Guy Jeffrey Barker MBE, born 26 December 1957, is an English jazz composer and trumpeter. Barker, the son of a stuntman and an actress, was born in Chiswick (London). Barker began playing the trumpet when he was twelve years old and joined the National Youth Jazz Orchestra within one year. He was 15 years old and playing with Wally Fawkes, Bob Nadkarni and the Crouch End Allstars. Barker took lessons from Clark Terry in 1975 and continued his playing with Gil Evans, Lena Horne and Bobby Watson in the 1980s. From 1984 to 1992, Barker was part of Clark Tracey’s quintet. He has also played as a sideman with Ornette Coleman and Carla Bley. His own band featured an international mix: Perico Sambeat (alto Saxophone, Spain), Bernardo Sassetti, Geoff Gascoyne, Gene Calderazzo, and Gene Calderazzo (drums, United States). More recently, he has been touring the Guy Barker Jazz Orchestra, a 15-piece big band featuring Rosario Giuliani and Per Johansson. He performs DZF, a reworking Mozart’s Magic Flute, with Michael Brandon reading the story, which is a Raymond Chandler-style novel. Barker was the music director and arranger of the annual opening concert of the London Jazz Festival, “Jazz Voice” (Celebrating a Century of Song), which took place from 2008 to 2014. Barker was also music director/arranger on many BBC Radio 2 Friday night music shows, including the Guy Barker Jazz Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra. These shows celebrated the music of Billie Holiday [1]/ Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Frank, and Dusty Springfield[3]/ Jazz Royalty, to celebrate the Wedding of William u0026 Kate. Barker was made Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 New Year Honours. This honour recognizes his services to jazz. In 2013, he was presented with the BASCAGold Badge. [from wikipdia
