Leading symphonic jazz composer and educator, David N. Baker Jr., will be on the Simpson College campus on Wednesday, March 2 and Thursday, March 3 for a series of events sponsored by the college’s music department.

Baker will hold an improvisation class in the Harris Band Room, Amy Robertson Music Center from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 2. During the improvisation class, Baker will demonstrate how to understand and interpret chord changes and aspects of jazz improvisation in general.

Also on Wednesday in the Harris Band Room, there will be an open rehearsal with the Simpson College Jazz Ensemble in a concert of Baker and William “Count” Basie’s compositions from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

On Thursday, March 3, Baker will deliver a “History of Jazz Lecture” from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Lekberg Hall, Amy Robertson Music Center. Baker will deliver a lecture on the history of jazz as a uniquely American art form, as seen through the life of one of its greatest proponents: Louis Armstrong.

Thursday evening at 8 p.m., the Simpson College Jazz Ensemble will perform a concert featuring the works of Baker and William “Count” Basie in Great Hall. A reception in Great Hall for Baker will follow the concert.

Baker grew up in Indianapolis, IN, where he began the study of music in the Indianapolis public schools. By his teens, he had settled on the trombone, and was on his way toward a career in music by the time he graduated from Crispus Attucks High School (the only black high school in a still-segregated city).

He has performed in important groups as diverse as the big bands of Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton and Quincy Jones.

A 1953 accident forestalled his career as a trombonist, yet Baker responded by turning to a rigorous curriculum of cello studies. He has since pioneered the use of the cello in jazz.

Baker earned a bachelor’s in music education in 1953 and a master’s in music education in 1954, from at Indiana University, receiving additional instruction from composer Bernard Heiden and, later, cellist Janos Starker.

Following various teaching posts in Missouri, Indiana, and as a private instructor, he returned to Bloomington in 1966 a complete musician, writing a full-scale concert work utilizing jazz ensemble and orchestra, Roctions (My Indianapolis), in 1969. He has spent the past 30 years there, establishing one of the country's premiere jazz studies departments and encouraging younger generations of musicians with his seemingly endless compendium of experience.

All of the above events are free and open to the public. Please contact Michael Duke at duke@simpson.edu or 515.961.1575 with questions.