CD Reviews
July 15th, 2010
Duck Baker’s ‘Spinning Song’
The New York Times, December 30th 1996
by Ben Ratliff
A finger-style jazz guitarist, Duck Baker took on a daunting task: interpreting the reticent, mysterious work of Herbie Nichols, the jazz pianist who remains keenly loved by a minority. Nichols, who died of leukemia in 1963, is one of jazz’s more famous obscurities, best known by a chapter devoted to him in A. B. Spellman’s book “Four Lives in the Bebop Business,” as well as for having written “Lady Sings the Blues”, which became one of Billie Holiday’s signature songs. Many of his melodies were so orchestral, indwelling and embedded in harmony that they weren’t very well suited to arrangements that included horn players, nor were they obvious choices for other musicians to cover.
But Mr. Baker, on “Spinning Song”, digs into all the hidden pockets and beautiful embroidery of Nichols’s music. He plays the delicate pieces gently and fluidly, making the music sound as if it were written for the guitar: he bends strings, slides notes and rings minor flamenco chords. He creates his own solos, but stays true to the spirit of Nichols’s original recordings, where the improvisation adhered closely to the complicated chordal musculature. But he has also drained some of the anxious tension from the music, and created a soothing homage.
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A very good review of Roots and Branches here:
http://driftwoodmagazine.com/2010/09/30/review-9-30-10/
Cadence July 2010:
DUCK BAKER
THE DUCKS PALACE
INCUS 59
These days it’s always a surprise to see a release sneaking out on Incus. The under-documented and under-heralded acoustic specialist Baker is an especially worthy candidate to appear on the late Derek Bailey’s imprint, as he’s an unrepentant individual- ist combining a vast technique with a devotion to Bop underdogs like Herbie Nichols and a love of Free improvisation. All of these influences are heard in this variety of settings, featuring Baker in duos and trios with old mates. The vivid trio recordings from the Old Knit put Baker’s unfussy lines in between Baptista’s fascinating propulsion and Zorn in one of his duck call moods. They range from prankster fun to muezzin-call and prairie melancholy. Then, there are some absolutely spell-binding tracks with Bailey, the first completely synchronous (with the occasional serrated edge, bottom rumble, and percussive wakeup call), the second fairly confrontational, and racing its way to a melancholy section that’s abruptly ended by Bailey sneezing. The first bloozy blowdown with Rudd is a fairly relaxed, spacious affair. That’s not to say that it’s particularly gentlemanly. In fact, it sounds like you put an old LP on only to have your turntable die in the middle of the tailgating tune. The closing piece, however, is lovingly inside, swinging and harmonically alive.
Brilliant Corners – review by Chris Rich , December 24th 2009
http://brilliantcornersabostonjazzblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/small-duck-trove.html
All About Jazz - review by Bruce Lindsay:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34847
The Sunday Times November 8, 2009
Duck Baker: The Ducks Palace
Stewart Lee
Best known in jazz and bluegrass circles, the guitarist Duck Baker is also an adept improviser, and collaborates here with players that test his limits. Two trios with the saxophonist John Zorn and the percussionist Cyro Baptista seem uncertain. Two blues with Roswell Rudd, the trombonist, alternately embrace and interrogate the familiar form. And three duets from 2002 with the guitarist Derek Bailey exploit the much-missed innovator’s catalytic properties. Initially, Bailey burrows obstinately beneath Baker’s more tonal intonations, until a common language is agreed upon, validating the philosophical inferences of free improvisation as an ethos, an artistic choice and a way of life.
Incus INCUSCD59
Sunday Times Culture magazine – 08.11.09
On Record – The week’s essential new releases
Review by Chris Kelsey, October 8th 2009
http://chriskelsey.com/blog/?tag=ken-filiano
Something else – review by Pico , June 2nd 2009
http://www.somethingelsereviews.com/2009/06/duck-baker-everything-that-rises-must.html
Jazz.com – review by S. Victor Aaron
http://jazz.com/music/2009/5/5/duck-baker-everything-that-rises-must-converge