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Chet Baker: An Alternative Top Ten Albums To Get Lost In
Courtesy Michiel Hendryckx
You do not generally feel like jumping up and shouting ‘Yeah!’ after a Chet Baker trumpet solo. All that tenderness, turmoil and pain has driven you too far inside. He reaches that same part of us as a late Beethoven string quartet, a spiritual hole where music becomes religion.
—Mike Zwerin
Baker's breakthrough came in summer 1952. In short order, he was taken under the approving wing of alto saxophonist
Charlie Parker
saxophone, alto1920 - 1955
Gerry Mulligan
saxophone, baritone1927 - 1996
Baker's natural-born talent as a trumpeter was accompanied by movie-star looks. He was as good looking as James Dean and enviably photogenic. In Bruce Weber's flawed but fascinating 1988 documentary Let's Get Lost, trumpeter
Jack Sheldon
trumpet1931 - 2019
As the years passed, heroin took its toll on Baker's looks. After smoking industrial quantities of weed since the late 1940s, he acquired a serious heroin habit in the mid 1950s. The drug dominated his life until he passed, after falling out of a third-floor hotel window in Amsterdam in 1988. In an interview for Matthew Ruddick's (definitive) biography Funny Valentine: The Story Of Chet Baker (Melrose, 2012), bassist
Ron McClure
bassb.1941
Baker's good looks undoubtedly bolstered his career, especially as a singer. On the basis of his first vocal album, Chet Baker Sings (Pacific Jazz, 1954), he tied
Nat King Cole
piano and vocals1919 - 1965
Heroin dominated Baker's life to such an extent that it is hard to avoid it when writing about his music: the intensity of his addiction, and that of many of the musicians he worked with, influenced the music and the circumstances in which it was recorded. Despite it all, on a good night Baker was still playing great jazz right up until the end. He himself felt his work in the 1970s and 1980s reached new degrees of beauty and profundity, and you may agree with him.
Most Baker connoisseurs' Essential Top Tens start with Gerry Mulligan Quartet: The Original Quartet With Chet Baker (Pacific Jazz, recorded 1952-53, compiled 1998) and will likely include some or all of the following: The Best Of Chet Baker Sings (Pacific Jazz, 1953-56, compiled 1989); In Paris: A Selection Of The Legendary Barclay Sessions 1955-1956 (EmArcy, 2000), or the multi-disc complete works if you can run to it;
Jim Hall
guitar1930 - 2013
This Alternative Top Ten focuses on less widely celebrated but outstanding releases. Hopefully you will find one or two items with which you are not yet familiar.
CHET BAKER: TEN IRRESISTIBLE VALENTINES
Chet Baker Quartet Chet Baker Quartet Featuring Russ Freeman
Pacific Jazz, 1953
This was Baker's own-name debut album following his breakthrough with the
Gerry Mulligan
saxophone, baritone1927 - 1996
Joe Mondragon
bass1920 - 1987
Carson Smith
bassb.1931
Larry Bunker
drums1928 - 2005
Bobby White
drumsb.1926
Shelly Manne
drums1920 - 1984
Baker plays with seraphic beauty throughout. Highlights include Gershwin's "Long Ago And Far Away," Burke and Van Heusen's "Imagination" and the Freeman originals "Batter Up," "No Ties" and "Bea's Flat," the last of which includes a particularly sparkling solo.
The companion compilation Gerry Mulligan Quartet: The Original Quartet With Chet Baker is more widely celebrated than Chet Baker Quartet Featuring Russ Freeman. But both deserve a place in your collection.
Chet Baker Chet Baker & Crew
Pacific Jazz, 1956
Chet Baker & Crew is the first album Baker recorded in the US following his return from an eighteen-month 1955-56 European tour on which he had been playing with a band which included the precociously talented young American pianist
Dick Twardzik
piano1931 - 1955
In Europe, Baker acquired his first full-blown heroin habit (and Twardzik died of an overdose). Most of the band on Chet Baker & Crew were users, too. So the vibe of ocean-breeze wholesomeness suggested by the sleeve photo is misleading. The shot is true to the vitality of the music, however, which is played by a sextet which includes tenor saxophonist
Phil Urso
saxophone, tenor1925 - 2008
Bobby Timmons
piano1935 - 1974
Al Cohn
saxophone, tenor1925 - 1988
It is tempting to speculate as to whether the cover of Chet Baker & Crew influenced the art direction Columbia followed for the sleeve of the first pressing of
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
Chet Baker & Art Pepper Playboys
Pacific Jazz, 1957
And while we are on the subject of cover designs... Playboys' sleeve was par for the course in the 1950s. However, the album was quickly retitled Picture Of Heath, after its chief composer and arranger, tenor saxophonist
Jimmy Heath
saxophone, tenor1926 - 2020
Heath's uncluttered arrangements are excellent launching pads for soloists and the three horns—Baker, Pepper and Phil Urso—respond with fiery, extrovert solos, driven along by pianist
Carl Perkins
piano1928 - 1958
Curtis Counce
bass, acoustic1926 - 1963
Larance Marable
drums1929 - 2012
In Jeroen De Valk's Chet Baker: His Life And Music (Berkeley Hills, 2000), Heath memorably describes the album as "an authentic junkie record." Pepper was just out of jail, Baker was arrested a week after the session, Urso was still strung out and Perkins would die two years later. When the record was recorded, Heath himself was behind bars for possession. Pacific Jazz's Dick Bock had to come and fetch the sheet music from jail.
Chet Baker Chet
Riverside, 1959
Despite all the grief Baker put record label executives (and club owners) through with his serial requests for cash, most of the people he dealt with had an abiding affection for him—partly because of his artistry, partly because of his charm and vulnerability. Riverside's
Orrin Keepnews
producer1923 - 2015
Baker was signed to Riverside by Keepnews' business partner, Bill Grauer, who saw dollar signs when he heard Baker sing. In his liner notes for a posthumous reissue of Chet, Keepnews says he did not like Baker's singing but felt obliged to go along with Grauer's wishes. "Before long," Keepnews continued, "[Baker] had achieved the distinction of forcing me to switch my home phone to an unlisted number" in order to avoid small-hours phone calls begging for immediate cash. Baker was one night caught trying to break into Riverside's stockroom, from which he planned to lift boxfuls of Chet, to autograph and sell at gigs. On another occasion, he stole blank cheques from Keepnews' office and tried to cash them at local pharmacies.
But even Keepnews felt that (the all-instrumental) Chet was a great album. Baker plays beautifully as do Riverside's rising-star pianist
Bill Evans
piano1929 - 1980
Pepper Adams
saxophone, baritone1930 - 1986
Herbie Mann
flute1930 - 2003
Kenny Burrell
guitar, electricb.1931
Paul Chambers
bass, acoustic1935 - 1969
Connie Kay
drums1927 - 1994
Philly Joe Jones
drums1923 - 1985
Terry Riley Music For The Gift
Cortical Foundation, 2000
Every record collection should contain some curiosities. Here is one. Recorded between 1961 and 1965 in Paris and California, but not released until 2000, Music For The Gift is a
Terry Riley
composer / conductorb.1935
Music For The Gift was intended to be the soundtrack for an avant-garde stage play. Baker is heard, albeit unrecognisably, on half of the tracks, which were recorded in Paris in 1963. In her memoir Born Under The Sign Of Jazz (Sanctuary, 1998), the Norwegian jazz advocate Randi Hultin, who began a lifelong friendship with Baker in Paris in 1963, says he also acted and played trumpet in The Gift during its two week run at the city's Recamier Theatre that year. Whether this was before or after the recording of Riley's soundtrack, Hultin does not say.
In any event, Baker's sound was a great fit for Riley's music and he might have been asked to play on the In C session had he not at the time been rebuilding his embrochure following a savage street brawl (which necessitated dentures) in San Francisco in 1966 (in the event,
Jon Hassell
trumpetb.1937
And still with "what if" history... When speaking about his tape-manipulated productions for Miles Davis,
Teo Macero
producer1925 - 2008
Chet Baker She Was Too Good To Me
CTI, 1974
Creed Taylor
producer1929 - 2022
Incidentally, dental problems are also the reason Baker is only ever shown giving a tight-lipped half-smile in the image-building photos William Claxton shot of him during the early 1950s: Baker had already lost one front tooth. In his book Young Chet (Te Neues, 1993), Claxton says: "As long as I knew Chet he had one missing tooth in the front that made him look charming and dopey at the same time. And [he made sure that] the missing tooth never showed up in any of his pictures." (Baker let his guard down in a fan photograph taken backstage at a Los Angeles club in 1953. He is shown standing next to Miles Davis and is so thrilled to be in the presence of his hero that he is grinning broadly).
Seven of the eight tracks on She Was Too Good To Me are from the Great American Songbook, with "Autumn Leaves" and "Tangerine" especially memorable. Alto saxophonist
Paul Desmond
saxophone, alto1924 - 1977
Hubert Laws
woodwindsb.1939
Hank Mobley
saxophone, tenor1930 - 1986
Chet Baker QuartetNo Problem
Steeplechase, 1980
Baker spent a large part of his career in Europe, where he recorded a slew of below-par albums for more or less dodgy labels in return for off-the-books cash payments. Among the more rewarding liaisons was one with Denmark's Steeplechase. Baker's most successful albums for the label include The Touch Of Your Lips (1979), made with a drummerless trio which includes guitarist
Doug Raney
guitar1956 - 2016
Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen
bass1946 - 2005
Paul Bley
piano1932 - 2016
And No Problem makes three. Pedersen is again present, in a quartet which also includes pianist
Duke Jordan
piano1922 - 2006
Steeplechase was well distributed throughout Europe and also in the US, where the label did much to raise his profile, which had declined since the mid 1970s. Steeplechase boss and producer Nils Winther was a genuine admirer of Baker's work and took pains to record him in the good studios and with congenial sidemen—and the love shines through.
Chet Baker TrioMr. B
Timeless, 1984
By 1983, when Mr. B was recorded, Baker was regularly working with drummerless lineups. On Mr. B, he leads a trio with pianist Michel Graillier and bassist
Riccardo Del Fra
bass, acousticb.1956
Herbie Hancock
pianob.1940
Horace Silver
piano1928 - 2014
Charlie Haden
bass, acoustic1937 - 2014
Dave Brubeck
piano1920 - 2012
Sam Rivers
saxophone, tenor1923 - 2011
Hal Galper
piano1938 - 2025
The trio had been playing the tunes live for some time and they benefit from being well worn in. Baker's solo on "Beatrice" is sublime. "Dolphin Dance" is another delight. The quality of Baker's performances on the album is all the more remarkable considering the depths of heroin addiction he had fallen into in 1982, following a few years of relatively moderate use.
Like Steeplechase's Nils Winther, Timeless' Wim Wight—a Dutch promoter who had been booking European dates for Baker since 1976—was a longtime fan. So, again like Winther, Wight tried to do right by his artist. During the Mr. B session, Baker was suffering from a nagging cough, which broke out whenever he stopped playing: Wight had the engineer painstakingly go through the finished tapes deleting the many noises off.
Chet Baker Meets Space Jazz Trio Little Girl Blue
Philology, 1988
Given the many visits Baker made to Italy, it is perhaps surprising that he never recorded an unalloyed stonker with the pianist
Enrico Pieranunzi
pianob.1949
The day before the session, Baker and Pieranunzi had recorded the lacklustre duo album The Heart Of The Ballad (Philology, 1988), on which Baker sounds tired and frail. But in a pattern that repeated itself throughout his career, something had obviously come along to improve Baker's mood by the time he returned to the studio. Pieranunzi's trio is completed by bassist " data-original-title="" title="">Enzo Pietropaoli and drummer
Fabrizio Sferra
drumsThe set list comprises two jazz standards: Wayne Shorter's "House Of Jade" and Miles Davis and Bill Evans' "Blue In Green," which Baker takes at a breathtakingly effective slow pace. There are four standards: Harold Arlen's "Come Rain Or Come Shine," Burton Lane's "Old Devil Moon," Cole Porter's "Just One Of Those Things" and Burton Lane and Yip Harburg's title track, to which Baker adds a dreamy vocal.
Chet Baker My Favourite Songs: The Last Great Concert
Enja, 1988
My Favourite Songs: The Last Great Concert is a collection of small group, big band and orchestral tracks recorded in Germany with the NDR Big Band, Radio Orchestra Hannover and guests one evening in late April 1988. After a tentative start, Baker, who had missed two days of planned rehearsals, but memorised the arrangements a few hours before showtime, hits form on seven jazz standards and Great American Songbook classics: Miles Davis' "All Blues," Richard Rodgers' "My Funny Valentine" (one of two tracks on which Baker sings as well as plays trumpet),
Thelonious Monk
piano1917 - 1982
Dave Brubeck
piano1920 - 2012
John Lewis
piano1920 - 2001
George Gershwin
composer / conductor1898 - 1937
Let us finish as we began, with a quote from trombonist, writer and longtime Baker fan
Mike Zwerin
trumpetb.1930
"[Baker] always plays seated, folded into a question-mark. Between solos, he sits, trumpet resting on his crossed legs, without moving. You almost say to yourself—my God, he's passed away up there. Then, ever so slowly, he raises the instrument to his lips and when those sweetly burned innocent notes bloom again it's a relief, almost as though you've made it through one more winter. Chet Baker is summertime, but the livin' isn't easy."
Tags
Interview
Chet Baker
Chris May
Charlie Parker
Gerry Mulligan
Jack Sheldon
Ron McClure
Nat King Cole
Jim Hall
Joe Mondragon
Bobby Whitlock
Carson Smith
Larry Bunker
Bobby White
Shelly Manne
Dick Twardzik
Phil Urso
Bobby Timmons
Peter Lippman
Al Cohn
Miles Davis
Jimmy Heath
Carl Perkins
Curtis Counce
Larance Marable
orrin keepnews
Bill Evans
Pepper Adams
Herbie Mann
Paul Chambers
Connie Kay
Philly Joe Jones
Kenny Burrell
Terry Riley
Jon Hassell
Teo Macero
Creed Taylor
Paul Desmond
Hubert Laws
Hank Mobley
Doug Raney
Niels-Henning ?rsted Pedersen
Paul Bley
Duke Jordan
Norman Fearrington
Michel Graillier
Riccardo Del Fra
Herbie Hancock
Horace Silver
Charlie Haden
Dave Brubeck
Sam Rivers
Hal Galper
Enrico Pieranunzi
Enzo Pietropaoli
Fabrizio Sferra
Thelonious Monk
John Lewis
George Gershwin
Mike Zwerin
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