Growing up as a jazz musician in Philadelphia and as a student of the Philadelphia Clef Club of
Performing Arts , Daud El-Bakara's environment helped shape him into the musician he is
today. El-Bakara knew from the age of 13 that Jazz was something that he would be doing in
the capacity of performing and writing for the duration of his existence. Daud El-Bakara
progressed quite rapidly and confirmation of this was his attainment of encouraging words in
reference to his tone on the trumpet from notable greats such as Dizzy Gillespie, Art Farmer,
Clark Terry, Art Blakey, and Wynton Marsalis. In the year of 1995 El-Bakara obtained a full
scholarship to Temple University majoring in Jazz Performance but chose to stay for one year
stating that he wanted more opportunities to tour performing music which he did. Daud El-
Bakara has performed and toured with Donald Byrd, Charles Fambrough, The Stylistics, and
Kindred the Family Soul. El-Bakara continued his studies at Temple University in the Spring
semester of 2014 majoring in Jazz performance and received his bachelor’s degree in 2020.
Daud El-Bakara is the 2017 recipient of the Philadephia Clef Club Jazz award for best trumpet
player.