Daniel Moses Barker was born on January 13, 1909, in the French Quarter at 1027 Chartres Street, into perhaps the most musical family New Orleans has ever produced. His grandfather Isidore Barbarin was a founding member of the original Onward Brass Band; his uncles Paul and Louis Barbarin were accomplished drummers who played with the finest jazz musicians of the era. Music was not a choice for Danny Barker — it was the air he breathed. He started on clarinet under the instruction of the great Barney Bigard (who would later star in Duke Ellington's orchestra), moved to drums under his uncle Paul's tutelage, then settled on ukulele and eventually banjo, forming his first group — the Boozan Kings — while still in grade school. In his teenage years, he was working regularly with New Orleans bands along the Gulf Coast, earning the nickname "Banjo King of New Orleans."
In 1930, Barker moved to New York, where he switched from banjo to the modern guitar and rapidly established himself in the city's jazz scene. He met and married singer Louise Dupont, who performed as Blue Lu Barker — he wrote many of her songs, including the slyly suggestive "Don't You Feel My Leg." Through the 1930s he worked with Lucky Millinder, Benny Carter, and from 1939 to 1946, Cab Calloway, with whom he appeared on over a thousand recordings. He played with bebop pioneers Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie; he worked alongside Billie Holiday, Sidney Bechet, and Jelly Roll Morton. By some estimates, he performed with a greater number of jazz musicians than any other player of his generation.
