at a glance...

Hometown: Yale, OK
First Recordings: 1950

Personnel:
Chet Baker -trumpet, vocals
Russ Freeman -piano
...and a slew of changing bassists and drummers

Notes:
Chet Baker was perhaps the biggest rock star that jazz ever had. He loved pricey Italian sportscars, fast women and devoured drugs and excitement. He was known as the "the James Dean of jazz." But the most interesting aspect of Baker's personality is the contradiction that existed between his lifestyle and music - offstage he was a fireball, onstage he was a pussycat. He was a trumpet player who fell accidentally into singing. Never formally trained in either instrument, he gave everything he could to both, and was stoically captivating. Chet Baker gained notoriety playing with the legendary bandleader and saxophonist Gerry Mulligan in around 1952. Before that he spent quite awhile in the U.S. army playing trumpet for Uncle Sam, much of it in San Francisco's Presidio army base. SF is also where Chet's career nearly ended after having his teeth knocked out in a drug deal gone bad. After falling into obscurity for many years, Chet came back in full swing during the Seventies to record a slew of records that did quite well. Unfortunately, due to his serious drug habit and physical deterioration, Chet's voice never came back quite like his trumpet playing did. Chet Baker died in 1988 from a fall out of a two-story window in Amsterdam. his death and life are still viewed with mystery and intrigue.

Chet Baker was a pioneer of the "cool jazz" scene of the 1950's. Cool jazz was a reaction to the complexities of be-bop and set out to be minimal, conservative and very understated. Baker's music epitomized these qualities, and they are never better exhibited than on the Capitol/Pacific Jazz 1989 release of The Best of Chet Baker Sings.

This is one of those rare albums that grabs you by the throat from the very first few seconds. The opening piano solo in the albums first track "The Thrill Is Gone" is the jazz equivalent of what Baroque and renaissance composers referred to as "word painting." Baker's pianist Russ Freeman, a long time collaborator of his, sets the melancholic mood with dreary minor chords that contribute the torch-like background for Baker's soft, satiny crooning. This song is the perfect introduction for an album saturated with songs of lost love and heartbreak. With song titles like "You Don't Know What Love Is," and lyrics like "They're writing songs of love, but not for me," make sure the sleeping pills are in another room.

This album becomes even more moving when you listen to Baker's definitive version of the Rodgers and Hart classic "My Funny Valentine." Proving that less is more, Baker, surrounded only by bass and piano, pulls on heartstrings creating one of the most elusive qualities found in music today: intimacy. Baker's trumpet solos shine on this album as well, adding much to the already highly emotive music. In "I Fall In Love Too Easily" Baker listlessly floats around the changes with a simple sort of backphrasing that would become highly characteristic of his music.

The music on the album reminds us of how blissful and pathetic life can be, separately and at the same time. It's moving...and perhaps a tad melancholic. However, I will tell you from experience that next to Alice In Chains' Facelift, The Best of Chet Baker Sings is one of my favorite break-up albums of all time. So, if you're in love or outta love, bitter, jaded or just not gettin' any lately, this album will make you teary enough to call up the old ex and beg for forgiveness for always forgetting to put the seat down.

If you like Chet Baker, check out:
Mel Torme The Velvet Fog
Miles Davis Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
Astrud Gilberto Jazz Masters 9