. This shift to cello largely ended his career as a performer and marked a period of increased interest in composition and pedagogy. Among the first and most important people to begin to codify the then largely aural tradition of jazz he wrote several seminal books on jazz, including Jazz Improvisation.
As an educator he has helped make Indiana a highly regarded destination for students of music. Probably the best known students to pass under his tutelage are Michael Brecker
Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...
, Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker
Randal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...
, Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine is an American jazz drummer and composer. He has enjoyed a long and successful career as a session drummer, recording and touring with many famous jazz and rock artists, including Steely Dan and Weather Report...
, Jim Beard
Jim Beard
James Arthur Beard is an American jazz pianist and keyboardist, contemporary instrumental composer, arranger and record producer.- Life and career :...
, Chris Botti
Chris Botti
Christopher Stephen "Chris" Botti , is an American trumpeter and composer. In 2007, Botti was nominated for two Grammy Awards including Best Pop Instrumental Album. On December 4, 2009, he was nominated for three more Grammy Awards including Best Pop Instrumental Album and Best Long Form Music Video...
, Jeff Hamilton
Jeff Hamilton
Jeff Hamilton is the name of:*Jeff Hamilton , of the Los Angeles Dodgers*Jeff Hamilton , ice hockey player*Jeff Hamilton , jazz drummer who has played with Diana Krall...
, and the jazz-education mogul Jamey Aebersold
Jamey Aebersold
Jamey Aebersold is an American jazz saxophonist and music educator. His "Play-A-Long" series of instructional book and CD collections, using the chord-scale system, the first of which was released in 1967, are an internationally renowned resource for jazz education...
. A 1973 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
nominee, Mr. Baker has been nominated for a Grammy Award (1979), honored three times by Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
magazine (as a trombonist, for lifetime achievement, and most recently [1994] as the third inductee to their jazz Education Hall of Fame), and has received the National Association of jazz Educators Hall of Fame Award (1981), President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching (1986) from Indiana University, the Arts Midwest jazz Masters Award (1990), and the Governor’s Arts Award of the State of Indiana (1991). His compositional works are often cited as examples of the Third Stream Jazz movement, although they run the gamut from traditional jazz compositions intended for improvisation, to through-composed symphonic works. He has written over 2,000 compositions.
Mr. Baker has been commissioned by more than 500 individuals and ensembles, including Josef Gingold, Ruggerio Ricci, Janos Starker, Harvey Phillips, the New York Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Beaux Arts Trio, Fisk jubilee Singers, Louisville Symphony, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, the Audubon String Quartet, and the International Horn Society. His compositions, tallying over 2,000 in number, range from jazz and sonatas to film scores. He has recently received a lot of attention for his "Concertino for Cell Phones and Orchestra", premiered in Chicago in October 2006, with a European premiere in Dvorak Hall, Prague, Czech Republic.
A dedicated music educator as well as composer and performer, Mr. Baker’s involvement in music organizations has encompassed membership on the National Council on the Arts; board positions for the American Symphony Orchestra League, Arts Midwest, and the Afro-American Bicentennial Hall of Fame/Museum; and past chairs of the Jazz Advisory Panel to the Kennedy Center and the jazz/Folk/Ethnic Panel of the NEA. He is a past president of the International Association of jazz Educators, and is currently president of the National jazz Service Organization and senior consultant for music programs for the Smithsonian Institution. He has more than 65 recordings, 70 books, and 400 articles to his credit.
Pianist Monika Herzig
Monika Herzig
Monika Herzig is a German-born pianist, composer and performing/recording artist. After receiving a scholarship in 1987 from the pedagogical institute in Weingarten, Germany for a one-year exchange program at the University of Alabama, she moved to the United States in August 1988...
of Indiana University is working on a book about David Baker. Publishing date to be determined.