David_"Buck"_Wheat
David "Buck" Wheat (March 19, 1922 – June 15, 1985) was an American folk and jazz musician. The Texas-born Wheat was a guitarist and bass player with the dance bands of the era, playing at the Chicago Playboy Jazz Festival 1959 in The Playboy Jazz All Stars and the Chet Baker Trio. In the winter of 1957, he was a jazz guitarist with Baker's Trio. Though most of Baker's material was recorded in Los Angeles, "Embraceable You", "There's a Lull in My Life" and "My Funny Valentine" are rare examples of Baker recording in New York. The format is also unusual for him, just Baker's vocals (no trumpet) accompanied by only Wheat on nylon string acoustic guitar and bassist Russ Savakus.
Wheat wrote music with his partner, lyricist Bill Loughborough. Their composition "Better Than Anything" is part of the live acts of Lena Horne, Phylicia Rashad, Irene Kral, Bob Dorough, Tuck and Patti and Al Jarreau. Their next song, "Coo Coo U", was recorded both by The Kingston Trio and by The Manhattan Transfer. Wheat embraced George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization for improvization; he would sing scales while playing a guitar accompaniment based on the theory.
