The Story of Mickey Baker

[@irishmuso7129]

Jim, you're a real enthusuiast. The future of music is safe as long as there are people like you. :)

[@dougolsen]

Learnt everything worthwhile in my guitar playing from his books and I'm still learning from them 30 years after discovering the first one.

[@jipes]

Wonderful ! Mickey was a fabulous man who teached me what Blues was all about and some pentatonic scales that I still use everyday. RIP Mickey

[@peterney2402]

Mickey's jazz books 1&2 were a revelation to me when i was young, they influenced my chordal work for the decades ahead so much so that i prefer playing chords and big band rhythm to ghis day rather than single note soloing.

[@chicowhite7537]

That is one of the best stories I have ever heard.......fantastic!!!! x

[@timfriend1643]

What a great story. Well told. Thank goodness he passed on all those lessons. And that the salesman sold him a guitar. Although Mickey on trumpet. Who knows? With his musicality, it might have been a case of, look out Miles.

[@THEItchybruddah]

This was PRICELESS!

[@uhoh007]

I just pulled out "The Complete Course" from a pile I inherited. Played a few chords and then found this video. Thank you! I think I'll keep going :)

[@deHelli]

Yes i known Micky Baker from his Book! Jazz Guitar. Super great book!!

[@jeremyhickersonsalem]

I've got those Mickey Baker books too! Never knew they came from the lessons he wrote down!

[@theshallowsea]

Fantastic interview ! Robben Ford and Frank Zappa started playing guitar with Mickey books .

[@douglasthompson8927]

Hendix played his stuff too

[@quirkwoods]

Great story!

[@carlscott5447]

He was also featured on some of the most esteemed rockabilly sides, 3 or 4 tracks with Joe Clay.

[@jocknarn3225]

wonderful story! I had the Blue & Red Books .. twice … I’d known of a Green & a Yellow textbook. I worked thru the first few pages of the blue one but i hafta say they r hard on the hands .. that 13b9 was “a Whole Hand of Chord .. baby🥵😅”

[@sirfultonbishop]

Great!

[@bernardmeyre]

Excellent

[@eohippusone]

Randy Bachman said these books inspired his compositions for the Guess Who.

[@mutleybird]

He was almost entirely a NY player, not Los Angeles - including the Drifters and the Coasters. And, aside from saying here that he didn't record under his own name, here he is recorded under his own name: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6O2epSEn9Ksppo

[@douglasthompson7464]

great interview but something doesn`t jive...everything I`ve read about him said he was left homeless in Louisville Kentucky after the Ohio River flood in 1937 and was placed in an orphanage for several years before running away and catching a train to New York at the age of 17..I didn`t get the very 1st thing you said about him robbing johns before he came to New York...as far as I know Louisville was the only place he had lived before leaving..he was born in a brothel but he would only have been 11 or 12 if he was working there..I think you may be referring to his early years in Harlem where he hustled pool and sold weed...it may be his mother you are referring to...she was a 12 year old prostitute working in her mother`s whorehouse when she had him..his father was an itinerant scotch irish piano player passing through according to wikipedia and everything else i`ve read about him

[@dougthompson5586]

does anyone else know more about this ? I`m writing some biographical information on him..as far as I know he was raised by his grandmother in her Louisville Kentucky brothel from birth in 1925 until he was institutionalized around 1937.. then running away to New York sometime between the ages of 15-17 depending on sources..there are a lot of inconsistencies in his story many as a result of him guarding his private life and probably but have being above spinning a tall tale