Play Not Quite Two Dozen

Trumpeter Kenny Baker seems to have been around forever, certainly as far as the lives of most collectors reading these notes. His death not so long ago left a void which has been impossible to fill, both for collectors of Big Band music, Jazz lovers, and in particular those who enjoyed trumpet playing, not least for the musicians he regularly played with.

Kenny was born at Withernsea, East Yorkshire. His mother was a violin player and gave piano lessons; father played clarinet and saxophone, and his uncle played brass bass in the local church band, which Kenny also played in when he was just 12 years old. From an early age Kenny had given enough indications that he was only going to be interested in music as a means of earning a living, and so at the age of 14 his mother allowed him to leave school providing he agreed to seriously study music at home with her. She taught him Theory and Harmony but at this stage, of course, he hadn't decided what direction his career would take, whether he would be an instrumentalist, a composer or possibly an arranger. As things turned out, he became accomplished in all of those areas of music, eventually playing with, composing and arranging for Big Bands and Jazz groups both large and small; through the years many musicians benefited from his expertise in these skills.