Edythe Baker | |
|---|---|
 Edythe Baker, 1925 | |
| Born | Edith A Baker August 25, 1899 Girard, Kansas U.S. |
| Died | August 15, 1971 (aged 71) Manhattan, New York U.S. |
| Occupations | |
Early life edit
Baker was born in Girard, Kansas in 1899. Her parents divorced around 1905 and Edith and younger brother Cecil moved with their mother to Kansas City, Missouri. From about 8 to 14, Baker was educated at St. Mary's Convent in Independence, Missouri, where she received piano and voice lessons.[1]
There are two varying accounts of her musical involvement during her early teenage years. One described her work at Nowlin Music Co. in Kansas City as a musician and saleswoman. The other account claims she received lessons from the composer-performer Ernie Burnett, composer of Melancholy Baby. She supposedly also regularly visited the Orpheum Theatre in Kansas City where she listened to different piano styles. Allegedly she was able to support her mother and brother by age 15 playing ragtime piano in small cabarets. Her "peculiar style" along with her good looks made her "a favorite among cabaret regulars."[2]
Professional career edit
Baker had a short-lived act in Chicago before moving to New York City where she changed her first name to Edythe. Her talent was quickly apparent, and in 1919 she appeared in an act called Two Girls and a Piano with singer Corrine Harris. She signed with Aeolian, maker of player piano rolls, which extolled her as "the foremost ragtime pianiste of vaudeville," and claimed that "Miss Baker's conception of the various kind of 'Blues' so much in vogue at present is considered the most unique of its kind. Her playing is both snappy and artistic, while her charming personality is apparent in everything she interprets".[3]
She moved on to Broadway musical productions. Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. cast her in the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic, an after-the-show cabaret staged at the rooftop restaurant of the New Amsterdam Theater, and became a regular there (as a dancer and musician) as well as with the Ziegfeld 9 O'Clock Revue, during 1920-1921. One account stated that "Her act is entitled 'Ten Fingers of Syncopation,' and her playing makes it difficult for members of the audience to keep their feet still."[4]
After working for Ziegfeld, she had major roles in several other Broadway musicals through 1926 while continuing to record jazz music. In 1926 Baker moved to London, where she became a major theatrical star. She had a major role in the play One Damn Thing After Another by Charles B. Cochran and Richard Rodgers. Rodgers had high regard for Edythe, and mentioned her kindly in his autobiography, noting her novel style of performance.[5]
Baker became known as "one of the finest jazz pianists of the day," while also enjoying life at the top of high society. She allegedly taught the Prince of Wales how to dance the hugely popular dance known as the Black Bottom. [6]
A selection of Baker's music can be heard online via the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings site.[7]
Personal life edit
In 1928, she married a wealthy banker Gerard d'Erlanger. In late 1931 she recorded jazz music for Decca Records. Her last session was in February 1933. She and her husband divorced in 1934.[8]
Despite her fame, Baker retained a common touch, as recounted by John Durnford-Slater in Commando: Memoirs of a Fighting Commando in World War Two. "In 1927, when I went up to London for my army examination... I saw and heard Edythe Baker playing My Heart Stood Still and The Birth of the Blues. I thought this the greatest thing I had experienced, and was still of the same opinion in 1944. One evening in March [I and a companion were put in a flat where] the bathroom accommodation was somewhat overtaxed. Our hostess said that she would get the use of the bathroom in the flat above, this being Edythe Baker's flat. Edythe Baker is highly domesticated, and she personally cleaned out the bath, ran it and put in the bath salts. As I lay in the bath I could hear My Heart Stood Still being played on the piano. The greatest bath of all time? Of course it was."[9]
Baker returned to the United States in August 1945. She married Girard S. Brewer in Orange, California, on December 2, 1961. The couple resided there through the time of Baker's death in 1971.[10]
References edit
- ^ "Biography by Bill Edwards". Archived from the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ "Biography by Bill Edwards". Archived from the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ "Biography by Bill Edwards". Archived from the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ "Biography by Bill Edwards". Archived from the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ "Biography by Bill Edwards". Archived from the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ "The Enchanted Years of the Stage, by Felicia Hardison Londre". Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ "The Piano Roll Artistry of Edythe Baker and Other Women". Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ "Biography by Bill Edwards". Archived from the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ "John Durnford-Slater". Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ "Biography by Bill Edwards". Archived from the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
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External links edit
- Article from the American Musical Instrument Collectors' Association, 1971