4
SOUND CHECK
AUG. 17�24
WHAT’S PLAYING AROUND
THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Start your week with an evening of jazz
Lynn Baker Jazz Trio
plays Monday, Aug. 22,
at Side A Brewing
By Lisa Britton
Go! Magazine
LA GRANDE — Side A Brewing is
welcoming a trio of jazz musicians for an
evening of music on Monday, Aug. 22.
The show will be on the brewpub’s
patio, 1219 Washington St.
The Lynn Baker Jazz Trio will feature
Lynn Baker, Matt Cooper and Luke McK-
ern.
Cooper met Baker while both were
attending the University of Oregon.
They played around the Eugene area,
and Cooper later invited Baker to be a
guest musician with the EOU jazz pro-
gram.
Monday’s concert features Baker on
tenor and soprano saxophone, Cooper
on piano and McKern on bass.
The music will include jazz standards,
as well as several original pieces.
“Mostly familiar tunes,” Baker said.
Cooper retired in 2019 from teaching
music at Eastern Oregon University, and
plays regularly with various musicians
around the region. McKern teaches at
Matt Cooper
JAZZ TRIO
What: Jazz with Lynn Baker, Matt
Cooper and Luke McKern
When: Monday, Aug. 22, 7 p.m.
Where: Side A Brewing, 1219
Washington St., La Grande
EOU, and also plays around Eastern Ore-
gon, including with Holly Sorensen as the
band Bag of Hammers.
Baker recently retired from the Univer-
sity of Denver, where he was director of
Lynn Baker
Luke McKern
the jazz studies program. He’s played
music since he was 12, and it was a
teacher who inspired him to pursue a
career in education.
“I was inspired by my middle school
band director — who still comes to my
concerts in Salem,” he said.
After earning a master’s, though, Bak-
er couldn’t fi nd a teaching position.
“So I had to take a job playing,” he
said.
He’s continued to perform while
teaching. He holds degrees from the Uni-
versity of Oregon and Western Oregon
University and has also studied
at Mt. Hood Community College with
Larry McVeigh and at Indiana University
with David Baker, Dominic Spera and
Eugene Robinson.
Before moving to Denver in 1993, Bak-
er taught at Indiana University, Carleton
College and universities in Oregon.
These days, you can fi nd him playing
live every Thursday, at 5 p.m. MDT,
on his Facebook page for his “Five at
Five” series.