David Baker releases lost recordings on new CD
After years without releasing a pure jazz album, IU Chair of Jazz studies and cellist David Baker has released Harlem Pipes, a mix of new and old jazz compositions, some written 15 years ago. Baker headlined Jazz Fables' 14th Anniversary Thursday at a packed Bear's Place, 1316 E. Third St., with a release party for his new album. \n"I thought it was a great and exciting evening," Baker said. "One of the most gratifying things (was) to see the response and how many people came out. They were really active in picking up copies of the CD."\nHarlem Pipes is Baker's first jazz album in years. Lately, he has been focusing on classical compositions for various symphony orchestras and chamber groups across the nation, averaging one album every month for a while.\n"I'm as comfortable with the classical language as I am with my own language, the jazz language," Baker said. "But what makes jazz so great is that you can shift gears according to where the audience is heading." Baker remembers how a congressman once said, "It's only a fool who keeps going in a straight line when the road curves." In response Baker said, "So when the road curves and I'm playing and I can see that I'm not communicating with the audience, I go with where the audience is."\nAlthough he has also written some jazz-influenced pieces in the past few years, it has been a long time since he made a bona fide jazz album. His new album has technically been in the works for about 15 years because four of the songs, including the title track, were recorded in the late '80s, but the tapes were misplaced until last year. \n"It was a nice move for the recording studio to decide to put out these tracks, but it was kind of a serendipity because I had no notion that those tapes still existed," Baker said. \nBaker also included some new pieces and some reconstituted pieces on the album. \n"It was just about a proper balance between new things and old things," Baker said. \nAlthough 15 years allows plenty of room for change in both style and interest, Baker said when it comes to jazz, the people who make the piece are the people who are playing it. \nThe people who came together for Baker's release party were assistant professor and pianist Luke Gillespie and wife Lida Baker on flute, who both were on the original lost recordings. Baker was also accompanied by Tom Walsh on saxophone, professor Bruce Bransby on bass, Steve Houghton on drums and Jazz Fables leader David Miller on trumpet. \n"Baker is fun to play with," Walsh said. "He writes very challenging pieces and beautiful arrangements, and it's the arrangements that makes his music so recognizable. You don't often see a cello in a jazz ensemble because it's predominately a classical instrument."\nBut Baker didn't choose to play the cello just to integrate classical elements with his jazz. Baker began his career as a trombonist and remained one for 25 years before a car accident in 1960 rendered him unable to play anymore. \nBaker said the cello was a "godsend."\n"I had to bring all the information I had as a trombonist and learn to play the cello to still have a voice," Baker said. "And that voice has always been the same. When you hear my recordings as a trombonist, I think it would be pretty easy to see where my cello playing comes from." \nDespite the setback, Baker has kept an optimistic view about his life as a musician, and in retrospect, doesn't see himself in the same place if the accident hadn't forced him to re-evaluate his life. "Sometimes things happen to us and we think 'it's bad.' But I probably wouldn't have gone into teaching. I probably wouldn't have built a reputation as a composer. I probably wouldn't have been appointed by Ronald Reagan to serve on the National Council of the Arts. And I probably wouldn't have gotten two Grammy nominations. So all these things happen for a reason."\nHarlem Pipes is in many ways a nostalgic album for Baker. Not only does it consist of old recordings, but when composing, he was reminded of growing up in Harlem. \n"I lived in Harlem when it was user-friendly," Baker said. "I still remember listening to Malcolm X on the street corners and being able to experience the jazz greats who are no longer around."\nBut in spite of all the change, Baker still considers New York as the cultural universe in many ways, and Harlem Pipes is his take on the friendliness of New York. "'Harlem Pipes,' in my mind, captures so much of the essence of Harlem. It was so friendly and it was also the kind of situation where you had to give something, too. You couldn't just come and take away from Harlem. And I try to capture that in various aspects of the title track, and even on the CD cover." \nLike the constant droning sound of bagpipes, Baker heard a similar droning in the baseline of the title track "Harlem Pipes." \n"When I added the cello to the bass, it seems to me it kind of brings those disparate elements together: There's Harlem, and then there's the pipes that belong to different ethnic groups." \nBaker was an IU graduate and came back to start the jazz program in 1966, which he chairs today. Since some of his students over the years have gone on to become some of the most famous jazz musicians in the world, Baker hasn't seen anything lately that he hasn't seen before. \n"However, the level is so incredibly high now," Baker said. "I told my band today -- this was the first rehearsal of my new band -- that 'I'm going to find out how good this band is today because I'm going to put you through some very difficult music,' and it was incredible. I mean, the very fact that they could play things that when I started college down here in 1949 or '50, nobody could ever have dreamed. We couldn't have come close to these kids. These freshmen that come in here now, they're playing on a level that's incredibly high." \nBut Baker attributes a part of that to the way jazz education has evolved. Baker said most jazz musicians out there that are under 40 years old have attended at least some college and realized that they can now in four years encapsulate an education that would have taken 30 years out on the streets. \n"But then they have to go into the streets and have it tested in the fire," Baker said. "But it's a lot easier when you're prepared. In my day, you learn, and you got fired a lot while you were learning."\nHowever, now students don't have to spend their life on the road before they're discovered. Many seasoned players go to colleges to find replacements in their bands.\nHye Jin Yoon, a graduate student from Korea majoring in jazz flute, auditioned for Baker last March. \n"He is a gentle, kind, and good man. No wonder he is one of the most respected professors at IU," said Yoon at his release party. "His music is very deep and it reflects who he is."\n"I'm really a people person," Baker said. "I enjoy people. Somebody once said, and I believe this, 'There is no glory in helping somebody because they can help you. The glory is when you help somebody who is in no position to return the favor.' I love teaching, I love school, I love students. Here, I have the best of both worlds: A chance to nurture the music, and a chance to preserve the music. It doesn't get better than this."\nYou can pick up a copy of Baker's new album, Harlem Pipes, at various places around town, including the T.I.S. Bookstore and Barnes & Noble.\n-- Contact staff writer Benjamin Hsu at bhsu@indiana.edu.