# Sal Maida

Salvatore Maida (July 29, 1948 – February 1, 2025) was an American bass guitarist. He was known for his work with Milk 'N' Cookies, Roxy Music and Sparks.

## Early life

Maida was born in New York on July 29, 1948. He was raised in Little Italy and started playing in the local band The Ouija before joining The Five Toes. He graduated from Fordham University with a BA in economics. After Fordham, he traveled to London. He found a job there working in a record store.

## Career

While working at the record store in London, he met Paul Thompson, the drummer of Roxy Music. He went on to join the band on their 1973 Stranded Tour. His contract with the band ended after the tour, though he later supported another ex-Roxy Music member Brian Eno as a bass player during the production of Lucky Leif and the Longships, an album released by Robert Calvert in 1975.
In 1974, he became a member of Milk 'N' Cookies, a band from Long Island. The band's power-pop sound was influential in the early punk scene. In 1976 he recorded the album Big Beat with Sparks who had the same manager and the same producer as Milk 'N' Cookies. Later that year, they toured with Patti Smith Group who had just released their Radio Ethiopia album. In 1977 Maida played the bass on Beauty's Only Skin Deep, the debut solo album of Cherie Currie, the former lead vocalist of The Runaways. In 1980 he teamed up with New wave solo vocalist Lisa Burns and arranged her single Love Wanted. Later on, in 1983, they released the EP After Hours by going under the band name Velveteen. Their songs Some Girls and As I Came of Age were recorded by soprano Sarah Brightman for her second studio album As I Came of Age that was released in 1990. Between 1992 and 1997 Maida played the bass on several tracks from the three albums released by the duo Golden Carillo, consisting of Annie Golden and Frank Carillo.
In the mid-2000s, the Milk 'N' Cookies debut album Milk 'N' Cookies was reissued. It led to a reunion of the band for occasional shows through the 2010s.
In 2006, Maida joined the band Cracker with David Lowery, Johnny Hickman, and Frank Funaro. Maida and the rest of the band co-wrote most of the material on the band's 2009 album, Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey. As of 2010, Maida played the bass on six albums recorded by the British songwriter Edward Rogers, with the last three being released under the name of Rogers & Butler after starting a collaboration with Stephen Butler from the band Smash Palace.
In 2014, Maida authored the memoir Four Strings, Phony Proof, and 300 45s, which detailed his experience of being in the music scene as the major changes which brought the end of the psychedelic era occurred. In an article about the book's release, Vice stated that he "may not have a Wikipedia page" but he was "one of the coolest 70s rock stars you've never heard of." In 2015 he started a Lovin' Spoonful tribute band called A Spoonful of Lovin' and in 2017 and 2018 he toured with the band The Brandos in Germany and the Netherlands.
In 2023, Maida authored The White Label Promo Preservation Society Vol 2: More Flop Albums You Ought to Know with Mitchell Cohen and 53 friends of his. The book examines 100 albums which were not commercially successful, "flopping" by not making the top 100 in Billboard.

## Death

Maida died due to complications of a fall in New York, on February 1, 2025, at the age of 76.