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This week in history: Daniel ‘Danny’ Barker was born [1]

['Khalil Gillon', 'More Khalil Gillon', 'Verite News']

Date: 2024-01-12  

Daniel “Danny” Barker, legendary jazz musician who appeared on more than 1,000 records and worked with artists Billie Holiday and Sidney Bechet, was born on Jan. 13, 1909.

Barker was born in New Orleans into a musical family. The grandson of bandleader Isidore Barbarin and nephew of brothers Paul and Louis Barbarin, Barker was introduced to music at an early age.

He started playing the clarinet under the tutelage of Barney Bigard before venturing into the drums, as taught by his uncle Paul. Barker later learned to play the banjo and guitar and formed his own group, the Boozan Kings, and worked with Little Brother Montgomery.

In 1930, when Barker was 21 years old, he married Louisa “Blue Lu” Dupont — who was a jazz and blues singer — and they moved to New York City to pursue full-time careers in music. Barker co-wrote a number of risque jazz tunes with his wife, like 1938’s “Don’t You Feel My Leg.” In the latter half of the 1930s, Barker also worked as a session musician for several pioneers of jazz, including “Jelly Roll” Morton and Cab Calloway.

Barker continued to perform through the 1940s and 50s, releasing “My Indian Red” with his band in 1948. He later appeared at the 1964 World Fair in New York. In 1965, Barker and his wife returned to New Orleans, and in 1970, he formed a brass band for young people with the Fairview Baptist Church.

Kirk Joseph and brothers Wynton and Branford Marsalis, among other modern prominent musicians, were a part of the band at one time or another. (Members of that band later formed the critically-acclaimed Dirty Dozen Brass Band, which won a Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance in 2023.)

Barker released his final studio album, “Save the Bones,” in 1988 when he was 79 years old. He continued to perform around New Orleans until he died of cancer on March 13, 1994, at the age of 85.

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