Fred Baker

guitar/bass guitar

previous bands include:

SECOND VISION. DISTRICT SIX. JOHN ETHERIDGE / ELTON DEAN QUARTET.

ART THEMEN. HARRY BECKETT QUARTET.

selected discography:

Rick Saunders: ENGLISH AIR.

Maggie Nickols: PULSE.

Andrew Cranshaw: GREAT DARK WATER.

Phil Miller: SPLIT SECONDS.

IN CAHOOTS LIVE 86-89.

DIGGING IN.

DOUBLE UP.

IN CAHOOTS LIVE IN JAPAN.

RECENT DISCOVERIES.

PARALLEL.

OUT OF THE BLUE.

All THAT.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES.

Fred Baker: BASSICALLY SPEAKIN'.

FRED T. BAKER GROUP.

Harry Beckett / Chris McGregor: THE BREMEN CONCERT.

LIVE AT STUTTGART.

Fred Thelonious Baker was born in Derbyshire in 1960, named after Thelonius Monk. His father was a guitarist and Fred's first instrument was the guitar. He started playing electric bass in his teens, playing both jazz and classical music. He met former Soft Machine violin player Ric Sanders at a students' party when he was a student at the Birmingham School of Music in 1980. Ric Sanders and guitarist John Etheridge were forming The John Etheridge/Ric Sanders Band. Fred joined them for a British jazz circuit tour. Fred formed his own band, the Fred Thelonious Baker Group, in 1984 and recorded an album by the same name. He joined trumpeter Harry Beckett's group and toured Europe extensively, recording three albums. He also played in the Elton Dean/John Etheridge Quartet with drummer Mark Sanders. This led to him being recommended by Dean as the replacement for the departing Hugh Hopper in Phil Miller's In Cahoots in April 1988. He has recorded six albums with the band contributing several compositions to the repetoire. In 1991 Fred and Phil Miller formed a guitar duo, playing countless gigs and recording the "Double Up" album which featured two Baker originals. In 1993 he recorded "A Moon of Roses" with pianist Horace Parlan in Germany. Fred works frequently in a folk/jazz context with Ric Sanders and Vicki Clayton, his most recent project with them being a tribute album to Sandy Denny, "It Suits Me Well". In addition to performing and recording, Baker also teaches jazz and progressive music at the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music. He has a solo CD out on the Voiceprint label: Fred Thelonius Baker "Missing Link" (available from Crescent Discs) and on the Classicprint label "Concerto for Two Guitars" by Andrew Downes with Fred on Bass guitar and Simon Dinnigan on guitar.

This information is taken from Aymeric Leroy's excellent website Calyx.