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Rolontz finally hit paydirt in early ’57 with the captivating
guitar-wielding duo of Mickey Baker and Sylvia Vanderpool.
Their mammoth success in the wake of their Groove smash
Love Is Strange
sliced into Baker’s studio time as NewYork’s
preeminent session axeman.
“The king of the slip-and-slide
guitar,”
laughed the late Baker of his pre-Mickey & Sylvia
days.
“I lost a lot of money trying to get Mickey & Sylvia
together, because I was making all kinds of money as a studio
guitarist
.
“I would go out on little gigs with her and get her to
stand up with the guitar in her hands. It took time to do that,
but finally when she got that courage, she could really gyrate
with that guitar, man. I’d be up on there on that damn stage,
and no matter what theater it was or what club it was, I
could do anything. Here I was supposed to be one of the
most famous guitar players in the world. No matter what I
did with that guitar, nobody would pay any attention. They
were looking at Sylvia gyrating. She had those sequined
dresses. She’d be gyrating the guitar!”
Love Is Strange
wasn’t enough to save Groove. RCA shut
down its R&B subsidiary in February of 1957, transferring
Rolontz, Mickey & Sylvia, and blues piano pounder
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PREVIEW