Of Mickey Baker and The Alex Sanders Funk Time Band-Mickey Baker best known for his Mickey & Slyvia hit Love is Strange lived in France for the last thirty years of his life. During that time he played jazz as well as delving back into the roots of Black American music. As a result he began to experiment with various country blues techniques and styles. This exploration led to his album Blues and Jazz Guitar of Mickey Baker (SGGW107). At the same time he also began to perform as a solo jazz and blues artist which was quite different than his past where he usually fronted either a jazz or a rock band. His solo blues playing took him around Europe and during the last years of histouring throughout Africa on three occasions. On his last tour of Africa he was joined by the excellent bass player Alex Sanders and Mickey's show was able to expand to the full gambit of his musical experiences - from country blues to jazz. During this tour Alex and Mickey started to compose together and decided to try and record an album that would highlight their sounds and explorations. This is in fact the first jazz rock guitar album that Mickey Baker has ever done. It is full of surprises and intriguing sounds from a rendition of Rachmaninoff's Prelude In C# Minor to the disco sound of Alexander's Funk Time to the 7/4 of Ouagadougou. Plus for this album Mickey combined his skills of being one of the finest jazz guitarists with those of a teacher and prepared a tab/music booklet for students.
