Alex Sjobeck & David Baker | Piano & Bass
Photo by Vanessa Sjobeck
Alex Sjobeck and David Baker have been actively performing across the country as a duo and in trios for over five years since first meeting in graduate school. They actively stretch the idea of what a piano and bass duo can be by introducing elements of modern jazz, popular music, folk music, and classical music. As a result, they have defined their own voice in the duo idiom, blurring the lines of tradition and avant-garde and bringing new fans to the art form who otherwise may not have sought it out. Pictures in Time is their debut release as a duo and features all original compositions inspired by their heritage.
Active as an educator, performer and touring artist, Alex Sjobeck has released four albums as leader and co-leader; composed music for film; toured with a variety of ensembles including SBST, the Sjobeck/Baker Duo, and the Alex Sjobeck Trio; conducted her own music for big band; and has presented workshops and masterclasses throughout the United States. She has performed at esteemed music festivals, jazz society concerts, and jazz clubs including Dazzle, Smalls Jazz Club, The Velvet Note, The Gene Harris Jazz Festival and the UNC•Greeley Jazz Festival. Sjobeck is also currently on faculty at Boise State University. She began her professional career while attending the Manhattan School of Music and studying under some of the world’s finest jazz pianists. After graduating, she began teaching at the famed jazz program at the University of Northern Colorado as a teaching assistant while attaining her master’s degree.
David Baker is an in-demand bassist, composer, and educator currently serving as the director of Jazz and Commercial Music at Utah Valley University. He regularly performs all over the intermountain West and has performed alongside Bob Sheppard, Corey Christiansen, Jay Lawrence, Chase Baird, Carmen Bradford, and Greg Gisbert. He has recorded on over ten records with various labels, four as leader or co-leader, and in 2019 was awarded the First Alternate position in the International Society of Bassists Jazz Competition. In his work as a sideman, he has performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, the Gene Harris Jazz Festival, and the Jazz Education Network Conference. David earned his doctorate from the University of Northern Colorado in Jazz Performance and Composition with his research centering around the inception of jazz in New Orleans and the sociological conditions surrounding the time period.
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