As a teenager I too had the black and yellow book and spent a lot of time working my way through those progressions.

Here's a synopsis of him from Maurice Summerfield's The Jazz Guitar - its evolution and its players:

"Born McHouston Baker in Louisville, 1925. Lived in orphanage as boy, at 16 ran away to New York, by 19 (having listened to Bird and Diz) decided to be a jazz musician. The trumpet was his first choice, but cost made him choose the guitar instead. By 1949 he headed his own group but it was not successful and he moved to the West Coast, where he was even less successful. He heard blues guitarist Pee Wee Creighton, liked it, saw he was earning a good living and so altered his style and moved back to New York.

As a blues guitarist he found himself in demand for Atlantic, Savoy and King labels, mainly as backing guitar for people like Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner and The Drifters.

In the 50s, following the success of Les Paul and Mary Ford, he tried for further success by joining with an ex-student Syvia and had a hit in 1957 with Love Is Strange. They remained popular until 1961 and did well enough to establish their own publishing and recording companies and a night-club. The publishing company gave him world-wide distribution for his tutors, which he'd been working on since the 50s.

In spite of success as a blues and popular guitarist he still loved jazz and moved to France with Sylvia. He has lived in Paris since, writing, arranging and leading various groups".

According to Norman Mongan's The History of The Guitar In Jazz he was also responsible for discovering Bill Harris (one of the early players of jazz on a nylon-strung guitar) and alerting a record company.

Mick