David "Buck" Wheat

Who was David "Buck" Wheat?

David "Buck" Wheat was an American folk and jazz musician, songwriter and recording artist. The Texas-born Wheat was a well-known guitarist and bass player with the big 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 David was jazz guitarist recording 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 accompanied by only David Wheat on nylon string acoustic guitar and bassist Russ Savakus.

Wheat also wrote music, along with his lyricist partner, Bill Loughborough. Their composition "Better Than Anything", now a jazz standard, has been recorded by dozens of performers over the decades, and is part of the live acts of Lena Horne, Phylicia Rashad, Irene Kral, Bob Dorough and Al Jarreau. Their next song, "Coo Coo U", was recorded both by The Kingston Trio and by The Manhattan Transfer.