Playing By Ear Never Sounded This Good!
By all accounts, the life and career of Chet Baker was an amazing saga. How does someone go from a movie star handsome trumpet idol of the fifties to a nearly homeless, but still performing drug addict? A couple of great biographies of Chet Baker try to answer that question; I can't. I prefer to concentrate on his place in the history of jazz trumpet. He was certainly the the most intuitive trumpeter since Louis Armstrong; he did not read music, understand chord changes, nor compose. Stories abound of sidemen, including Russ Freeman, having to give Chet his opening note. However, once he heard a tune, he owned it; his ear was exceptional and was the foundation of his improvisational skills. Trumpet purists complain that his ideas are simple, that he has no technical mastery, and no range; all true comments to some extent. What he provides thru his beautiful tone and original conception, however, is an emotional connection to the listener which is the envy of any musical artist. The tunes in this release are like short stories, just long enough to leave you wanting more. As other reviewers have stated, this was Russ Freeman's date with the usual Pacific Jazz crew of Carson Smith, Joe Mondragon, and others. It's hard to believe that this stuff is over 50 years old; it has a vitality and freshness that just flows out effortlessly. Chet Baker was a rare artist who sounded like no one else, even 50+ years later.

Chetophobes should give this one a try...
This album was a very pleasant surprise. Without ever having actually heard him, I had formed a vaguely negative conception of Chet Baker's playing--white kid,West Coast,"cool school",couldn't really play the trumpet at all well,soft plaintive tone and a one-octave range,even Gerry Mulligan said he had no conception of what it meant to be a serious musician,etc.etc. It's true that as a trumpet technician, he's not even remotely in the same class as Dizzy Gillespie,Fats Navarro,Clifford Brown, or even a randomly selected Berklee trumpet major. But at least on this CD,he plays with a lot of drive,swings hard, has a lot of good melodic ideas and enough technique to execute them. All the talk about his flowing, lyrical lines has,it turns out,a solid basis in fact.He was not a disciplined well-schooled musician, but he had a gift for melody that no amount of study and practice can produce. I knew Russ Freeman only from some rather eccentric interjections on a few big-band tunes, but he turns out to have been a fine pianist,with real drive and authority. In short,this is quite a good album,well worth trying out,particularly if you currently share my former prejudice against Baker.[I should add that his singing,here mercifully confined to one track,strikes me as downright creepy; I gather I'm not alone in thinking this.On the evidence of this CD,one should stick to the trumpet playing.]

A Pairing Made In Heaven!
Pairing Chet Baker with Russ Freeman in the '50s resulted in some of the most gorgeous recordings of any era. Baker was an icon of the jazz world for his trumpet playing, his singing (almost sounding like a trumpet) and his incredible looks, which really stood out in the rather homely jazz world (jazz guys do not usually look like rock stars!). Russ Freeman was a fabulous pianist plus also a composer. Together the two men played the most romantic, most emotional music extant in jazz. Theirs is not the "intellectual" jazz as popularized by Dave Brubeck. Warning: Buying one Chet Baker CD can be dangerous for the wallet. Once you own one of his discs, you will want all of them. I certainly did and now have the cd collection to prove it! I also bought every recording I was able to find that he did with Russ Freeman.

Early Chet at His Best
These recordings, made between February and October 1953, feature Baker at the threshold of his carreer and vividly show his ceativity and promise. Anyone who questions why he continues to be held in such high esteem, should find the answer in listening to this CD.

There's a story that Charlie Parker, upon returning to New York from a trip to California, warned Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis about a new, young trumpet player out there named Chet Baker. These recordings demonstrate that the warning was justified.

This is top notch West Coast playing
This disc is actually "Quartet: Russ Freeman and Chet Baker" & is a Russ Freeman session issued under Chet's name. Russ composed 6 of the 8 tunes & he makes Chet work for his wages.

The album opens amusingly with "Love Nest," otherwise known as the theme for the Burns & Allen Show. Russ takes the lovely "Summer Sketch" solo half of the way through, then bringing Chet in for no more than a wonderfully pensive turn at the melody. That's followed by, for me, the album's two most swinging cuts, "An Afternoon at Home" & "Say When." They also pay homage to Billy Strayhorn with a romantic arrangement of "Lush Life."

This is top notch West Coast playing, with Shelly Manne on sticks & Leroy Vinnegar on big fiddle. Recorded in 1956. No singing. Check out the thumbnails on the insert by photographer William Claxton then check out the collections of great photos Claxton shot of this era & these talented musicians.

Bob Rixon, WFMU