[Dixielandjazz] Tom Baker

[Bill Haesler]

Marek Boym commented:
> Baker, although he lived in Australia, was, to the best of my knowledge, born in the US.  

Dear Marek,
Here is an obit I wrote for my friend Tom Baker in January 2002
Kind regards,
Bill.

John Thomas (Tom) Baker 
Jazz Musician.
Born: Oakdale, California, USA. 14 September 1952.
Died: Breda, The Netherlands. 23 October 2001.

Jazz musician, Tom Baker, was a talented multi-instrumentalist (trumpet, trombone, clarinet, all the saxophones, tuba and piano) and competent vocalist. Although he was born in the USA it is tempting to claim him as Australian, for his jazz activities developed after he arrived in Sydney with his parents, as a teenager, in 1972 and he acquired Australian citizenship in the mid-1990s. After sitting in, on trumpet, at various Sydney jazz gigs, he joined Dave Banham’s Northside Jazzmen then became the tuba player with Nick Boston’s Colonial Jazz Band, while also playing trumpet with the Ray Price Quintet and the Abbey Jazz Band.
 
In 1975 he formed his first band: the widely acclaimed Tom Baker's San Francisco Jazz Band, which made its official debut in December that year at the 30th Australian Jazz Convention in Balmain, Sydney - and included a triumphant appearance at the Convention's public concert in the Sydney Opera House. During 1976-77 the SFJB built up a strong Australian following, recorded several LPs, toured the US in April-May 1977 including the 5th Annual Old Sacramento Dixieland Jubilee and became the first Australian jazz band invited to appear at this jazz festival, the largest in the world.

Tom Baker went back to the US in 1980, playing with Helen Forrest, Andy Russell and the Pied Pipers and made an appearance at the annual Breda Festival in The Netherlands which resulted in repeat performances nearly every year thereafter. 

When he returned to Sydney in 1981, Tom formed Groove City - his first flirtation with saxophone, and bop. This band supported the Australian tours by Oscar Peterson and Anita O’Day. About this time Tom was also a member of the Morrison Brother’s Big Band, playing baritone saxophone. Since the early 1980s he maintained a presence in Australian traditional, mainstream and modern jazz circles and performed often with James Morrison, Bob Barnard and Don Burrows; featured at festivals in Melbourne, Tasmania, Perth, Brisbane, Thredbo, Wangaratta and Canberra; held long residencies in Sydney with his own Chicago Seven, Quartet and Swing Street Orchestra and with Geoff Bull‘s Olympia Jazz Band, the Cafe Society Orchestra; and hosted regular concert reunions of his original San Francisco Jazz Band. He also made frequent appearances on TV and radio and guest spots at festivals in the US, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Japan playing with international jazz stars including Cab Calloway, Jay McShann, Bob Wilber, Doc Cheatham, Major Holley, Dick Hyman, Scott Hamilton, Arnett Cobb and Ralph Sutton and became as well known overseas as in Australia. Following a hernia operation several years ago, Tom stopped playing trumpet, studied trombone and quickly mastered it in his quiet, efficient way. He felt that he had finally found his instrument. 

Tom Baker, who had just turned 49, died of congenital heart failure while on a Netherlands-Germany tour with the Dutch jazz group 'The Swing Cats'. He had played on the Sunday in Gorkum in The Netherlands and  stopped off to visit friends, jazz pianist Joep Peeters and Wick Akkermans in Breda. Following a late dinner Tom developed chest pains, was rushed to hospital, but died while being prepared for open heart surgery.

It was fitting that his funeral service on 27 October was held in Breda, where he had made many friends from his regular jazz festival appearances there and where a permanent memorial will be erected. Tom Baker was loved the world over. He was a friendly, unselfish, unpretentious man, always eager to help and encourage lesser musicians. His passing will leave a large gap on the international and Australian jazz circuits where he will be mourned by many  for quite a long while.  He is survived by his mother, Virginia and brother, Jeff.

Australian Memorial-Wake Tributes to Tom Baker were held in Sydney on Wednesday, 21 November and in Melbourne on Sunday,  2 December, 2001.

In Sydney the following people addressed the several hundred friends who attended the Memorial in the Attic Bar at the Unity Hall Hotel in Balmain: Bill Haesler (MC) introduction, John Morrison, Chris Qua, Len Barnard, Janet Seidel, Ben Jones, Margaret Stribling (who read a special email from her son Simon), George Washingmachine, Jeff Baker (Tom's brother), John Sharpe (on behalf of ScreenSound Australia who presented the family with CD copies of Tom's oral history interview for the Australian Jazz Archive), Geoff Bull and Virginia Baker (Tom's mother, who said that she was the only one present who had known Tom the longest!). Following the afternoon Memorial numerous Sydney bands, associated with Tom over many years, played tribute brackets in his honour. Sit-in bands followed and the Wake continued late into the night.  

At the Melbourne afternoon Memorial at the Collingwood Football Club speakers included Graham Coyle, Nina Ferro, Dave Robison, Jo Stevenson, Ian Smith, Steve Waddell, Diana Allen, and Margaret Stribling who also read an email from Simon Stribling in Canada. Virginia and Jeff Baker responded. Following the Memorial music was provided by Fireworks (formerly Hotter Than Six), the Andy Baylor Quartet, the Graham Coyle Trio with Sweet Substitute, Django, Gimme a Pigfoot with Nina Ferro, the Creole Bells with Beverley Sheehan and Diana Allen, and the Society Syncopators. 

Bill Haesler 2002