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Chet Baker: She Was Too Good To Me
by C. Michael Bailey
Chet BakerShe Was Too Good To MeCTI Records1974 The modern image of trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker is a hopelessly fractious one. Baker is, at once, a brilliant musical autodidact with a superb ear while, at the same time, a musician with a nonexistent grounding in musical theory. Like cornetist Bix Beiderbecke before him, Baker taught himself, thereby forging a personal sound identifiable across the space-time continuum. He left a 40-year aural testament, ...
Continue ReadingChet Baker: His Life and Music
by C. Michael Bailey
Chet Baker: His Life and Music Jeroen de Valk Paperback; 296 pages ISBN: 189316313 Berkeley Hills Books 2000 The legacy of jazz trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker, particularly that developed after 1980, has largely evaded detailed analysis. In the 25 years since Baker's death, following a fall from an Amsterdam hotel window, May 13, 1988, a clearer picture of the artist has emerged in the form of two excellent, yet whole disparate biographies, James ...
Continue ReadingChet Baker: She Was Too Good To Me
by Chris M. Slawecki
Newly reminted in 2010's CTI Masterworks series, She Was Too Good To Me was originally Chet Baker's 1974 “comeback album," his first recording since a well-publicized mugging by junkie acquaintances (hardly “friends") that relieved the singer and trumpet player of his money, dope and most of his teeth. “Believe me," Baker once observed, “when a trumpet player has his teeth pulled, it's a comeback." Creed Taylor's velvety production proves the perfect setting, and the standards “Autumn Leaves" ...
Continue ReadingJim Hall: Concierto
by John Kelman
Amongst the many CTI classics of the 1970s, few stand the test of time as well as guitarist Jim Hall's Concierto, an ambitious album that, in its original form, married one side of modern mainstream with a second taken up by a 19-minute version of Joaquin Rodrigo's 1939 piece for classical guitar and orchestra, “Concierto de Aranjuez." That Miles Davis and Gil Evans had already delivered what was considered the definitive jazz adaptation on the trumpeter's 1960 classic, Sketches of ...
Continue ReadingChet Baker - Bill Evans: The Complete Legendary Sessions
by AAJ Italy Staff
Certo che il titolo è molto invitante: Chet Baker & Bill Evans - The Complete Legendary Sessions. Fa pensare a una collaborazione paritaria fra due giganti del jazz, entrambi dotati di una singolare combinazione di swing e lirismo, raffinati e tormentati. La realtà è diversa e questa raccolta riunisce sì le uniche tre sedute d'incisione che videro assieme i nostri, ma il pianista è un “semplice" accompagnatore di lusso, che emerge a brevi e deliziosi tratti (i più estesi “Early ...
Continue ReadingChet Baker's Quiet Sound Endures
by Chris Kompanek
Chet Baker Strollin' Enja 2008 Chet Baker Broken Wing Inner City 2009 John Proulx Baker's Dozen MAXJAZZ 2009 As iconic as any jazz musician, Chet Baker's gentle, understated playing and crooning ran counterpoint to his tumultuous life. Two late life recordings capture an introspective legend, voice ...
Continue ReadingAa.Vv.: I Grandi Concerti - The Brass Group Palermo - Vol. 2
by AAJ Italy Staff
Ad un anno di distanza dal capitolo d'esordio ecco il secondo volume del progetto ideato e curato dal nostro collaboratore Maurizio Zerbo con l'intento di dare testimonianza all'attività del Brass Group di Palermo e alle straordinarie stagioni concertistiche che hanno visto esibirsi il gotha del jazz mondiale. Altra peculiarità di queste registrazione la presenza, a fianco dei mostri sacri stranieri, di musicisti siciliani a dimostrare la crescita e l'autorevolezza ormai raggiunta dal movimento jazzistico insulare. Nel primo brano, ad esempio, ...
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