Blues & Jazz Guitar

Mickey Baker

To American audiences the name Mickey Baker has a certain mythical quality about it. It's been fourteen years since Mickey left the United States for Europe, another of the many expatriot jazz musicians who found more receptive audiences and better working conditions abroad. But because of Baker's huge Fifties following as a rock and roll and R&B guitarist, his numerous method books, plus the hits of Mickey and Sylvia, his reputation continues among American guitarists.”
– GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE January 1976

It is almost embarrassing to call a musician “a legend in his own time”. But Mickey Baker is surely that. Over the last fifty years he has explored and developed his guitar styles and musical ideas in areas of music as diverse as R&B, folk, contemporary jazz, rock and roll, bebop and delta blues. His sounds can be found on classic albums by Ray Charles, The Drifters, Big Joe Turner, Memphis Slim and of course his duo Mickey and Sylvia.

When it came time to begin work on this project we decided it would be interesting to use only acoustic guitars. Mickey picked a varied assortment of tunes that would give us the freedom to explore different styles of music. So on this album we have old folk blues like Stack O'Lee, which is a straight forward fingerpicked arrangement, to Zanzie, which is a complex overlay of guitars all played by Mickey. The songs range from delta blues to pop. The underlying feel of all the songs is the blues. Sometimes, this approaches jazz while other times the sounds go back to the Mississippi delta. But all of it is pure Mickey Baker. And that is what makes Mickey such a fascinating musician and artist. He is constantly exploring and to him music is music. Categories and labels mean little to him. He is most interested in the sounds and soul.

Track Listing:
1. Corrina, Corrina*
2. Zanzie*
3. Belzona Blues*
4. Got The Blues
5. Spoonful
6. Lord, Have Mercy
7. Hello World*
8. Stack O'Lee*
9. Baby, Please Don't Go*
10. The Town's East End*
11. Juicy Lucy*
12. Love In Vain*

Those tunes marked with a star * are included in the tab/music PDF booklet on this CD

SGGWCD 107 Enhanced CD    £10.00