Chet Baker’s legendary Riverside albums are being released in all formats in a 5 -CD/LP Box Set. The four albums were released between 1958 and 1959: Chet Baker Sings: It Could Happen to You, Chet Baker in New York, Chet and Chet Baker Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe. The fifth is outtakes and alternates. Jazz historian Doug Ramsey’s liner notes are captured in a 16-page booklet. Personnel on some of these recordings include tenor man Johnny Griffin, pianist Bill Evans, and guitarist Kenny Burrell. Baker, of course, is one of jazz’s most mysterious and tragic figures, who battled substance abuse throughout much of his career and died of an apparent suicide just before reaching 60.
Although these albums were recorded in New York, Baker was known for his trademark West Coast “cool jazz” style, marked by a haunting trumpet sound and vocal style that were practically inseparable. His vocal phrasing and even his scatting were akin to his lyrical trumpet sound. In some respects, this was an experiment, but Baker proved immediately that he could play with even the hardest of the East Coast boppers.
Riverside Records co-founder Orrin Keepnews produced all but one of the recording sessions in this set. Keepnews was not especially fond of Baker due to his heroin habit, intermittent jail time, and hiatuses. Nonetheless, Keepnews recruited these players to accompany Baker. On Chet – Bill Evens, Pepper Adams, Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. Elsewhere you’ll find Sam Jones, Al Haig, Johnny Griffin, Zoot Sims and Herbie Mann. They were certainly among the best.
Quoting from Ramsey’s liners, here’s a deeper description of Baker’s style – “A respected critic, the late Ralph J. Gleason, once labeled Baker’s playing, “soft but determined.” That was a fair description of Baker’s approach for all of his career in his trumpet and flugelhorn playing and in his singing. As John Wilson observed in his Times piece, Chet was capable of rapid vale-flicking. But it was his softness quotient that attracted fans who might not have warmed to Dizzy Gillespie’s headlong speed. Clifford Brown’s unerring concentration of harmonic inventiveness or, a bit later, Freddie Hubbard’s torrents of sixteenth notes. After all, in his early career Baker’s audience included young women who were more attracted by his romantic singing than by his trumpet work. Still, it didn’t take long for experienced bebop listeners to recognize that, for all his restraint, all his relaxed phrasing, his vocalizing (‘scatting,” if you prefer), was direct image of his trumpet concept….” The best examples of this are “It Could Happen to You” and “You Make Me Feel So Young” from the first disc.
The debut for Riverside was the vocal album referred to above. You may recognize many of these standards, come later covered by Van Morrison – “You’re Driving Me Crazy,” “How Long Has This Been Going On” and another, the chestnut “Old Devil Moon.” These are the sessions not produced by Keepnews who initially objected to the signing of Baker. A month after the vocal sessions, Baker recorded Chet Baker in New York with Philly Joe Jones, Johnny Griffin, Al Haig and Paul Chambers, Solos abound and highlights included Miles Davis’ “Solar,” the ballad Polka Dots and Moonbeams” and the sparkling “Hotel 49.”
The third, Chet, has mostly ballads and features Bill Evans, Kenny Burrell, flutist Herbie Mann and baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams. This configuration of instruments is perhaps the most interesting sounding one in the set. Baker’s languid, fluid tone is framed well by the supporting cast who provide a spare tone akin to a sepia texture. Listen to “Alone Together,” “It never Entered My Mind” and “September Song” as among the best examples. The fourth album of Lerner and Loewe tunes is, of course, Broadway fare with tunes from My Fair Lady, Gigi, Brigadoon, and Paint Your Wagon. The previous lineup remained intact with the addition of tenor man Zoot Sims. The fifth disc of outtakes and alternate takes has a few highlights too including Baker using a Harmon mute on “The More I See You” and his use of space in his rendering of “Everything Happens to Me.” “While My Lady Sleeps” features fine harmonic interplay between Baker and pianist Kenny Drew.
Baker was a singular voice in jazz. His style is difficult to replicate, and none have done so since. He certainly had more than his share of the dark side, but these recordings demonstrate his brighter talents.
