James Hollan Baker (March 16, 1920 – February 3, 2003) was an American television producer and director, most noted for his work on jazz documentaries in the 1950s and 1960s.
Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Baker appeared aged 15 as a tap dancer on CBS Radio's Major Bowes' Amateur Hour in New York City, winning a spot in a vaudeville touring company.
He graduated from Central High School in Tulsa, and studied at Oklahoma State University, where he formed an eight-piece band, named by Down Beat magazine as the best college dance band in the U.S. During World War II, he led an Air Force band, Men of the Air, and prepared shows to entertain the troops,[1][2][3][4] at one time working with Veronica Lake.
Following the war, he graduated from university, worked for some time as a high school teacher, and assembled a touring band, the Collegians.
[1] In 2003 he died in hospital in Santa Monica, aged 82, from a heart attack following two earlier strokes.