Edythe Baker

Edythe Baker ( born August 25, 1899 in Girard, Kansas; † August 15, 1971 in Orange County, California ) was an American jazz pianist of the early jazz and dancer who has remained primarily by their piano rolls in memory.

Life and work

Baker came to a piano training in Kansas City in 1919 to New York City, where she performed in vaudeville area as a pianist, and then from 1920 in the next six years, a number of piano rolls of ragtime, Blue titles and contemporary pop music ( such as Yes Sir, That's My Baby or Sweet One ) for the Aeolian Company grossed. From 1920 she also appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies and worked from 1922 as a pianist and dancer in other plays on Broadway.

1927 Baker moved to England, where she appeared in a revue with songs by Richard Rogers and Cole Porter; there she took her new success tracks like My Heart Stood Still on record for Columbia. In 1928 she married Gerard D' Erlanger, the son of a banker, with whom she traveled around the world before 1934, the divorce took place. In 1931 she recorded 16 tracks for Decca Records; further recordings were made in 1933. During the next few years she made headlines several times in the press because it claimed several members of the royal family made ​​the yard. In 1945, she returned to New York, where she worked as a piano teacher. Your retirement years she spent in Southern California.

The good technique and Bakers sense of swing made ​​sure that a part of the Piano Roll was released on vinyl again ( Folkways LP, 1983). They also composed themselves titles such as the Dreaming Blues ( 1920).

Disco Graphical Notes

• Piano Roll Artistry of Edythe Baker and Other Women

Lexigraphic entries

• Paul Du Noyer: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music. Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing 2003; ISBN 1-904041-96-5.