David Baker received his B.M.E. (1973) and M.M.E. (1954) from Indiana University (Bloomington) and has had private study with George Russell, Bernard Heiden Gunther Schuller, John Lewis, William Russo, and others. He has served as chairman of the Jazz Studies Department at Indiana University. Baker's extensive compositional output covers a wide range of genres and styles, including works for jazz, orchestra, solo voice, chorus, piano, and chamber ensemble. Several instumental combinations, i.e., "Black America," "Levels," and "Psalm 22." He has received commissions from Janos Starker, Harvey Phillips, Natalie Hinderas, and other artists. Baker is nationally recognized as a composer, lecturer - clinician, and writer of more than one hundred books and articles on jazz and other subjects in Afro - American music.

Source: Perkins Holly, Ellistine. Biographies of Black Composers and Songwriters; A Supplementary Textbook. Iowa:Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1990.