Bill Baker: Vocals & Keyboards

Started Playing:

Bill has been playing music since the age of ten, when he began to teach himself to play acoustic piano. He also plays baritone horn, tuba, guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, Irish pennywhistle, flute, string bass, mallet percussion, tenor and alto sax and bass clarinet.

What he does in DA:

Bill has played Keyboards for Diamond Alley since 1987. In addition to playing and programming analog and digital synthesizers with Diamond Alley, Bill plays tenor sax, harmonica, and a variety of percussion - simultaneously. Bill is also Diamond Alley’s unofficial linguist, singing in Spanish, Polish, Italian, German, Hebrew, Latin, Ukrainian and Czechoslovak. He also provides free verse interpretations of the unintelligible mumblings of purportedly English-speaking pop and rap vocalists

Education / Musical Training:

Bill has a degree in Music Education from De Pauw University [Dan Quayle’s alma mater], but claims to know how to spell potato and lots of other words in spite of it.

Performance:

In addition to Diamond Alley’s eclectic mix of musical styles, Bill has played in a wide variety of other genres, including opera, oratorio, orchestra, brass ensemble, musical theatre, Dixieland, classic jazz and German traditional folk music.

Musical Preferences and Influences:

Ian Anderson, Beethoven, Ray Charles, Thomas Dolby, Danny Elfman, Fab Freddie “Twitch” Flintstone, Gap commercials, Pee-Wee Herman…[I-Z deleted by Webmaster] .

Diamond Alley High Point:

“Being psychic. Every once in a while – during a dinner set or one of our infamous ‘Request Periods’ - we’ll do something that is completely unrehearsed – we just kind of look at each other and say “What up? Go for it – we’re in C… 1,2,3,go!” We’re all out of our normal comfort zone, really listening, thinking about what we’re doing and making it work – it’s like reading each others minds.”

Diamond Alley Low Point:

“Getting my truck broken into during a gig at the Vista Hotel in D.C. I suppose I can understand someone taking the (band) gear, but I mean who in their right mind steals half a pack of cough drops, spare change, used sneakers, and contact lens solution? And then I had to pay everything I made that night to fix the freaking window that they shattered getting in? Grrrrr! “

Quotes about his playing:

• “Man, you are one moody SOB”,
• “Jeez, where did THAT sound come from?”
• “Are you serving crackers with that cheese?
• “OK you have the 2nd and 3rd guitar parts, as well the strings and brass hits, but what about the all important xylophone part?”

Other:

Bill is also pianist, cantor and choir president at St David’s Episcopal Church - in case you wondered what “die hard” musicians do on Sunday mornings after that late Saturday night gig.

. . . more info than you need:
In his spare time Bill watches too much TV. He devours science fiction novels and cooks and eats food that is bad for him. He listens to his collection of film scores, which are always played loud enough to annoy his neighbors. He surfs the net looking for conspiracy theories that will substantiate his conviction that he is a superior being from the planet Klatuu who was fostered by Earthlings. He does not go into direct sunlight. No one knows where he buys his clothes, or how he keeps them so black.