Dr. Booker is the current Assistant Professor of Double Bass at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. His performance credits include the Minnesota Orchestra the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra and the Johnson City Symphony and the Symphony of the Mountains. He has also performed with several of jazz's great masters, including Al Grey, Frank Foster, John Fedchock, Russel Malone, Butch Miles, Diana Krall, Ingrid Jensen, Christine Jensen, and pop music icon, Elvis Costello.
Apart from being a sideman on numerous recordings, Dr. Booker’s first album as a leader, Unraveled Rival, was released under the Shifting Paradigm Records label. His latest album, Seven Last Words, released in January of 2020, seamlessly blends his compositions in the form of a jazz mass with the unaccompanied double bass work, Seven Last Words From the Cross, by UK composer, David Heyes.
His research in Early Jazz Double Bass Performance Techniques has been presented at conferences for organizations such as the Jazz Education Network, the International Society of Bassists and at the 2016 European Double Bass Congress in Prague, as well as the 2018 European Double Bass Congress in Lucca, Italy. Most recently, Dr. Booker has completed a tour in Europe at the behest of the Scottish Bass Trust, which included workshops and recitals in Edinburgh, St. Andrews, and Well’s Cathedral in the United Kingdom. The tour also included a three-day residency at the Royal College of Music in London, and a residency and recital at the Boccherini Institute in Lucca, Italy.
Dr. Booker has earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Jazz Double Bass Performance from the University of Texas, Austin, as well as a MM in Composition and a BM in Jazz Studies from Texas State University, San Marcos.
