Laurie Scott Baker (1943 - 16 November 2022) was a British composer and musician of

Experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...

and

Electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...

. He was a pioneer of live electronics and graphic scores from the 1960s. Laurie Scott Baker 2003

Life and career

He was born 1943 in Sydney, Australia. From 1958 he studied at the

Julian Ashton Art School The Julian Ashton Art School was established by Julian Ashton in 1890 as the "Academy Julian", (perhaps a reference to the Académie Julian in Paris) has been an influential art school in Australia. For a long time it was known as the Sydney Art ...

. His musical career began playing

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

at the El Rocco jazz cellar, Sydney's major jazz venue at that time, with his school friend pianist Serge Ermoll. He worked for the Sydney Morning Herald as a trainee graphic artist. Baker left Australia in 1964, working his passage in the band on the Greek liner 'Patris'. In London he worked on several collective projects with the composer

Cornelius Cardew Cornelius Cardew (7 May 193613 December 1981) was an English experimental music composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental music, ...

. He took part in Music Now, a concert society founded in 1968 by Victor Schonfield which introduced avant-garde music to British audiences, including the first UK performance of In C and also in the first performances of the composers

Frederic Rzewski Frederic Anthony Rzewski ( ; April 13, 1938 – June 26, 2021) was an American composer and pianist, considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. His major compositions, which often incorporate social an ...

and John White. He took part in Christian Wolff's 'Burdocks' concert. He was a member of the

Scratch Orchestra The Scratch Orchestra was an experimental musical ensemble founded in the spring of 1969 by Cornelius Cardew, Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton. In the draft constitution published in the ''Musical Times'' of June 1969, Cardew defines a scrat ...

from its formation in 1969. Following on from this came the formation in 1972 of Peoples' Liberation Music with

John Tilbury John Tilbury (born 1 February 1936) is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM. Early life and education Tilbury s ...

and

John Marcangelo John Marcangelo (born 1950, Whitehaven, Cumberland, England) is an English pianist, drummer and composer of folk rock. Early life He comes from The Valley in Whitehaven in Cumberland. He went to St Begh's Catholic School, (now a junior school) o ...

. Baker was a founder member in 1976 of Progressive Cultural Association and was also active in the Musicians Union. There were also collaborations with

Alan Gowen Alan Gowen (19 August 1947 – 17 May 1981) was an English fusion/progressive rock keyboardist, best known for his work in Gilgamesh and National Health. History Gowen was born in North Hampstead, northwest London. He joined Assagai in 1971 ...

, Jamie Muir, and Allan Holdsworth in 'Sunship' and with Greg Bright in 'Maze'. Baker played in various West End theatre productions including Hair (1968). There was also recording session work, including with

Manfred Mann Manfred Mann were an English rock band, formed in London and active between 1962 and 1969. The group were named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The band had two diffe ...

Bob Downes Robert George Downes (born 22 July 1937 in Plymouth) is an English avant-garde jazz flautist and saxophonist. He is known for his work with Mike Westbrook and for leading the Open Music Trio since 1968. Downes is also a composer, arranger, and ...

Ray Russell Ray Russell (September 4, 1924 – March 15, 1999) was an American editor and writer of short stories, novels, and screenplays. Russell is best known for his horror fiction, although he also wrote mystery and science fiction stories. His most ...

, Alex Harvey and others. He also composed music for film and television with two songs for the feature film, Secrets (1971) performed by

Maggie Bell Margaret Bell (born 12 January 1945 in Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish rock vocalist. She came to fame as co-lead vocalist of the blues-rock group Stone the Crows, and was described as the UK's closest counterpart to American sing ...

and another by the Cymarons, an early reggae band. In 1976 he was commissioned by Unity Records to compose and produce a record celebrating the anniversary of the 1926 British General Strike using traditional working class music forms such as brass bands, industrial ballads, and contemporary rock; John Marcangelo was the composer on the 2nd side. Its final production was blocked by the Arts Council. In 1977/8 he composed and produced the music for two animations by

Geoff Dunbar Geoff Dunbar is an English animator and director known for his animated music video ''Rupert Bear and the Frog Song'' for Sir Paul McCartney and ''The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends'' from the stories by Beatrix Potter. He championed a hand-s ...

, 'Lautrec' (1974) and the cult movie 'UBU' (1978). He also worked with Richard Keith Wolff on the short film "Still Life" (1980). At the beginning of the 1980s he worked doing film dubbing mixing for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Life and career

Discography

References