David Baker
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For the U.S. Senator, see David J. Baker.
David N. Baker Jr. (born December 21, 1931 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is a leading symphonic jazz composer at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington.
He was educated at Indiana University receiving both his Masters in Music Education and his Doctorate from that institution.
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, David Baker attended Crispus Attucks High School. He thrived in the Indianapolis jazz scene of the time, serving as a mentor of sorts to talented Indianapolis-born trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. 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 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 made Indiana into a highly regarded destination for students of music. Probably the best known students ever to pass under his tutelage are Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, and the jazz-education mogul Jamey Aebersold.
David Baker is also the conductor and musical director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1973. He is a member of the Down Beat hall of fame. 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.
