Festival Profiles: Clint Baker

AUTHOR: By Hal Smith - AFCDJS Artistic Director

Originally Published Jan 2013

This is one more in a series of biographies of great traditional jazz musicians. The series started with the March/ April 1991 issue and was developed by Rambler founding publisher and Board Member, the late Len Levine). Reprinted from the Spring 2012 Jazz Rambler.

The next time you attend a jazz festival, look for a young man wearing a cap who is making things happen on the bandstand. He may be in the front line playing trumpet, trombone or clarinet or possibly in the rhythm section on banjo, guitar, string bass, tuba or drums. Listen for an authoritative and authentic sound on whatever the man in the cap is playing, and you will have found CLINT BAKER.

Clint became a genuine jazz wunderkind, almost as soon as he began playing jazz in the late 1980s. Over the years he has learned to play all the instruments that are usually heard in Traditional Jazz and has also become a much-respected bandleader. Though his favorite style of music is New Orleans Jazz, he is equally adept at playing San Francisco, Chicago, Kansas City and Harlem styles as well as Gypsy Jazz.

During the past decade, Clint has worked with a variety of bands, playing a wide range of styles, including: New Orleans Rascals of Osaka, Climax Jazz Band, Jim Cullum’s Jazz Band, Hal Smith’s Roadrunners, Tom Sharpsteen’s Orlandos, Bill Bissonnette’s International Jazz Band, Leon Oakley’s Friends of Jazz Band, Reynolds Brothers Rhythm Rascals and the Black Diamond Blue Five. He also led Clint Baker’s New Orleans Jazz Band (which still performs for special occasions).

Clint’s present-day musical activities are just as varied: trumpet with the Grand Dominion Jazz Band; tuba with the Yerba Buena Stompers; string bass with Ray Skjelbred and his Cubs; guitar (and sometimes bass) with Le Jazz Hot . He leads the Cafe’ Borrone All-Stars--at the establishment of the same name in Menlo Park, California--and co-leads the New El Dorado Jazz Band. In both cases, he is able to play any instrument that is necessary for the performance.

In addition to his busy performance schedule, Clint also lectures on jazz history and since 1997 he has been on the staff of the AFCDJS Adult Traditional Jazz Camp.

Clint lives in San Bruno, California with his wife Alisa Clancy (a jazz radio host) and their two children.

To borrow a phrase from Clint Baker himself, he is a “full-service” jazz musician… m u l t i - i n s t r u m e n t a l i s t , bandleader, educator and historian. When you hear Clint in person, be sure to thank him for everything he does to promote and preserve the great traditions in Classic Jazz!