Guy Barker Tickets

The son of two showbiz professionals, Guy Barker is best known as a jazz trumpet player. Born in 1957, Barker is also a composer and a musician who can turn his hand to rock and pop recordings. In the 2015 New Year's Honours List, Barker was awarded an MBE for his services to jazz. Since he started performing professionally in 1975, the trumpet player has worked with many jazz luminaries and appears at concert halls and jazz clubs all over the world.

Guy Barker's early career

As a schoolboy, Barker showed an early interest in trumpet music and he began to play the instrument from the age of 12. With an ear for the great jazz trumpeters of the earlier generation, he was accepted to join the National Youth Jazz Orchestra even though he was a relative novice. However, his precocious talent was not missed by professional jazz musicians, and even as a teenager, Barker was being booked to play with the Crouch End Allstars. Barker went on to hone his skills under the tutelage of Clark Terry, one of the United States' finest jazz trumpeters, who had played with Count Basie, Oscar Peterson and Duke Ellington during his long career.

Guy Barker's mainstream success and later career

As a jobbing musician, Barker used his time with Terry to extend his abilities with his instrument. Following this, he was invited to play with John Dankworth, one of the leading jazz musicians and composers in the UK of the last century. He also played with Gil Evans, an exponent of so-called free jazz, around this time. Barker also recorded with Evans in 1983.

From 1984 to 1992, Barker made his name as a stalwart of Clark Tracey's jazz band. During this period in his career, Barker was also in demand as a session musician for a number of popular acts. He played with the likes of Haircut 100, the Style Council, Wham! and the Moody Blues. He was also recorded for acts such as Bucks Fizz, Matt Bianco and the Housemartins. Despite his many forays into the world of pop music and rock, Barker also acted as a session musician for jazz artists in the 1980s and 1990s. He performed with many greats, such as Frank Sinatra, Ornette Coleman, Cleo Laine and Carla Bley, among others.

Barker has also operated as a bandleader in his own right. The Guy Barker Jazz Orchestra is a 15-piece performing outfit. He is also a regular contributor to the London Jazz Festival and has arranged music for the BBC Concert Orchestra.

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