Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra

The SJMO was founded in 1990 with the dual mission of performing and preserving American jazz masterworks and raising public awareness and understanding of the genre.

[4][5][6] Since 1991 the SJMO has performed in nine foreign countries and twenty-six U.S. states, in addition to numerous free concerts in Washington, D.C.

Appearances outside their base at the National Museum of American History have included a performance at the White House in 1993 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival; the Cultural Olympiad at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia; and a 1999 tour of the United States to present concerts in tribute to the 100th anniversary of Duke Ellington's birth that included a concert performance at the Monterey Jazz Festival featuring Ellington's Suite Thursday, which was commissioned for the festival.

[3] In 2012, at the age of 80, Baker concluded his tenure as the SJMO's artistic director, and was named maestro emeritus in December 2012.

Charlie Young, a jazz saxophonist and educator at Howard University, became artistic director after Baker's retirement.