Tedd Baker Quartet - "Trickorbeat" | From the Archive

Most musicians you'd consider part of the "scene" in D.C. are, in reality, dancing between many scenes every week: say, a weekly hit on U Street; the school where they teach; the church where they play every Sunday; etc.

But Tedd Baker does a particularly interesting dance. He's one musician who has a steady gig in a military band — in his case, the Air Force's Airmen of Note — and is also a mainstay on the ground-level scene of musicians who make their livings grinding out gigs in venues across the District.

The military bands are demanding gigs, so their members, many of whom moved to D.C. specifically for the job, aren't always familiar faces at Jojo's or Mr. Henry's. But Baker, who was heralded as a rising star in Boston before joining the Airmen in 2002, has kept his creative flame burning brightly ever since, continuing to make statements as an artist and bandleader in his own right. He's earned a reputation as one of D.C.'s most formidable tenor saxophonists, and as a composer, too. His growing book of originals includes this cut, "Trickorbeat," which lit up our Spotlight Residency in January 2020. // Jamie Sandel, CapitalBop

For more multimedia messages from the D.C. jazz scene, head to capitalbop.com.

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recorded January 26, 2020 at Local 16 - Washington, D.C.
CapitalBop's Spotlight Residency presents: Tedd Baker Quartet

Tedd Baker - saxophone
Kris Funn - bass
Dave McDonald - drums
Chris Ziemba - piano

produced by: Jamie Sandel for CapitalBop
filmed by: Lauren Honesty
audio engineer + video editor: Jamie Sandel

The editing and publication of this video was supported by a grant from HumanitiesDC as part of the Humanities Grant Program, an initiative funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.