Richard Royall "Duck" Baker IV (born July 30, 1949) is an American acoustic fingerstyle guitarist who plays in a variety of styles: jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk, and Irish and Scottish music. He has written many instruction books for guitar.

Musical career

His reputation rests on his work as a solo

fingerstyle Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of guitar picking, playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with ...

guitarist in multiple genres: Irish and

Scottish music Scotland is internationally known for its traditional music, which remained vibrant throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, when many traditional forms worldwide lost popularity to pop music. In spite of emigration and a well-developed con ...

, American

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

, and blues.Duck Baker - Mel Bay Publications Profile
/ref> He was born Richard Royall Baker IV on July 30, 1949 in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Virginia. As a teenager he played in rock bands before becoming interested in acoustic blues and jazz. He listened to the Jazz Crusaders, Jimmy Smith, and

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

, but ''Misterioso'' by

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", ...

got his attention most at the age of 16. He learned about ragtime from his teacher, stride pianist Buck Evans. In the early 1970s, he moved to San Francisco and performed a wide range of material, which can be heard on his debut album, ''There's Something for Everyone in America'', on Kicking Mule Records. In addition to developing his solo style, he immersed himself in the local

swing jazz Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis on the off-beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands ...

and

avant-garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz and experimental jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through to the late 1960s. Orig ...

scene. He was in a swing guitar duet with Thom Keats and a bluegrass band. From the late 1970s to the middle 1980s, he lived in Europe, spending time among

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians dur ...

musicians in London. During these years, he played with

Eugene Chadbourne Eugene Chadbourne (born January 4, 1954) is an American banjoist, guitarist and music critic. Life and career Chadbourne was born in Mount Vernon, New York, but grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He started playing guitar when he was eleven or twe ...

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jazz ...

, Henry Kaiser,

Woody Mann Haywood Lee Mann (December 30, 1952 – January 27, 2022) was an American guitarist. Biography He was born in New York, where he studied acoustic guitar with blues guitarist Reverend Gary Davis from 1968–72. From 1973–78, he continued pri ...

, and Jim Nichols. He toured throughout the world and released an album of Scottish and Irish music before returning to America in 1987.

Discography

As leader

* '' There's Something for Everyone in America'' ( Kicking Mule, 1975) * ''When You Wore a Tulip'' (Kicking Mule, 1975) * ''The King of Bongo Bong'' (Kicking Mule, 1977) * '' The Kid on the Mountain'' (Kicking Mule, 1980) * '' The Art of Fingerstyle Jazz Guitar'' (Kicking Mule, 1980) * ''Under Your Heart'' (Edition Collage, 1985) * ''The Music of O'Carolan'' with Steve Tilston, Seth Austen, Angelo Eleuteri ( Shanachie, 1987) * ''A Thousand Words'' with

John Renbourn John Renbourn (8 August 1944 – 26 March 2015) was an English guitarist and songwriter. He was best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo care ...

(Acoustic Music, 1994) * ''The Clear Blue Sky'' (Acoustic Music, 1995) * '' Spinning Song: Duck Baker Plays the Music of Herbie Nichols'' ( Avant, 1996) * ''Opening the Eyes of Love'' (Shanachie, 1996) * ''Northern Skies, Southern Blues'' with Stefan Grossman (Shanachie, 1997) * ''Ms. Right'' (Acoustic Music, 1997) * ''Out of the Past'' with Jamie Findlay (Day Job, 2001) * ''The Ducks Palace'' (

Incus The ''incus'' (plural incudes) or anvil is a bone in the middle ear. The anvil-shaped small bone is one of three ossicles in the middle ear. The ''incus'' receives vibrations from the ''malleus'', to which it is connected laterally, and transmi ...

, 2009) * ''Everything That Rises Must Converge'' (Mighty Quinn, 2009) * ''The Roots and Branches of American Music'' (Les Cousins, 2009) * ''The County Set'' (Southern Summer, 2016) * ''Outside'' ( Emanem, 2016) * ''Les Blues Du Richmond: Demos & Outtakes 1973–1979'' (Tomkins Square, 2018) * ''Duck Baker Plays Monk'' (Triple Point, 2018)

As sideman

With

* ''Guitar Trios'' (Parachute, 1977) * ''Vision-Ease Vol 2'' (House of Chadula, 1978) * ''Wild Partners'' (House of Chadula, 1998) With others * John James, ''Descriptive Guitar Instrumentals'' (Kicking Mule, 1976) *

Stefan Grossman Stefan Grossman (born April 16, 1945) is an American acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and singer, music producer and educator, and co-founder of Kicking Mule records. He is known for his instructional videos and Vestapol line of videos and DVDs. E ...

, ''Thunder on the Run'' (Kicking Mule, 1980) *

Roswell Rudd Roswell Hopkins Rudd Jr. (November 17, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American jazz trombonist and composer. Although skilled in a variety of genres of jazz (including Dixieland, which he performed while in college), and other genres of musi ...

, '' Broad Strokes'' (

Knitting Factory The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States. The Knitting Factory gave its audience poetry readings, perform ...

, 2000)

References

External links

* *

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

Duck Baker: Folk ist Jazz ist Folk
(German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Duck American blues guitarists American male guitarists American jazz guitarists Fingerstyle guitarists 1949 births Living people Guitarists from Washington, D.C. 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Incus Records artists Shanachie Records artists Emanem Records artists Sonet Records artists