[...] The great trumpeter and vocalist Ronald Baker. Born in Baltimore in 1968, he studied music with Donald Byrd, J.J. Johnson, and Jon Faddis. He has been based in France since 1992, first in Tours and later in Paris. Over his long career, during which he has performed in various countries and released several albums as a leader, he has worked with musicians such as Lou Donaldson, Antonio Hart, Jesse Davis, Liz McComb, and Michele Hendricks, among many others.

His style as a trumpeter is rooted in hard bop, drawing inspiration from players like Lee Morgan and Donald Byrd himself. In addition to playing trumpet, he has also developed his skills as a vocalist, in the vein of singers such as Nat King Cole, Eddie Jefferson, George Benson, and Al Jarreau. We met around 2005 through a mutual friend, trombonist and arranger Ramon Fossati, a fellow Barcelona native who has long made Paris his home.

Since then, Ronald and I have performed together regularly in concerts around Spain. We've also both been part of the French vibraphonist Dany Doriz’s band (in his ongoing tribute to Lionel Hampton), playing concerts in France, at floating festivals across the Mediterranean (Jazz en Mer 2015), and even in Africa.

In addition, Ronald appeared as a guest on four tracks of my 2014 album 'The Heart of Jazz.' From the very first moment we shared the stage, we realized the high level of musical rapport between us, how easily we understood each other, and how much our musical tastes aligned. I remember relaxed conversations on the subject, noting how, despite growing up in places so far apart—Ronald in Baltimore, Maryland, and I in Sant Boi de Llobregat, near Barcelona—we shared such similar musical tastes and approaches to jazz.

We concluded that this was because we had listened to the same records: that kind of deeply rooted jazz where everything is infused with the blues. This brings us closer to the idea of how universal jazz can be, and how it has the power to connect people from very different backgrounds.

—Toni Solà (taken from the inside liner notes of "Waiting for Common Sense" FSRCD 5146)