Spinning Song: Duck Baker Plays the Music of Herbie Nichols

by Duck Baker

Overview

This CD consists entirely of solo fingerstyle guitar renditions of pieces by the legendary Blue Note pianist/composer Herbie Nichols, and as with Nichols' music -- which was nearly always performed in a standard piano/bass/drums trio format -- there is a lot more going on here than the somewhat routine surface suggests. Nichols' compositions have their own sort of ambiguous, hard-to-pin-down harmonic aroma, filled with subtle harmonic twists and soft dissonances, but Baker somehow captures it in these versions even when he detours from the originals. He swings naturally and effortlessly when he wants, but he also takes things outside and gets abstract in his own quiet way, most notably on the remarkable version of "Nick at T's." Folks who are new to Nichols' music would probably find it helpful to know the originals, since Baker rearranges several of them, tosses in quotes from other tunes, and generally does more improvising than the pianist was prone to doing. In any case, this album is a fine piece of work, one with the same type of subtlety and deceptive-sounding ease for which Nichols was/is known. ~ William York

Product Details

Release Date:	02/01/2019
Label:	Triple Point
UPC:	0769791972148

Tracks

1. The Third World
2. The Happenings
3. 2300 Skidoo
4. 117th St.
5. Portrait of Ucha
6. Lady Sings the Blues
7. Nick at T's
8. House Party Starting
9. Spinning Song

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Duck Baker   Primary Artist,Guitar (Acoustic)

Technical Credits

Kazunori Sugiyama   Producer,Assistant Producer,Associate Producer
John Zorn   Producer,Executive Producer
Don Sternecker   Engineer
Herbie Nichols   Composer
Duck Baker   Liner Notes
Francis Wolff   Photography
Ikue Mori   Design
Allan Tucker   Mastering