Two years ago this week we lost the one and only Dr. David Baker. Many people know of him as a pioneer in the jazz world not only for his playing, but for his creation and codifying of the education of jazz for universities around the nation.
However, David wore many hats and one of the hats he wore was that of the composer. He wrote hundreds and hundreds of jazz tunes for every size group imaginable, but he also wrote for the orchestra. He very much wanted to continue the trend of combining the musical disciplines of classical orchestral and jazz music.
He was quite successful at it.
This episode of Have You Heard we feature the piece “Concerto for Two Pianos, Jazz Band, Strings, and Percussion”. It is a very cool and interesting piece of music and I think you’ll enjoy it! The Concerto for Two Pianos starts around the 25 minute mark. Before that we play the final movement of the piece “Give and Take” for Soprano and Chamber Ensemble. We open the show with David’s arrangement of “Bebop” by Dizzy Gillespie for big band, here played by the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra on their 2016 release “Basically Baker: Vol. 2” on the Patois Records label.
(Check out our past shows where we featured music from the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra’s album, “Basically Baker: Vol.2”: HYH Podcast #7, HYH Podcast #9
Please feel free to let us know in the comments section below what you think of the music and any memories you may have of Dr. Baker!
Have You Heard 