Tom Baker (musician)

Tom Baker (born September 14, 1952 in Oakdale , California , † October 23, 2001 in Breda , Netherlands ) was an Australian - American jazz musician ( trumpet , saxophone , clarinet , bass tuba , trombone ).

Live and act

Baker grew up in California and, graduated from Escalon High School in 1969 and studied at Modesto Junior College and the University of the Pacific ; he played the trumpet and tuba in school bands . When he was 19 he moved to Australia with his family. He then lived in Sydney and worked in various club bands in the early 1970s, then with Dave Banham's Northside Jazzmen , the Abbey Jazz Band and the Ray Price Quintet, with whom he toured Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea. The first recordings were made with Nick Boston's Colonial Jazz Band , in which Baker was a tuba player.

From the mid-1970s he was active in the international jazz scene and worked with musicians of mainstream jazz and traditional jazz such as Cab Calloway , Warren Vaché , Scott Hamilton , Dick Wellstood , Doc Cheatham , Bob Wilber , Ralph Sutton and Arnett Cobb . In 1975 he formed his own band, Tom Baker's San Francisco Jazz Band , which debuted at the 30th Australian Jazz Convention in Balmain near Sydney. He toured the United States for a long time with the band. On his return to Sydney in 1981 he founded the bop band Groove City , in which he played the saxophone; with the formation he accompanied Oscar Peterson and Anita O'Day on Australian tours; he was also a baritone saxophonist in the Morrison Brother's Big Bad Band . Since the 1980s he played frequently in Europe, such as at the Breda Festival. In addition to his main instrument, the trumpet, he also played the saxophone, clarinet, bass tuba and trombone. In his final years, Baker performed regularly at the New Orleans Jazz Ascona Festival, where he a. a. played with Sammy Rimington and Kenny Davern ; he also worked with Anita O'Day, Arvell Shaw and Joe Muranyi during this time . He died of a heart attack at the age of 49 while on tour with the Swingcats in Breda .

Discographic notes

• Absolutely Positively (1991)
• Tom Baker and Friends

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} portrait page
2. ^ ^{A b} Obituary of New Orleans Jazz Ascona at Jazzhouse