Happy Birthday to Jazz Legend Danny Barker

Happy Birthday Danny Barker!

Born in New Orleans on January 13, 1909, Danny Barker roamed the streets, experiencing the genesis of jazz music in “spasm” bands that vibrated music from the street corners to the saloons. Barker’s grandfather was cornet and alto horn player Isidore Barbarin, and his uncles were drummers Louis and Paul Barbarin. Strings became Barker’s forte and he became accomplished on the ukulele, guitar, and banjo. In 1930, he married Louise “Blue Lu” Dupount and the couple moved to New York where they remained for thirty-five years. Barker worked with such greats as Jelly Roll Morton (who once quipped that Barker was a “little catfish in a sea of sharks”), Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Lena Horner, Charlie Parker, and Cab Calloway. In 1965, the Barkers returned to New Orleans where they revived the bass band tradition, starting the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band. He instructed future legends such as Lucien and Charles Barbarin, Wynton and Brandford Marsalis and Michael White. Walter Payton once said, “Danny Barker was like the Christopher Columbus of brass band music. He planted some good seeds.”

Barker taught classes, won a Master of Jazz award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame.

Beautiful portrait of Danny Barker by John McCusker

Despite Barker helping resurrect the jazz funeral, before he died in 1994, he told his wife he didn’t want one, fearing it would turn into a wild street party. Barker felt that jazz funerals had deviated from their earlier importance and meaning. After Barker died, trumpeter Gregg Stafford appealed to Barker’s wife, promising a respectful homage to the man and the jazz funeral heritage. His plea worked and Barker received a traditional jazz funeral, rich in what Barker installed in so many: Culture, custom, and honor.

Danny Barker is buried in his uncle Paul Barabrin’s tomb in St. Louis Cemetery #2.

Danny Barker, buried in his uncle Paul Barbarin’s tomb in St. Louis Cemetery #2

Thank you, John McCusker for allowing me to use your beautiful portrait of Mr. Barker!

If you’d like to learn more about Danny Barker and others buried in St. Louis Cemetery #2, you can purchase my book Stories from the St. Louis Cemeteries of New Orleans