Danny Barker was born in 1909 in New Orleans into a deeply musical family. His grandfather, Isidore Barbarin, was a well-known bandleader, and his uncles Paul and Louis Barbarin were both accomplished drummers. Barker began his musical journey playing the clarinet and drums before switching to the ukulele—a gift from his aunt—and later to the banjo, which he learned from either his uncle or trumpeter Lee Collins.

As a young man, Barker formed his first group, the Boozan Kings, and toured Mississippi with pianist Little Brother Montgomery. In 1930, he moved to New York City and took up the guitar. On his first night in town, his uncle Paul brought him to the Rhythm Club, where Barker witnessed a thrilling performance by McKinney’s Cotton Pickers—their own debut in New York.

Barker quickly became part of the city’s vibrant jazz scene, performing with a range of artists including Fess Williams, Billy Fowler, and the White Brothers. Over the next decade, he worked with Buddy Harris (1933), Albert Nichols (1935), Lucky Millinder (1937–38), and Benny Carter (1938). From 1939 to 1946, Barker was a regular with Cab Calloway’s orchestra, later forming his own group with his wife, the blues singer Blue Lu Barker.

In the late 1940s, he reunited with Millinder and Bunk Johnson, and continued to perform with Albert Nichols into the 1950s. During that decade, Barker freelanced widely and collaborated once again with his uncle Paul Barbarin. He also traveled to California to record with Nichols. Musician Wynton Marsalis would later recall Barker as one of his most inspiring teachers.

By the early 1960s, Barker had formed a group called Cinderella and performed at major events like the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival with Eubie Blake and the 1964 World’s Fair, where he led his own band.

In 1965, Barker returned home to New Orleans, becoming assistant curator at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. In 1972, he founded the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band—a youth brass band that would later evolve into the world-renowned Dirty Dozen Brass Band. This group launched the careers of several future jazz greats, including Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Leroy Jones, Kirk Joseph, Nicholas Payton, and Joe Torregano. As Torregano later reflected, “That group saved jazz for a generation in New Orleans.”

Barker continued performing regularly throughout the city from the late 1960s into the early 1990s, while also writing extensively about New Orleans jazz. He published two books with Oxford University Press: Bourbon Street Black (1973, coauthored with Dr. Jack V. Buerkle) and A Life in Jazz (1986). Beyond music, he was also a talented painter and landscape artist.

Despite facing racial barriers and chronic health challenges, including diabetes, Barker remained a dedicated musician and educator. In 1994, he served as King of Krewe du Vieux during Mardi Gras, a fitting honor in his hometown. Later that year, on March 13, 1994, Danny Barker passed away from cancer in New Orleans at the age of 85—leaving behind a profound legacy that continues to shape jazz today.