Archive for the ‘Press & Publicity’ Category
Biography
October 2nd, 2009
DUCK BAKER
Duck Baker is one of the most highly regarded fingerstyle guitarists of his generation. He is unique among jazz guitarists in that his repertoire spans the entire history of the music from ragtime through swing to modern masters like Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols to free improvisation. Baker’s devotion to American music also encompasses more traditional forms like blues, gospel, and Appalachian music and its Scots-Irish ancestry. This catholicism has been likened to Europeans who perform the classical repertoire from renaissance through to modern music.
Duck was born Richard R. Baker IV in 1949 and grew up in Richmond, Virginia. He passed his teenage years playing in rock and blues bands before becoming interested in acoustic blues. Local ragtime pianist Buck Evans was a major influence on Baker’s evolution. By the time he moved to San Francisco in the early seventies, he was performing the wide range of material heard on his first record for the Kicking Mule label, “There’s Something for Everyone in America”. In addition to developing his solo style, Baker joined a bluegrass band and immersed himself in the local swing jazz scene, forming a duo with guitarist Thom Keats and performing with such Bay Area luminaries as Burt Bales and Robin Hodes. Baker remains active in this music, leading a trio with guitarist Bob Wilson and fiddler Tony Marcus.
In the late seventies, Baker recorded four more records for Kicking Mule, including two devoted to jazz and the first solo guitar record of Irish and Scottish music. He also began touring as a soloist, traveling throughout North America, Western Europe, and Australia. He eventually moved to Europe where he was based for nine years before returning to San Francisco in 1987. It was also in the late seventies that Baker became associated with the free music scene, performing with musicians like Eugene Chadbourne and John Zorn in New York and Bruce Ackley and Henry Kaiser in San Francisco. His associations in the 90’s included the highly regarded Irish fiddler, Kieran Fahy, and the great traditional singer, Molly Andrews. As of 2002 he is involved in several other duos: with trombone master Roswell Rudd, bassist Mark Dresser, and guitarists Jamie Findlay, Woody Mann and Ken Emerson. He also leads a trio which includes violinist Carla Kihlstedt and clarinetist Ben Goldberg.
Baker’s solo recordings since 1980 have for the most part focused on his own compositions, which reflect the influence of the great jazz pianist/composers like Monk, Nichols, Randy Weston, etc. His pieces have been recorded by various other guitarists, as well as Irish and American traditionalists and modern jazzmen. His most ambitious record, “Spinning Song”, which is devoted to the music of Herbie Nichols, got rave reviews in Jazz Times, Cadence, Coda, and the New York Times, and helped establish Baker as an important voice in the world of fingerstyle jazz guitar. Various critics named “Spinning Song” among the best jazz records of 1997 in Cadence and Coda magazines, and it placed high on the Cadence reader’s poll of that year. Acoustic Guitar magazine dubbed it “one of the best guitar records ever recorded – by anybody.”
Posted in 
Press Kit
October 2nd, 2009
Quotes
October 2nd, 2009
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“Probably the most startling performance to be seen by a solo artist this year.”
Irish Folk News
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“The sort of guy you instinctively feel should be internationally declared as some kind of innovatory master, not only for his sheer technique as an indisputable guitar virtuoso, but for his free—ranging spirit in blending jazz styles with a whole gamut of material from Irish reels to George Gershwin.”
Colin Irwin
Melody Maker
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“Duck Baker is one of the half dozen or so most gifted acoustic guitar players in the world today, not only because of his dazzling technique, but his originality and universality as well”
Dan Forte
Musician’s Industry
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“I am overwhelmed by the talent Baker displays. He is, in a word, unbelievable; in another word, astonishing — and entertaining and personable.”
Philip Elwood
S.F. Examiner
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“Duck Baker is unique. He has developed his style completely alone, without reference to the other well known guitar technicians, and was influenced by people like Django and even hornplayers like Coltrane!”
Karl Dallas
Melody Maker
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“Duck Baker balances great fingerpicking with incredible wit.”
Guitar Player
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“He got half way through Maple Leaf Rag before the murmurs of disbelief at his dexterity filtered back through the audience to the back of the cramped hall. The awestricken heads continued to shake gently as he whisked through numbers by Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller and Louis Jordan, switching styles effortlessly.”
Sounds
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“Duck Baker gives excellent renderings of his materiaL, and he can make his guitar sound like a big-band rhythm section on one cut and like a ragtime piano on the next. When backing up his singing, he varies his style from comping with bass lines to swingy, full-chord strumming, and when soloing, he fingerpicks melody, bass, and accompaniment with elan. Baker’s voice belies his name, sounding mellow, relaxed, and on key.
Frets Magazine
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