Duck Baker
&
Jamie Findlay
Sunday, May 6, 2001, 8PM
Sunday May 6, 2001
8PM
Concert #61
Duck Baker is one of the most highly regarded fingerstyle guitarists of his generation. His repertoire ranges from traditional Irish music through old-time mountain music and bluegrass to blues, gospel, ragtime, swing and modern jazz. Baker has a reputation as a virtuoso but his performances depend as much on his humorous and informative stage manner as on technical bravura. Baker's greatest success has come in the guitar world; his arrangements have influenced hundreds of players who have learned from his books and recordings, and his compositions have been recorded by other pickers like Stefan Grossman, John Renbourn, Pat Kirtley, and Joe Miller. He has appeared at guitar festivals and concerts all over America and Europe, but it is perhaps more important to realize that he has made a considerable name for himself in several different musical camps. Unlike some guitarists who borrow superficially from various traditions for their solo performances, Baker has developed by learning to play each style in group situations and basing his solo arrangements on that experience. His catholicism has been likened to musicians who perform the classical repertoire from renaissance through to modern music.
Baker's recordings after 1980 have for the most part focused on his own compositions, but he also made recordings of blues and gospel material, a collection of early European Christmas carols, and two highly acclaimed CD's with the excellent Appalachian traditional singer Molly Andrews. Baker has written several books on fingerstyle guitar, made numerous tutorial videos, and has several sound tracks to his credit. His fingerpicking peers are on record as saying:
"Duck Baker is a true genius of the guitar." - Stefan Grossman
"Duck has discovered a way to write which is purely and originally beautiful. I think he sets a standard we all can aspire to." - Leo Kottke
"Listening to Duck Baker makes me feel good." - Charlie Byrd
"Duck's compositions will make a significant contribution to the repertoire of the guitar, but until then the music makes fantastic listening" - John Renbourn
Jamie Findlay is one of the
masters of contemporary acoustic guitar. With two CDs under his own
name, "Wings of Light" and "Amigos del Corazón",
Jamie is also a very busy performer and composer, both in the States
and abroad. His music is flavored by many styles from jazz and blues
to pop and funk. Most recently, Jamie has formed the Acoustic Jazz
Quartet, an L.A. based jazz band that features Jamie's compositions,
with a Naxos Jazz release distributed worldwide in April, '99, and a
new Acoustic Jazz Quartet release due out in 2000. Jamie contributes
to several guitar magazines throughout the world, has taught Jazz
Guitar at the University of Southern California and now teaches at
Musicians Institute in Hollywood, Ca. Since 1975, an impressive
personal career has been developed, with travel and performance
throughout almost all parts of the United States, as well as to Asia
and Central America, Brazil, and seven tours of Europe, performing and
giving clinics.
"... The pressure of this sort of instrumentation is obviously on
the
guitarist, who is obliged to provide harmony, melody, and rhythm, some
times individually, often collectively. And Findlay ... covered the
various
demands with ease. On groove oriented pieces ... he tailored his sound
and his articulation to fit the push of the rhythm; on gentler lines
such as
Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Felicidade," he took a more acoustic
path,
generating a subtle undercurrent of bossa nova."- Don Heckman,
Los Angeles Times