Danny Barker

Daniel Moses Barker (January 13, 1909 – March 13, 1994) was an American jazz musician, vocalist, and author from New Orleans. He was a rhythm guitarist for Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder and Benny Carter during the 1930s.

One of Barker's earliest teachers in New Orleans was fellow banjoist Emanuel Sayles, with whom he recorded. Throughout his career, he played with Jelly Roll Morton, Baby Dodds, James P. Johnson, Sidney Bechet, Mezz Mezzrow, and Red Allen. He also toured and recorded with his wife, singer Blue Lu Barker. From the 1960s, Barker's work with the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band was pivotal in ensuring the longevity of jazz in New Orleans, producing generations of new talent, including Wynton and Branford Marsalis who played in the band as youths.

Biography

Danny Barker was born to a family of musicians in New Orleans in 1909, the grandson of bandleader Isidore Barbarin and nephew of drummers Paul Barbarin and Louis Barbarin. He took up clarinet and drums before switching to a ukulele that his aunt got him, and then a banjo from his uncle or a trumpeter named Lee Collins.

Barker began his career as a musician in his youth with his streetband the Boozan Kings, and also toured Mississippi with Little Brother Montgomery. In 1930, he moved to New York City and switched to the guitar. On the day of his arrival in New York, his uncle Paul took him to the Rhythm Club, where he saw an inspiring performance by McKinney's Cotton Pickers. It was their first performance in New York as a band.

Barker played with several acts when he moved to New York, including Fess Williams, Billy Fowler and the White Brothers. He worked with Buddy Harris in 1933, Albert Nicholas in 1935, Lucky Millinder from 1937 to 1938, and Benny Carter in 1938. During his time in New York, he frequently played with West Indian musicians, who often mistook him for one of them due to his Creole style of playing.

From 1939 to 1946, he frequently recorded with Cab Calloway, and started his own group featuring his wife Blue Lu Barker after leaving Calloway. On September 4, 1945, he recorded with Ohio's native jazz pianist, Sir Charles Thompson, and saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Charlie Parker. He performed at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival with Eubie Blake. In 1963 he was working with Cliff Jackson, and then in 1964 appeared at the World Fair leading his own group. In later years the band became known as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. During that time, he also led the French Market Jazz Band. It was the earnest and general feeling that any Negro who... entered the hell-hole called the state of Mississippi for any reason other than to attend the funeral of a very close relative... was well on the way to losing his mentality, or had already lost it.

Barker wrote and had published two books on jazz from the Oxford University Press. The first was Bourbon Street Black, cowritten with Dr. Jack V. Buerkle, in 1973, which was followed by A Life In Jazz in 1986. He also enjoyed painting and was an amateur landscape artist.

Living during a period when segregation was still common practice in the United States, Barker faced many obstacles during his career. Barker suffered from diabetes throughout most of his adult life, and was often in poor health. He died of cancer in New Orleans on 13 March 1994 at age 85. He was buried from St. Raymond Catholic Church in New Orleans.

Personal life Barker was raised Baptist and Catholic.

Film Barker is featured posthumously in the 2011 non-fiction film by Darren Hoffman, Tradition is a Temple. Musicians from the documentary speak at length of the profound impact that Barker had on their lives and careers and New Orleans poet Chuck Perkins reads a poem written for and dedicated to his memory. In 1957 Barker appeared in the CBS TV program The Sound of Jazz, performing with Red Allen, Pee Wee Russell, Coleman Hawkins and others. Barker appears in Les Blank's New Orleans documentary Always for Pleasure, including an interview (with Blue Lu) and several performance sequences. Barker also appeared in the 1987 American television drama film A Gathering of Old Men, in which he played the role of Chimlee.

Discography

Awards 1994 - Big Easy Entertainment Awards - Best Traditional Jazz Group for Danny Barker 1993 - Big Easy Entertainment Awards - Lifetime Achievement In Music 1993 - Big Easy Entertainment Awards - Best Traditional Jazz Group for Danny Barker 1991 - National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) NEA Jazz Masters Award 1991 - Big Easy Entertainment Awards - Best Traditional Jazz Group for Danny Barker 1990 - Big Easy Entertainment Awards - Best Traditional Jazz Group for Danny Barker and the Jazz Hounds 1989 - Big Easy Entertainment Awards - Best Traditional Jazz Group for Danny Barker and the Jazz Hounds with Blue Lu Barker