Chet Baker in New York features the trumpeter in the company of a strong New York unit including Johnny Griffin, Al Haig, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. These tracks mark the only collaborative recordings by Baker and Griffin. A reading of “Soft Winds” that completes the sessions (originally released on the various artists album New Blue Horns), and a full date that was recorded in New York the following year (on which Baker plays four songs by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe) have been added as a bonus.
Chet Baker in New York features the trumpeter in the company of a strong New York unit including Johnny Griffin, Al Haig, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. These tracks mark the only collaborative recordings by Baker and Griffin. A reading of “Soft Winds” that completes the sessions (originally released on the various artists album New Blue Horns), and a full date that was recorded in New York the following year (on which Baker plays four songs by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe) have been added as a bonus.
Chet Baker's West Coast cool comes to the Big Apple on Chet Baker in New York. The project would be Baker's first – in a four album deal – with the Big Apple-based Riverside Records. The bicoastal artist incorporates his decidedly undernourished sound and laid-back phrasing into the styling of Al Haig (piano), Johnny Griffin (tenor sax), Paul Chambers (bass), and Philly Joe Jones (drums)…
An extension of the popular Original Jazz Classics series (est. 1982), the new OJC Remasters releases reveal the sonic benefits of 24-bit remastering-a technology that didn't exist when these titles were originally issued on compact disc. The addition of newly-written liner notes further enhances the illuminating quality of the OJC Remasters reissues. "Each of the recordings in this series is an all-time jazz classic," says Nick Phillips, Vice President of Jazz and Catalog A&R at Concord Music Group and producer of the series.
This music, originally issued in Italy as "Angel Eyes" and in the United States as "Chet Baker with Fifty Italian Strings", was recorded by the great Chet Baker in Milan, Italy, in 1959. It was his second European tour (the first one had taken place in 1955), and would lead to Baker’s imprisonment in Italy for drug charges. Baker is backed by a big band conducted by Len Mercer (the artistic name of the Milanese conductor Ezio Leoni) in a repertoire of well-known standards, among them a new reading of the classic “My Funny Valentine”. Tracks made by Chet in Italy during the same period for film soundtracks conducted by Piero Umiliani have been added as a bonus.
This music, originally issued in Italy as Chet Sextet & Quartet and in the USA as Chet Baker in Milan, was recorded by the great trumpeter/vocalist backed by a small group of Italian players in Milan, Italy, in 1959. A complete session - also recorded in Italy - presenting Baker mostly on vocals with an orchestra conducted by Ennio Morricone (celebrated for his soundtracks to the films of Sergio Leone), and two tracks recorded in Baden Baden, Germany, have been added as a bonus.
Picture of Heath (also known as Playboys was the best collaboration ever by two of the greatest jazz masters of all time: trumpeter Chet Baker and alto saxophonist Art Pepper. This set presents the complete album, along with, as a bonus, seven tracks from a previous session fronted by both stars.
The show tune "My Funny Valentine" was composed by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart for their 1937 musical Babes in Arms, where it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green. It would become a popular jazz standard, appearing on over 1300 albums performed by over 600 artists. First recorded by Chet Baker in 1952, it soon became something like his theme song, omnipresent on his club and concert sets. This CD opens and closes with two of Chet’s numerous versions of the song, and also presents a selection of some of his best interpretations of well-known standards.