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Danny Barker (13 January 1909–13 March, 1994), born Daniel Moses Barker, was a jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 banjoist, singer, guitarist
Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may perform solo pieces or play with ensembles and bands of a wide variety of genres....
, songwriter
Songwriter

File:Beethoven.jpgA songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics, as well the musical composition or melody to songs. One who writes only lyrics is a lyricist, while one who writes only music is a composer....
, ukelele player and author
Author

An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created....
 from New Orleans, founder of the locally famous Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band. He was a rhythm guitarist for some of the best bands of the day, including Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was a famous American jazz singer and bandleader.Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s....
, Lucky Millinder
Lucky Millinder

Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder was an United States rhythm and blues and swing music bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang, his showmanship and musical taste made his bands successful....
 and Benny Carter
Benny Carter

Bennett Lester Carter was an United States jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King ....
 throughout the 1930s.

On September 4, 1945 he recorded with Ohio
Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region , Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads in North America....
's native jazz pianist—Sir Charles Thompson—a date that included saxophonists Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon was an United States jazz tenor saxophonist, and an Academy Award-nominated actor. He is considered one of the first bebop tenor players....
 and Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians, along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington....
.






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Danny Barker (13 January 1909–13 March, 1994), born Daniel Moses Barker, was a jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 banjoist, singer, guitarist
Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may perform solo pieces or play with ensembles and bands of a wide variety of genres....
, songwriter
Songwriter

File:Beethoven.jpgA songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics, as well the musical composition or melody to songs. One who writes only lyrics is a lyricist, while one who writes only music is a composer....
, ukelele player and author
Author

An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created....
 from New Orleans, founder of the locally famous Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band. He was a rhythm guitarist for some of the best bands of the day, including Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was a famous American jazz singer and bandleader.Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s....
, Lucky Millinder
Lucky Millinder

Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder was an United States rhythm and blues and swing music bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang, his showmanship and musical taste made his bands successful....
 and Benny Carter
Benny Carter

Bennett Lester Carter was an United States jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King ....
 throughout the 1930s.

On September 4, 1945 he recorded with Ohio
Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region , Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads in North America....
's native jazz pianist—Sir Charles Thompson—a date that included saxophonists Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon was an United States jazz tenor saxophonist, and an Academy Award-nominated actor. He is considered one of the first bebop tenor players....
 and Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians, along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington....
. Barker's work with the Fairview Band was pivotal in ensuring the longevity of jazz in New Orleans, producing generations of new talent. Brothers Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Learson Marsalis is an United States trumpeter and composer. He is among the most prominent jazz musicians of the modern era and is also a well-known instrumentalist in European classical music....
 and Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis is an United States saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque....
 both played in the band as youths. One of Barker's earliest teachers in New Orleans was fellow banjoist Emanuel Sayles, whom he recorded with. Throughout his career, he played with Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton

Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton was an United States ragtime pianist, bandleader and composer.Widely recognized as a pivotal figure in early jazz, Morton claimed, in self-promotional hyperbole, to have invented jazz outright in 1902....
, Baby Dodds
Baby Dodds

Warren "Baby" Dodds was a jazz drummer born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Louisiana."Baby" Dodds was the younger brother of clarinetist Johnny Dodds....
, James P. Johnson
James P. Johnson

James Price Johnson [A.K.A. "Jimmy Johnson"] was an African-American pianist and composer. With Luckey Roberts, Johnson was one of the originators of the Stride piano style of jazz piano playing....
, Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet

Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophone, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist of any sort....
, Mezz Mezzrow
Mezz Mezzrow

Milton Mesirow, better known as Mezz Mezzrow was an United States jazz clarinetist and saxophonist from Chicago, Illinois. Mezzrow is well-known for organizing and financing historic recording sessions with Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet....
, and Red Allen
Red Allen

Henry "Red" Allen was a jazz trumpeter whose style has been claimed to be the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong....
. He also toured and recorded with his wife, singer Blue Lu Barker
Blue Lu Barker

Blue Lu Barker was a jazz and blues singer, born Louisa Dupont Barker in New Orleans, Louisiana, Louisiana who often sang and performed with her husband Danny Barker, a legend of the New Orleans music scene....
.

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
Paul Barbarin

Adolphe Paul Barbarin was a New Orleans, Louisiana Jazz drumming, usually regarded as one of the very best of the pre-Big Band era jazz drummers....
 and Louis Barbarin
Louis Barbarin

Louis Barbarin was a New Orleans Jazz drumming.Louis was the younger brother of Paul Barbarin. He spent most of his life playing in his home town of New Orleans, never achieving the fame of his brother, but many of his fellow musicians considered him equal or better as a drummer than Paul....
; he first took up clarinet
Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet....
 and drums
Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbell s, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer....
 before switching to a ukelele that his aunt got him, and then a banjo
Banjo

The banjo is a stringed instrument developed by Slavery in the United States Africans in the United States, adapted from several African instruments....
 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
Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Deep South of the United States. Jackson, Mississippi is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Anishinaabe language word misi-ziibi ....
 with Little Brother Montgomery
Little Brother Montgomery

Eurreal Wilford "Little Brother" Montgomery was a jazz and blues pianist and singer.Largely self-taught, Montgomery is often thought of as just a blues pianist, but he was an important blues pianist with an original style....
. In 1930 he moved to New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 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
McKinney's Cotton Pickers

McKinney's Cotton Pickers were a United States jazz band founded in Detroit in 1926 by William McKinney, who expanded his Synco Septet to ten pieces....
. Ironically, that was also their first performance in New York as a band. 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
Zydeco

'Zydeco' is a form of American roots or traditional music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 20th century from forms of Louisiana Creole music....
 style of playing.

Barker played with several acts when he initially moved to New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
, including Fess Williams
Fess Williams

Stanley Williams was an United States jazz musician....
, Billy Fowler and the White Brothers. He worked with Buddy Harris in 1933, Albert Nichols in 1935, Lucky Millinder
Lucky Millinder

Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder was an United States rhythm and blues and swing music bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang, his showmanship and musical taste made his bands successful....
 from 1937 to 1938, and Benny Carter
Benny Carter

Bennett Lester Carter was an United States jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King ....
 in 1938. From the years 1939 to 1946 he was frequently recording with Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was a famous American jazz singer and bandleader.Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s....
, and started his own group featuring his wife Blue Lu Barker
Blue Lu Barker

Blue Lu Barker was a jazz and blues singer, born Louisa Dupont Barker in New Orleans, Louisiana, Louisiana who often sang and performed with her husband Danny Barker, a legend of the New Orleans music scene....
 after leaving Calloway. In 1947 he was performing again with Lucky Millinder, and also with Bunk Johnson
Bunk Johnson

Willie Gary "Bunk" Johnson was a prominent early New Orleans jazz trumpet player in the early years of the 20th century who enjoyed a revived career in the 1940s....
. He returned to working with Al Nichols in 1948 and in 1949 rejoined efforts with his wife in a group. During the 1950s he was primarily a freelance musician, but did work with his uncle Paul Barbarin
Paul Barbarin

Adolphe Paul Barbarin was a New Orleans, Louisiana Jazz drumming, usually regarded as one of the very best of the pre-Big Band era jazz drummers....
 from 1954 to 1955. In the mid-1950s he went to California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
 to record yet again with Albert Nichols.

Sometime in the early 1960s he formed a group he called Cinderella. He performed at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival
Newport Jazz Festival

The Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. It was established in 1954 by the jazz impresario George Wein, prompted by socialite Elaine Lorillard, whose wealthy husband helped finance the festival's startup....
 with Eubie Blake
Eubie Blake

James Hubert Blake was a composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. With long time collaborator Noble Sissle, Blake wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along in 1921; this was one of the first Broadway theatre musical ever to be written and directed by African Americans....
. In 1963 he was working with Cliff Jackson, and then in 1964 appeared at the World Fair
World fair

World Fair can refer to:* Expo , a large public exhibition* This World Fair, an American rock bandSee also* List of world's fairs...
 leading his own group.

In 1965, Barker returned to New Orleans and took up a position as assistant to the curator
Curator

Curator , means manager, Wiktionary:overseer.Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a culture heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's Collection s and, together with a publications specialist, their associated collections catalogs....
 of the New Orleans Jazz Museum
New Orleans Jazz Museum

The New Orleans Jazz Museum was a museum related to the history of New Orleans jazz. Originally a separate museum, the collection is now in the Louisiana State Museum Jazz Collection....
. In 1972 he found and led a church-sponsored brass band
Brass band

A brass band is a musical group generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles which include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert bands, wind bands or wind ensembles....
 for young people—the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band—which became popular. In later years the band became known as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Dirty Dozen Brass Band

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a New Orleans, Louisiana, brass band. The ensemble was established in 1977 by Benny Jones together with members of the Tornado Brass Band....
. During this time he also led the French Market Jazz Band.

The Fairview band also launched the careers of a number of professional musicians who went on to perform in both brass band
Brass band

A brass band is a musical group generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles which include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert bands, wind bands or wind ensembles....
 and mainstream jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 contexts, including Leroy Jones
Leroy Jones

Leroy Jones is a jazz trumpeter from New Orleans, Louisiana. Born February 20, 1958, Jones began playing trumpet at the age of ten, and by the time he was 13 was leading the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band, a group of young musicians organized by guitar- and banjo-player Danny Barker....
, Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Learson Marsalis is an United States trumpeter and composer. He is among the most prominent jazz musicians of the modern era and is also a well-known instrumentalist in European classical music....
, Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis is an United States saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque....
, Kirk Joseph
Kirk Joseph

Kirk Joseph is a jazz sousaphone player from New Orleans, Louisiana. The son of trombone Waldren Joseph, Kirk Joseph began playing the sousaphone while a student at Andrew Bell Middle School, and took part in his first professional gig at the age of fifteen when his brother Charles Joseph invited him to play a funeral with the Majestic Band...
, and Nicholas Payton
Nicholas Payton

Nicholas Payton is a Neo-bop jazz trumpet player from New Orleans, Louisiana.The son of double bass and sousaphone Walter Payton , he took up the trumpet at the age of four and by the time he was nine he was playing in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band alongside his father....
. As Joe Torregano—another Fairview band alumnus—described it, "That group saved jazz for a generation in New Orleans."

Barker played regularly at many New Orleans venues from the late 1960s through the early 1990s, in addition to touring. During the 1994 Mardi Gras
New Orleans Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana, is one of the most famous Carnival celebrations in the world.The New Orleans Carnival season, with roots in preparing for the start of the Catholic season of Lent, starts on Twelfth Night ....
 season Barker reigned as King of Krewe du Vieux
Krewe du Vieux

The Krewe du Vieux is a New Orleans Mardi Gras or Carnival krewe, originally and more fully known as the Krewe du Vieux Carre. The parade begins in the Marigny and slowly meanders its way through the Vieux Carre ....
. He also published an autobiography
Autobiography

An autobiography is a biography written by its subject . The term was first used by the poet Robert Southey in 1809 in the English language Periodical publication Quarterly Review, but the form goes back to antiquity....
 and many articles on New Orleans and jazz history.

Barker also authored and had published two books on jazz from the Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press is a publisher and a department of the University of Oxford in England. It is the largest university press in the world, being larger than all the American university presses combined with Cambridge University Press....
. The first was "Bourboun Street Black" in 1973, which was followed by "A Life In Jazz" in 1986. He also enjoyed painting and was an amateur landscape artist
Artist

The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art....
.

Living during a period when segregation
Segregation

Segregation or segregate may refer to:*Geographical segregation*Mendelian inheritance#Law of Segregation*Particle segregation*Racial segregation...
 was still common practice in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, Barker faced many obstacles during his career. Barker suffered from diabetes throughout most of his adult life, and was often in general poor health. He died of cancer
Cancer

Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cell display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis . These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, do not invade or metastasize....
 in New Orleans on 13 March 1994 at age 85.

Discography

A very incomplete listing of Barker's recordings includes:

YearAlbumLeaderLabel
1945"Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians, along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington....
: Every Bit Of It 1945"		Sir Charles ThompsonSpotlite Records
1947"Creole Reeds "Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet

Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophone, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist of any sort....
Riverside Records
Riverside Records

Riverside Records, a United States record label specializing in jazz, was the raison d'etre for Bill Grauer Productions, a company founded by Bill Grauer and Orrin Keepnews in 1953 in music in New York City....
1955"Paul Barbarin And His New Orleans Jazz"Paul Barbarin
Paul Barbarin

Adolphe Paul Barbarin was a New Orleans, Louisiana Jazz drumming, usually regarded as one of the very best of the pre-Big Band era jazz drummers....
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an United States record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm & blues, rock and roll, and jazz. Long one of the most important American independent labels, Atlantic now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group, which consolidated Atlantic Records and the Elektra Entertainment Group into one...
1957"Broadcast Performances, Vol. 3: Radio And TV Broadcasts (1956–1958)"Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter.Nicknamed Lady Day by her loyal friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing....
ESP Disk
1958"Mainstream"Vic Dickenson
Vic Dickenson

Vic Dickenson was an African-American jazz trombonist. Dickenson's career started out in the 1920s and led him through musical partnerships with such legends as Count Basie , Sidney Bechet and Earl Hines ....
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an United States record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm & blues, rock and roll, and jazz. Long one of the most important American independent labels, Atlantic now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group, which consolidated Atlantic Records and the Elektra Entertainment Group into one...
1958"LaVern Baker
LaVern Baker

LaVern Baker was an United States rhythm and blues singer....
 Sings Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was an United States blues singer.The most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s, Smith is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era, and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists....
"		Phil Moore OrchestraAtlantic Records
1959"A Girl And Her Guitar"Mary Osborne QuintetApollo Records
Apollo Records

Apollo Records has been the name of at least five different record labels:* Apollo Records - a United States based company.* Apollo Records - a United States based company....
1960"Ham And Eggs / Liza Little Liza Jane"Leroy ParkinsBethlehem Records
1961"Things Ain't What They Used To Be""The Swingville All Stars"Swingsville Records


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 Humanities
    National Endowment for the Humanities

    The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities....
     (NEH) Lifetime Achievement 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


See also

  • List of people from New Orleans