{"id":9766,"date":"2018-07-12T16:16:48","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T23:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=9766"},"modified":"2018-07-12T16:16:48","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T23:16:48","slug":"duck-baker-on-thelonious-monk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/07\/duck-baker-on-thelonious-monk\/","title":{"rendered":"Duck Baker On Thelonious Monk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Duck Baker<\/strong> Plays Monk<\/a> (Triple Point Records)<\/p>\n

\"\"Duck Baker (Richard Royal Baker IV) may not be a household name among jazz devotees at large, but in his career of more than four decades he has become a hero to other guitarists. He has led or been involved in dozens of recordings of folk music from all over the world, and several varieties of ragtime, gospel, bluegrass and blues. Baker is an exemplary performer and teacher of what is often called fingerstyle or fingerpicking guitar. To oversimplify the approach, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just say that he plays using his fingertips and nails rather than a pick held in the right hand. That creates not only technical challenges, but also harmonic opportunities that Baker masterfully exploits. In concentrating on music by Thelonious Monk, Baker melds his own imagination and daring with the deep harmonic and rhythmic implications of Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s compositions. In his notes accompanying this Vinyl LP, he recalls that in his teens he graduated instantly from rock and roll to jazz when he heard Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s album Misterioso<\/em><\/a>. He writes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Within a minute two I was completely hooked.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

In this perfectly recorded album he includes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Misterioso with eight other Monk pieces. His work is impressive throughout, particularly so in the irresistible forward motion of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bemsha Swing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the intricacies of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jackie-ing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Not from the album, but from a 2016 YouTube<\/em> video, here is Baker introducing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blue Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and referring to his long history with the tune.<\/p>\n

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