Abie Baker

Abie Baker was an American session musician, arranger and bandleader responsible for playing string bass on many R&B, jazz and pop recordings in New York City, especially in the 1950s and early 1960s.He was sometimes credited as Abe Baker or Abie "Available" Baker.

Few details of his life have been published.Around 1936, he was a member of Claude Hopkins' touring orchestra.By 1949, he had started recording in New York with his own trio and singer Richie Cannon (previously of The Ravens).He became an established session musician on R&B recordings in New York in the 1950s, playing on recordings, especially for the Savoy and Atlantic labels, by musicians such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Marie Knight, Cootie Williams, Little Jimmy Scott, Hadda Brooks, Nappy Brown, Big Maybelle, The Coasters, LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, The Drifters, and others.He also played on the banned 1957 album My Pussy Belongs to Daddy, credited to Faye Richmonde.In 1959, he was the credited performer on "The Web", an instrumental released on the small Laurel label which was later used as part of the score for the camp horror movie The Brain That Wouldn't Die.

In the 1960s, Baker set up the Forest Green and Internationale record labels in New York, as well as publishing companies.With Johnny Worlds, he established and headed Worlds-Baker Enterprises, covering several record labels, publishing, marketing and distribution.

Some sources state that he was the father of guitarist Mickey Baker, with whom he played on sessions during the 1950s, but this conflicts with other sources about Mickey Baker's parentage.

With Bill Doggett

• Doggett Beat for Dancing Feet (King, 1957)