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David Baker Biography
David Baker (1945 - 2004) David Baker, a Grammy Award winning audio engineer and producer of over 2,000 recordings, died peacefully in his sleep on July 14, 2004. He was 58 and lived in Manhattan. Born David Howard Baker on October 12, 1945 in Mt. Vernon, NY, he was the son of the late Harry Alexander Baker and the late Viola Tenore Baker. David Baker's grandfather was a salesman for Columbia Records in the late 1920's. Mr. Baker's father, Harry, established Baker Audio in Atlanta, GA. David grew up around the music business and assisted in installing large hi-fi systems with his father. Eventually, Baker Audio housed an AM/FM radio station and became known as the "House That Music Built." This environment is to be credited for sparking Mr. Baker's interest in audio engineering as he began making amateur recordings of everything from B Minor Mass to jazz big bands and editing tapes at the radio station. Soon thereafter, Mr. Baker began coordinating sound for The Atlanta Arts Festival, which required operating all stage audio equipment and preparing over sixteen hours of music each year. In 1965, Mr. Baker headed out to the Mississippi Delta to do a number of field recordings ranging from registration drives to church hall meetings. The Civil Rights movement was gaining strong momentum during this time and it had a profound influence on his life in musical engineering. The final product of these field recordings became the important Movement Soul album (listen to David Baker's commentary), which is still available from the Library of Congress. By 1967, in the middle of a major metamorphosis in the jazz scene, he started working at Apostolic Studios in New York City. At the time, Apostolic was home to Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Mr. Baker also began formal training at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and The Institute of Audio Research in NYC. He remained at Apostolic as Chief Engineer until they closed it in 1970. It was during this time that Mr. Baker made the Spaces album with John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell. In 1973, he became Chief Engineer for Vanguard Records, where he remained until 1975. During this time, Mr. Baker established a long and fruitful relationship with many Japanese engineers and producers. Mr. Baker met engineer Yoshihiro Suzuki and began working on projects for the Philips / Eastwind label. His working relationship with Yasohachi Itoh of Sony Records remained strong right up to Mr. Baker's death. After 1975, Mr. Baker worked primarily as a free-lance engineer until 1986 when he began remastering the entire Vanguard Classics catalog for re-release on CD. Mr. Baker had recorded for ECM, Enja, Blue Note, Atlantic, Sony, Verve, Black Saint / Soul Note, MaxJazz, Universal / Polygram among many other record labels. Mr. Baker's long-term working relationship with Shirley Horn earned him a Grammy Award in 1998 for recording I Remember Miles for Verve. He has also worked with a wide variety of artists including Will Boulware, Dave Liebman, Richie Beirach, Paul Bley, Al DiMeola, Art Farmer, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Maria Schneider, George Russell, Maceo Parker, Bruce Barth, John Scofield, John Zorn, Sun Ra and numerous others. Most recently, Mr. Baker had applied his years of live recording experience to doing archival recordings for Jazz at Lincoln Center's 2003/04 Season, including performances by The Dave Brubeck Octet and Toots Thielemans. Record production quality at the source was Mr. Baker's recording principle. His discography spans 40 years covering all genres of music, which took him all over the world. Mr. Baker was one of the masters of the art of recording. He consistently demanded and always achieved an exceptional level of quality. Mr. Baker is survived by his wife, Kyoko Baker. He is also survived by sisters, Karen Baker Hartrampf, and husband, John Hartrampf, of Atlanta, GA; Diane Baker Harwell, and husband, Joseph Harwell, of Savannah, GA; Harriet Baker Parker, and husband, Robert Parker, of Orlando, FL; and Robin Baker Dickson, and husband, LeRoy Dickson, of St. Simons Island, GA; seven nieces and nephews, and nine great-nieces and nephews.
David and Kyoko Baker |
