Buddy Baker (composer)
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Norman "Buddy" Baker (January 4, 1918 – July 26, 2002) was a film composer who composed music for many of Walt Disney's classic films, like The Apple Dumpling Gang, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, The Shaggy D.A., and The Million Dollar Duck.Buddy started out his early life in Springfield, Mo. and got his degree in music from Southwest Baptist College.. He later came to the West Coast in the 1930's to do arranging for Radio and Big Bands. He became the Musical Director on the excellent the Bob Hope Radio show. One of his first hits as a big band arranger on record was "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine" for the Stan Kenton Orch. Buddy decided to augment his income by becoming a professor at L.A. City college in the early 50's. Among his early students was a young movie composer, later to become world famous. His name was Jerry Goldsmith. Right around this time one of his friends, George Bruns,who had a composing gig at the Disney Studios, asked him to help out on a tv series for the "Disneyland" TV Show. It became known as "Davy Crockett and the River Pirates." He stayed on at the studio and eventually became music director for Walt Disney and chief composer for the Disneyland parks. Buddy had perfected the very original woodwind sound that became known as the hallmark for Disney TV Shows and park attractions... It is not an inaccurate statement to say that in music arranging he was a "genius". Nominated by the Academy of Motion picture Art and Sciences for his score "Napoleon and Samantha" he graced many Disney cartoons and featurettes,including the wonderful Donald in Mathmagicland, which won the oscar for best short subject cartoon in 1959. After staying at the studio for over 30 years, Buddy retured and took up teaching film scoring at USC College in Los Angeles, till his passing in the summer of 2002. He created a wealth of tv and motion picture scores that are still heard heard all over the world today..
