Joined: 26 Jan 2004 Posts: 142 Location: Northern CA
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:15 am Post subject: Mickey Baker Guitar Books
I've read several comments referencing a Mickey Baker Guitar book or books? Are there two? I'm interested in expanding my chord vocabulary and wonder if this is a good addition.
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 762 Location: Southern California
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:34 am Post subject:
Yes, Michael, there are at least two. I happened to have inherited I & II from an uncle of mine.
I know Robben has said that's where he learned chords from, but I don't think there's anything magical about them. They were just available when he was at the point in his life where he wanted to learn chords. As I'm sure you know, there is no shortage of chord books that I'm sure would give you the same information.
Jim _________________ "Somebody's got to make some music around here." - Robben Ford
Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Posts: 243 Location: Rochester, MI
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 11:15 am Post subject:
jconstant wrote:
Yes, Michael, there are at least two. I happened to have inherited I & II from an uncle of mine.
I know Robben has said that's where he learned chords from, but I don't think there's anything magical about them. They were just available when he was at the point in his life where he wanted to learn chords. As I'm sure you know, there is no shortage of chord books that I'm sure would give you the same information.
Jim
I totally agree. I picked up both books when Robben mentioned them in a clinic. Upon flipping through them, I realized this territory has been covered in a lot of books. The books are still fun to have--they are also fairly inexpensive to pick up.
Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Posts: 908 Location: Tampa Bay, FL
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 12:42 pm Post subject:
I have Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar. It is set up as "lessons." It's much more than chord book. It's geared to the professional jazz guitarist. There are 52 lessons and he suggests spending at least a week on each lesson. There is no filler. An amateur guitarist could easily spend years working through this book.
Was Mickey Baker a performing musician? His book is impressive, but I'm not familiar with any of his music. _________________ Travelling by train of thought
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 762 Location: Southern California
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:26 pm Post subject:
roadwarriorfortheblues wrote:
I have Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar. It is set up as "lessons." It's much more than chord book. It's geared to the professional jazz guitarist. There are 52 lessons and he suggests spending at least a week on each lesson. There is no filler. An amateur guitarist could easily spend years working through this book.
Yeah, this is the same book I'm talking about. I didn't mean to make it sound like just a book of chords because it's not. In fact, the full title is Mickey Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar. Lot's of good material that would take years to master. I was just saying that much of the same info is available in other books and materials. _________________ "Somebody's got to make some music around here." - Robben Ford
Joined: 06 Dec 2006 Posts: 246 Location: San Mateo, CA
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:00 pm Post subject:
Quote:
Was Mickey Baker a performing musician? His book is impressive, but I'm not familiar with any of his music.
Yes, he was...
This from the All Music Guide:
Quote:
Of all the guitarists who helped transform rhythm & blues into rock & roll, Mickey Baker is one of the very most important, ranking almost on the level of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. The reason he isn't nearly as well known as those legends is that a great deal of his work wasn't issued under his own name, but as a backing guitarist for many R&B and rock & roll musicians. Baker originally aspired to be a jazz musician, but turned to calypso, mambo, and then R&B, where the most work could be found. In the early and mid-'50s, he did countless sessions for Atlantic, King, RCA, Decca, and OKeh, playing on such classics as the Drifters' "Money Honey" and "Such a Night," Joe Turner's "Shake Rattle & Roll," Ruth Brown's "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean," and Big Maybelle's "Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On." He also released a few singles under his own name, and made a Latin jazz-tinged solo album, Guitar Mambo. Baker's best work, though, was recorded as half of the duo Mickey & Sylvia. Their hit "Love Is Strange," as well as several other unknown but nearly equally strong tracks, featured Baker's keening, bluesy guitar riffs, which were gutsier and more piercing than most anything else around in the late '50s. Mickey & Sylvia split in the late '50s (though they recorded off and on until the middle of the next decade), and Baker recorded his best solo album, the all-instrumental The Wildest Guitar. In 1961, he took the male spoken part (usually assumed to be Ike Turner) on Ike & Tina Turner's first hit, "It's Gonna Work Out Fine." Shortly afterwards he moved to France, making a few hard-to-find solo records and working with a lot of French pop and rock performers, including Ronnie Bird, the best '60s French rock singer. He's recorded only sporadically since the mid-'60s.
Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 646 Location: City of Trees, USA
Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 2:40 pm Post subject:
roadwarrior: Some years ago I came across a Mickey Baker compilation CD with the off-beat title "Rock With A Sock." If you can find a copy, it's well worth it. He was really versatile, covering jazz, R&B, blues, rock, you-name-it.
Also, some of his lesson books in reprinted in odd combinations, but will give you a good idea of where some of Robben's chord fluency comes from. I recall from one of the Clinics that Robben found one of Baker's books soon after he took up guitar. _________________ - BlueRunner
Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 943 Location: Terra Firma, Ether Sea
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:15 am Post subject:
Amazon has several, including Rock With A Sock, Mickey Baker albums listed for sale.
BTW, it appears his real first name is "McHouston", Mickey being a nickname. _________________ B C-ing U!
( }:-Daved
"This boy's diseased with rhythm!" -Bing Crosby (Road To Rio, '49)
Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Posts: 908 Location: Tampa Bay, FL
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:48 pm Post subject:
Thanks for the info everyone. I also found an interesting interview with Mickey Baker from 2006. It was published on a concert photographer's web site, along with many beautiful photos and stories/concert reviews. Babel Fish, or any other free online translator will convert the text into whatever language you want to read:
http://www.marie-photos.com/welcome.asp
I don't speak a word of French, but I think the article talks about how Mickey Baker wanted to play the trumpet like Louis Armstrong, but he could not afford a trumpet. With $14.50 (U.S.), he bought his first guitar -- a guitar with an enormous hole on its backside.
I think he also pokes fun at gearheads, and their use of pedals -- "One does not play the guitar with hands anymore, but with the feet."
I'd like to find one of his CDs, where he plays jazz-Blues, and I'm going to attempt (again) to learn the 26 chords in Lesson 1. _________________ Travelling by train of thought
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roadwarrior: Some years ago I came across a Mickey Baker compilation CD with the off-beat title "Rock With A Sock." If you can find a copy, it's well worth it. He was really versatile, covering jazz, R&B, blues, rock, you-name-it.
