Jazz Articles about Chet Baker

Chet Baker / The Bradley Young Trio: Chet In Chicago

by Andrew Velez
August 30, 2009

The reservation approaching this late-in-his-career and previously unreleased 1986 set happily proved to be unwarranted. Attending a dismal Chet Baker set in a brief-lived New York Village club that same year left me sad and depressed at the state of his playing and appearance, vowing to enjoy him only on record. Yet here he is in quite splendid form, uniquely melancholic and lyrical with “We'll Be Together Again." Although he doesn't sing on this song, those familiar with Baker will ...

Chet Baker with the Bradley Young Trio: Chet in Chicago

by C. Michael Bailey
October 16, 2008

Chet Baker with the Bradley Young Trio Chet in Chicago Enja Records 2008What is the cultural value of trumpeter Chet Baker 20 years after his death in Amsterdam? An interesting rift between biographers has emerged, the schism running along the interface of Baker's substance abuse and the art he generated in spite of it. James Gavin's Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) was a ...

Chet Baker: Indian Summer and The Quintessence

by Marcia Hillman
May 4, 2008

Chet Baker Indian Summer Dutch Jazz Archive 2007 Chet Baker The Quintessence Fremeaux & Assoc. 2007

Hooray! Chet Baker, who died 20 years ago this month, lives again like a breath of fresh springtime air on these newly released CDs. Indian Summer was recorded in September 1955 on ...

Chet Baker: Chet

by Matt Leskovic
July 29, 2007

With his striking good looks, withdrawn stage presence, and reserved improvisational approach, trumpeter Chet Baker embodied everything that was “cool about jazz in the 1950s. He was peerless when it came to playing ballads, using simplistic phrasing and a tone that was at once unassuming, fragile, stirring, and sexy.

His experience as a singer undoubtedly influenced his interpreting the American popular songbook. By choosing not to use excessive embellishments the focus is shifted back to melody and away ...

Chet Baker: Chet

by Samuel Chell
July 13, 2007

A popular 1959 release by Chet Baker, this Riverside Keepnews Collection issue captures the gifted but troubled trumpeter at his best. It might even qualify as Baker's most satisfying and representative recording. Although Baker's reputation as a singer has steadily risen, those who tend to dismiss his androgynous vocals as secondary to his trumpet playing will be happy to know that on Chet he devotes himself exclusively to the horn. Moreover, for all of the stereotypical notions about ...

Chet Baker: Career 1952-1988

by David Rickert
July 14, 2005

This Chet Baker collection begins and ends, appropriately enough, with two different versions of “My Funny Valentine. One is from the pioneering Gerry Mulligan Quartet at the early part of Baker's career; the other comes from a live performance two weeks before his untimely death. The critics hated his version of the song, as did many of his peers. But it's the song most associated with Baker, and one that always brought out his fragile and melancholy side, regardless of ...

Creed Taylor Productions, Part 1

by Chris M. Slawecki
April 2, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 The place in jazz history held by Creed Taylor is impeccable, stylish, and essential. He produced some of the best music for some of the best labels dedicated to jazz, then formed his own label and with meticulous preparation and his musician's ear kept on making great jazz records. Taylor began as a producer for Bethlehem Records, where his work with Charles Mingus stands among the label's best. In 1960, ...