Duck Baker – Fingerstyle guitar music legend, Richard R. Baker was born
Duck Baker IV in Washington, DC in 1949 and raised in Richmond, Virginia. His adolescence was spent playing guitar with rock and blues bands before becoming interested in plucking the acoustic guitar in local coffee shops. Ragtime pianist Buck Evans was a big influence on the development of the interests of Baker, who by the time he moved to San Francisco in 1973, including piano rags, blues, old-time country, Cajun, bluegrass, jazz and New Orleans. This variety inspired the title of his first solo guitar album “There’s something for everyone in America,” which was released in 1976. Over the next four years, the Duck recorded several more albums solo jazz guitar music, including one dedicated to the swing of jazz, a modern jazz melodies and a Celtic, while appearing in nine others. He also published a book of songs arranged for violin and fingerstyle guitar toured incessantly throughout America, Canada, Europe and Australia. He changed directions almost as often eventually end up in Europe for most of the 80. He returned to San Francisco in 1987 and then moved to Virginia in 1991.
Most of his latest solo guitar recordings have featured his own compositions – an aspect of his work that has received particular praise from other guitarists. Although Duck Baker’s insistence on the organization and carrying out many different styles of guitar music, medieval European carols to avant-garde jazz, it has become difficult for the press to classify – certainly has earned respect for their fellow guitar! A checklist of the musicians he has been associated professionally (in performance or on records) include the blue man Charlie Musselwhite and Jerry Ricks, Tim O’Brien and Dan bluegrassers Crary, traditionalists Ali Anderson and Brian MacNeil, new music icon John Zron, rock legend JJ Cale, and jug band king Jim Baker, Kweskin.
Duck has also been a major figure and influence in the presentation of traditional Irish music on acoustic guitar fingerstyle. Duck is one of those rare musicians that are not based on the repertoire of his instrument of choice for musical material, but in the flow of musical ideas and forms larger than the sensitivity of the guitar. The application of that talent is recognized success in the transcription and organization of Irish fiddle, pipes and harp music for the guitar. His memorable, but not widely distributed 1980 album “Kid on the Mountain” shows a stylistic approach that avoids any aesthetic beauty of tone and focuses instead on the possibilities of harmonies raw, open and complex interweaving of bass lines . That record was the first to introduce many guitarists in the United States to play, just fingering the guitar arrangements of some essential Irish songs, some of which include “The Blarney Pilgrim”, “Morgan Magan” and “The Duke of Fife Welcome to Deeside. ” Although the album is long out of print, many of fingerstyle guitar arrangements found milestone has been reprinted in various collections of CDs. Fortunately for aspiring guitarists, the duck is gone with the release of numerous books of guitar tab and DVD courses that teach the jazz, ragtime, fiddle, and Celtic fingerstyle guitar solo arrangements.
Peabody Conservatory trained guitarist Steven Herron helps people succeed at becoming better guitar players. His company ChordMelody.com features an enormous, unique selection of jazz guitar tab as well as guitar books and instructional DVDs by Duck Baker himself.
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