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Buddy Baker

featuring Rich Chiaraluce

and Colorado Friends

Jazz Quintet

The

EXIT SLIDING

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About This Recording Project

My purpose in completing this recording project is (l) to help close

out a career of nearly 55 years of playing and 40 years of teaching trombone, (2) to show some of my jazz writing (I’ve writ-ten music since I was in high school), (3) to show the high quality of jazz players in Colorado; the players performing with me are some of the top players in the Greeley/Denver/Colorado Springs area, and (4) to show something of my jazz playing.

The truth is I have spent the major-ity of my time the past 55 years studying and performing (and teaching) classical trombone (the solo, chamber, band, and orchestral literature). Yet from the begin-ning of my association with the trombone, I listened to, studied, wrote, and loved jazz. My early love of jazz has never waned throughout all of these years.

—B.B. (March, 1999)

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About The Music�. Bonehead’s In The Beanbag BluesI called one of our dogs “Bone-head” at times — especially when she did something crazy like jumping in our big beanbag chair and looking like she owned the world.

�. Wuv-ooThe changes are similar to an old standard — you’ll guess it. Rich plays clarinet — what a versatile performer! I’m in a Finch mute.

�. It’s Yoom, That’s WhomAn ascending melodic line supported by an ascending chro-matic counter line.

4. My Foolish Heart This is one of Anne’s favorite tunes, performed here just one time through.

5. Sarah’s SlideThis tune was inspired by my daughter-in-law, Sarah. I had a wild dream about her coming down a long slide that began somewhere up in the clouds — here she came headed for a small pool at the bot-tom of the slide laughing hysteri-cally all the way. Wild!!

6. Happy Song #lI have written five of these “Happy Songs”. The deal is — if you like it, it will make you happy; if you don’t — you’ll be happy it’s over! If you don’t like the arrangement, you’ll be happy to know it may never be published, etc., etc.

7. A Gentle Waltz for NancThis line is for my wife, Nancy. When one of the players asked her if I had written words, Nanc replied that she felt the music said enough. Rich plays alto flute on this one! Again, I’m in a Finch mute.

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About The Music Cont. . .

8. A Samba for Brighter TimesNot a real samba, but it does have a samba-like Latin feel. I had to do something for trombones, here well supported by Doug Scarborough and Nat Wickham who takes the first solo.

9. Embraceable YouOne of my favorite old standards. I just wanted to keep it simple since most of the beauty is already there in the changes and in the melody. The little introduction is my own.

�0. Fatter Don’t Matter BluesI said to a friend that I had not seen for a year, “You look good”, she replied, “I’m fatter”, to which I commented “Fatter Don’t Matter”. Here’s what that sounds like.

��. Sweet PeaA tune about as fast as I can almost play. Everyone else seemed to handle it with ease.

��. Waltz for AnneThis is David Hanson’s personal ver-sion of my tune. He did it in one take and it is worth the price of admission. I wanted to end this CD with this special tribute to my sister Anne. —B.B.

All compositions (except My Foolish Heart and Embraceable You) and all arrangements by Buddy Baker.

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Impressions of Buddy Baker by Tom Everett

My first personal contact with Buddy Baker took place at

the second National Trombone Workshop (later to be retitled “International Trombone Festival”) at Nashville, Tennessee’s Peabody College in May of l972. We were both members of that year’s workshop faculty, but I was by far the newest kid on the block, in awe of being in the company of Buddy and his colleagues, Lewis Van Haney, George Roberts, Leon Brown, and others. With his friendly ‘folksy’ manner, he welcomed me and put me at ease. In large part he was responsible for creating the congenial, relaxed, feeling of community that permeated the atmosphere of those early workshops.

I knew of Buddy Baker as a noted teacher and player who

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had toured with the Kenton and Herman bands but I had not heard him play. To my knowledge, he had recorded only one long playing record, as a member of the Oliver Nelson Big Band’s “Live at the Berlin Jazz Festival” on the ‘Flying Dutchman’ label. Later, however, I discovered he played in the trombone section on three of Kenton’s records recorded in the ‘60’s.

During the workshop, I discov-ered quite a bit about Buddy Baker. Often quiet, but always present, he was reflective and willing to share thoughts. His master class included a discussion/per-formance of the Lars Erik Larsson “Concertino”, and the unforgiv-ing, unaccompanied “Sonata” by Leslie Bassett. The Larsson was certainly the better known of the two, but Buddy did not present the

usual clinical discussion of the pre-ferred slide positions or technical issues; he investigated the shapes, musical lines and cadenza-like playfulness of the work. The Bassett “Sonata”, an important but seldom performed work, challenged the listener and actually evaluated the performer’s musicianship more than the trombonist’s technique.

He had chosen significant works that trombonists should know and used them as pivotal oppor-tunities to stimulate and reinforce musical concepts. Buddy related well to the diverse group at the workshops — teachers, orchestral players, high school and college students, “amateur” players, and weekend warriors.

Here is the essence of Buddy Baker: his versatility, diverse in-terests, standards of quality, and “condensation” (ability to clarify and get to the point), charisma to pull people to him as he is a source of inspiration , information, and positive energy. Always a

Impressions of Buddy Baker

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teacher. Always a musician. These are inseparable.

Buddy possesses a versatile knowledge from detailed math-ematical dimensions of various mouthpieces and lead pipes, to id-iosyncrasies of various mutes; from personal methodology for improv-ing a specific musical or mechani-cal problem, to careful, insightful observations of people’s abilities and strengths.

Impressive qualities — all from a guy who occasionally stole the show at the workshop by taking a fall down a marble staircase, face first! As shocked colleagues ran to his aid and slowly turned him over, he would open his eyes, and with-out a hair out of place utter…“GOT YA!” Was there anything else we did not know about Buddy Baker?

The biggest surprise at this

workshop came on the Thursday Jazz Night. In those days, the jazz program was informal consisting of a couple of faculty members accompanied by a local rhythm section B.J. Crusin and her Trio. The program was followed by a jam session. The featured jazz faculty member that year was Berklee col-lege professor and former Woody Herman sixties soloist, Phil Wilson. But to my surprise, Buddy Baker approached the stage to play. I knew Buddy played “European Concert” music, but thought it took courage to appear on the same program with a player like Phil Wilson. BANG! Buddy swung his fly hooks off! His beautiful full sound, flowing lines, fluency in all registers was enhanced by his abil-ity to explore subtle inner harmonic relationships of the chord progres-sion. Every note had meaning, feel-ing, swing, and shape…he didn’t

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seem to be working hard…it’s probably the way he fishes!

What he played wasn’t new, but it reflected an assimilation and appreciation of trombone stylists Bill Harris, Urbie Green, J.J. Johnson, a bit of the adventurous harmonic palette of Slide Hampton and long lines associated with the fifties West Coast soloist such as trom-bonist Herbie Harper, saxophon-ists Bill Perkins, Bob Cooper and Bud Shank, and composer/pianist Claire Fischer. With this inclusive style, Buddy had his own sound and voice and exemplified Whit-ney Balliett’s definition of jazz, “The Sound of Surprise”.

Why has it taken fifty-five years of playing to finally have this complete work of Buddy’s jazz performances? (Is it because it is impossible to record while one is fly fishing for trout in the middle of a mountain stream?) Could it be that he had a busy schedule as principal of the Greeley Philhar-

monic Orchestra for over 30 years? Or, could it be his commitment to his students and graduate students or the value he placed on writing or giving clinics? Perhaps serving as president, committee member, board member, and providing continuous counsel to the Interna-tional Trombone Association since its inception in l97l, has made the possibility of making a CD a low priority. His retirement in l998 finally offered him the opportunity to adjust his agenda so that he could document his significant musical achievement. And, Buddy did it while having fun with friends and colleagues who happen to be su-perb musicians. Thanks for sharing a lifetime with us Buddy!

(continued on page 10)

Impressions of Buddy Baker

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SLIDING!

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Impressions of Buddy Baker The music needs no further de-scription than those sounds provid-ed by the musician. However, for those who read liner notes, I hope some of the following comments contribute to your enjoyment of the music.

Bud has chosen a repertoire of two standard ballads and ten originals, ranging from waltzes, blues, Latin style, uptempo blow-ing and original tunes based on standard chord progressions.

Notice the compositions — they aren’t just unison heads, but include harmonized tunes. The compositions often incorporate in-triguing two part writing and coun-terpoint, reminiscent of the won-derful writing of composers such as Gerry Mulligan, Jimmy Giuffre and Bill Holman. Buddy, the composer, keeps the compositions interesting through the use of a variety of tim-bres, colors, dynamics and registers — note the alternating contrast of clarinet, alto flute, alto and tenor

saxophone, flugelhorn and trom-bone. Buddy can write! He joins that specialized group of arranger/trombonists such as Phil Wilson, Nelson Riddle, Johnny Mandel, Bob Brookmeyer, Billy Byers, J.J. Johnson and Melba Liston.

When listening to Wuv-oo, can you discern the instrumentation? — test yourself!! “It’s Yoom, That’s Whom” can really hang you up the most. And “Happy Song #l” is the most one can do with the least. “Embraceable You” and “My Foolish Heart” are straight ahead interpretations of lovely melodies. The late pianist Bill Evans loved waltzes, and so does Buddy. “A Gentle Waltz for Nanc” is per-formed “princely” and dedicated to his wife.

“Sarah’s Slide” demonstrates Buddy’s facile legato lines — remi-niscent of the sinewy lines of the

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great Jimmy Knepper, except Buddy plays on top of the beat. As much as Buddy’s writing and spirit of playing is reminiscent of the West Coast small groups of Herbie Harper, Frank Rosolino, Mel Lewis and Art Pepper, Buddy hard bops with the best. Just listen to him deliver his earthy tale with credit to Ben Webster and Bill Harris, on “Fat-ter Don’t Matter Blues”.

Buddy’s playing is not about speed. But on “Sweet Pea”, just for the record, Buddy plays twelve and a half more eighth notes with his chorus than Rich Chiaraluce does on his tenor sax chorus — but who’s counting?

Throughout this CD, Buddy proudly showcases and shares the spotlight with his Colorado friends and colleagues — everyone in the rhythm section is given ample blow-ing time as is versatile reedman Rich Chiaraluce, flugelhornist Mark Israel, and trombonist Nat Wickham.

The concluding slow “Waltz for Anne” (for Buddy’s sister) says a lot

about Buddy Baker. Listen to the lovely tune, the chords, and the feeling created by the trio. Join Buddy in the celebration of this unique relationship. We all should have sisters like Anne and brothers like Buddy.

I hope Bud publishes these com-positions — if he doesn’t — start writing those letters! In the mean-time, listen to the joy and creativity of trombone master Buddy Baker.

—T.E.

(Tom Everett is Director of Bands at Harvard University and con-ducts, among other ensembles, the Harvard Wind Ensemble and the Harvard Jazz Ensemble. He founded and was first President of the Inter-national Trombone Association.)

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A Word of Thanks

First I would like to thank and pay tribute to some of the

people important to me in my early development as a musician and as a trombonist: my parents, Vivian and Braxton Baker, my sister, Anne, Ivan Arnold, my high school trombone teacher, Carroll Cope-land my high school band, choir, and “dance band” director, and Thomas Beversdorf, my college trombone teacher.

My early trombone “idols” were: Tommy Dorsey, Tommy Turk, Bill Harris, J.J. Johnson, Carl Fontana, Frank Rosolino, Urbie Green and Kai Winding. Other jazz performing idols included: Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Oscar Peterson, Jim Hall and many

Buddy Baker Rich Chiaraluce (woodwinds)

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other non-trombonists. The writ-ers I listened closely to included: Gerry Mulligan, Bill Holman, Bob-by Brookmeyer, Duke Ellington, Al Cobine and Gil Evans.

My “super idol” (since the time in the early ‘50’s when we played together in dance bands in Northern Indiana at various summer resorts) is Clare Fischer. The consistent, high quality of his work sets him apart. For me, his command of melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation and “LINE” is unequaled — he is my present-day Bach!

Also, special thanks to the skilled recording engineer on this session, Joe Hall, and to Jim Lina-hon for his mixing skills, patience, and help in so many ways, and to Robert Vosgien who worked his special magic on our final “mas-

Kenny Walker (bass) Paul Romaine (drums)

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ter mix” — what a wizard! Thanks to my daughter, Amy Brierly, for her creative photography. Thanks to Ann Marie Martinez for her creative skills in developing this booklet. And thanks to my sons Chris and Dee, and my daughters-in-law, Sarah and Michelle, for their encouragement with this project, to my son-in-law, Bill Brierly and to Gene Aitken for their assistance with technical matters concerning this project and thanks to my wife, Nancy, for helping me in so many ways to see this whole project through (not to mention enduring 40 years of my “Daily Routine”)!

Last but not least, thanks to the excellent players who agreed to assist me with this re-cording project:

Kenny Walker, bass player, lays

David Hanson (piano)Francisco Mejias (latin pecussion)

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down a beautiful line you can “walk on” — always solid; Paul Romaine, drummer , makes each tune sound better with his tasty playing and his carefully directed energy. His suggestions always work. David Hanson, piano player (and composer, arranger ), is a fantastic talent and student of the “LINE” (listen to his solos and to his comping!). His work on “Waltz for Anne” is simply beautiful!

Mark Israel, who plays on one track (flugelhorn) and is a member of the Air Force “Falconaires” al-ways sounds good — lots of “pret-ty” here. Francesco Mejias is the top Latin percussionist in the Den-ver area — he knows what special Latin sounds make each tune “work”. Nat Wickham, who teach-es trombone/euphonium at the University of Northern Colorado, helped out on one tune. A versa-

Nat Wickham (trombone)Doug Scarborough (trombone)

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tile player, he takes the first solo on “A Samba for Brighter Times”. Doug Scarborough, a graduate student at UNC, also plays on this tune. He plays several other instruments well (which he shows on several of his own CD’s).

And finally, very special thanks to Rich Chiaraluce, a longtime friend since we met when he was doing graduate work at UNC some years ago. Rich worked with me on this project from the beginning as we worked out details on the mu-sic (to incorporate his considerable doubling skills), personnel, and the details of making it all happen in the studio. I don’t think I could have done it all without him. What a wonderful player and what a great human being!

What a joy it is to play with mu-

Mark Isreal (flugelhorn)Joe Hall (recording engineer)

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sicians that you enjoy playing with who are at the same time people you want to BE with! I had great fun making this CD!

Jim Linahon (mixing engineer)Robert Vosgien (master mixing)

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This recording is dedicated to my sister, Anne Nelson. Anne,

l6 months older than I, began her study of piano when she was 7 years old and I grew up listening to her beautiful playing. Anne played then as she does now — with good style and spirit and seems to easily capture the essence of

each piece she plays. Her playing is always beautiful.

Hearing her artistic playing when I was very young probably set my concept of “musical” play-ing more than anything else in my life, although my Mother played piano and we sang together as a family (along with my younger

A DEDICATIoN To My SISTER, ANNE

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sister, Susan, and my Dad, who played guitar) and these were indeed factors in my musical de-velopment as well.

From the time I began to play trombone (at age twelve), Anne played my piano accompani-ments — at home, at church, at various school functions, and at the annual state solo and ensemble festivals. So, from the beginning I had an excellent accompanist — also extremely important to my development as a musician and performer. I felt I always played my best when Anne played piano with me.

To supplement her classical studies, Anne was always looking for pretty, new pop songs that were usually published in “sheet music” form for piano. Some of the available songs and arrangements were poor, others were quite good. Anne always picked the good songs and the best arrangements. A couple of the tunes she came home with in my early years on

the trombone were “My Foolish Heart” (which I’ve included on this recording), and “Invitation”.

Even now when I visit Anne in our home town of Alexandria, Indiana, we sometimes play songs together and she plays some new, “good” tunes she has discovered. The songs are, as always, pretty and she still plays them well.

The last piece on this record-ing, “Waltz for Anne”, I wrote a few years ago and at that time had David Hanson write a beautiful (rather extensive) piano arrange-ment of the tune which I sent to Anne. I feel it is appropriate to end the album with this special trib-ute to Anne which David Hanson played “on the spot” in one take. To me, it is the most important tune on the album.

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EXIT SLIDING!