Historical Dictionary of Jazz. John S. Davis
In the early 1970s, Baker lost all of his teeth during a bad drug deal, and toward the end of the decade, he moved back to Europe. Baker’s career witnessed a brief resurgence in the 1980s when he recorded with rock artist Elvis Costello and acquired a record deal on SteepleChase. Drugs continued to take their toll on Baker, although it is unclear whether they were involved in his death. See also COOL JAZZ.
BAKER, DAVID (1931–2016)
After completing both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music education, Baker began his professional career as a trombonist, touring with Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, George Russell, and Quincy Jones in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Baker stayed close to his native Indiana home and led his own big bands in Indianapolis. Baker suffered from muscular problems that forced him to stop playing trombone for almost a decade. During this hiatus, he took up playing the cello in addition to beginning a very influential teaching career at Indiana University in 1966. Baker also developed a reputation as a first-class arranger and composer and was a Pulitzer Prize nominee in addition to being nominated for a Grammy during the 1970s.
While serving in his faculty position, Baker quickly became one of jazz’s most famous instructors. Baker is credited with writing 60 books and over 400 articles. In addition to teaching, Baker served on numerous jazz-related committees, including the Jazz Advisory Panel to the Kennedy Center, the Jazz/Folk/Ethnic Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and was named president of the National Jazz Service Organization. From 1991 to 2012, he served as musical and artistic director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. He was named a Jazz Master by the NEA in 2000 and a Living Jazz Legend by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2007.
BAKER, HAROLD “SHORTY” (1914–1966)
Baker began his career as a trumpet player while still a teenager in the late 1920s, performing in his brother Winfield’s band. In the 1930s he toured with many bands, including small groups led by Erskine Tate and Eddie Johnson, and big bands led by Don Redman and Teddy Wilson. After an invitation to perform and record with Mary Lou Williams, Baker soon found himself romantically involved with her, and they were married in 1942. Despite a brief interruption due to army service, Baker was hired to take over Arthur Whetsol’s chair in the Duke Ellington Orchestra until 1952. For the remainder of his career, Baker would work on and off with Ellington’s band and would also be featured in other groups led by Johnny Hodges and Teddy Wilson. He made only one recording, Shorty & Doc (1961, Original Jazz Classics), an album he co-led with fellow trumpeter Doc Cheatham.
BAKTON RECORDS
A record label founded in 1966 by Randy Weston. The label only released one album of Weston’s music, which was eventually sold to Atlantic Records.
BALLAD
A term used to describe slower songs in the jazz idiom. The ballad is considered a vital part of the jazz repertoire and is often used as a descriptor for pieces that are slower, softer, or more personal than other pieces.
’BAMA STATE COLLEGIANS
A jazz band formed at Alabama State University in the early 1930s. Led by Erskine Hawkins, who was also a student, the band toured in New York and took the name the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra.
BANDLEADER
A term used to describe the person who leads a band. This person can be an instrumentalist (such as Dizzy Gillespie, who led a big band continually from the 1940s until his death), a vocalist (such as Frank Sinatra), or someone who just conducts the ensemble, like Gerald Wilson. See also BASIE, WILLIAM “COUNT” (1904–1984); ELLINGTON, EDWARD KENNEDY “DUKE” (1899–1974); HENDERSON, FLETCHER HAMILTON, JR. (1897–1952); HERMAN, WOODROW CHARLES “WOODY” (1913–1987); MILLER, (ALTON) GLENN (1904–1944); MINTZER, BOB (1953–).
BANJO
A stringed instrument similar to a guitar that can have from four to six strings and is plucked either by fingers or a pick. The body of a banjo is different from that of a guitar, as it is circular and has a head made of a stretched material the bridge presses upon. The banjo was used frequently in early styles of jazz and was often the only chordal instrument in early traditional and Dixieland jazz bands. See also EARLY JAZZ; SNOWDEN, ELMER (1900–1973).
BARBER, JOHN WILLIAM “BILL” (1920–2007)
Barber fell in love with tuba while in high school and continued to study it while completing undergraduate work at Juilliard and graduate work at the Manhattan School of Music. After moving to Kansas City to play with the Kansas City Philharmonic and serving in the army from 1942 to 1945, Barber moved back to New York and began looking for opportunities to play jazz. Barber was hired by Claude Thornhill in 1947 and was considered to be one of the first and most influential jazz tuba players. Gil Evans and Miles Davis hired Barber to be a part of their highly influential Birth of the Cool (1950, Columbia) recording session and also used him in their other 1950s collaborations. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Barber maintained careers in both jazz and classical music, often playing Broadway shows in between jazz dates. In the 1960s, Barber pursued a teaching career at an elementary school in Long Island. Barber was still considered a first-call session player and was frequently used by Evans and Gerry Mulligan for touring and recording over the next few decades. Barber was recorded on Mulligan’s Re-Birth of the Cool (1992, GRP) after he had retired from teaching. Barber died in 2007 due to heart failure.
BARBER, DAVID MICHAEL (1912–1965)
Barbour, a guitarist and banjo player, was born in Long Island, New York. His earliest work as a performer was playing the banjo in the early 1930s before switching to guitar in 1935. Barbour played with Red Norvo from 1935 to 1936 before going on to work as a studio musician and in groups with Teddy Wilson, Billie Holiday, Artie Shaw, Charlie Barnet, Glenn Miller, and Woody Herman. He also recorded with André Previn in 1945. While a member of Benny Goodman’s Orchestra, Barbour fell in love and married singer Peggy Lee, who was also performing with the band. After 1950, he performed only occasionally. Barbour died of a hemorrhaged ulcer at the age of 53.
BARBIERI, GATO (1934–2012)
Born in Argentina, Barbieri first began as a clarinet player at the age of 12. After moving to Buenos Aires in 1947, he picked up the alto sax and by 1953 gained notice as a member of the Lalo Schifrin orchestra. Later in the 1950s, he switched to tenor saxophone and began leading his own groups. After moving to Rome in 1962, Barbieri began exploring avant-garde music, working with many well-known artists including Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Carla Bley and appearing on the epic Bley recording Escalator Over the Hill (1971, Decca). Barbieri returned to the South American music of his youth during the 1970s, bringing him much acclaim in the jazz world. In 1973, Barbieri won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for his score to the movie Last Tango in Paris, making him an international star. In the late 1970s, he recorded a series of softer pop/jazz albums followed in 1989 by a more intense, rock-influenced, South American–grounded sound with the live recording Gato . . . Para los Amigos. Barbieri frequently toured and recorded during the 1980s and 1990s, in addition to working often in his native Argentina, and he received a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
BARI
A commonly used, short term referring to baritone saxophone. See also SAXOPHONE.
BARITONE SAXOPHONE
The