Chet Baker Early Years

Chet Baker was a primary exponent of the West Coast school of cool jazz in the early and mid-'50s. As a trumpeter, he had a generally restrained, intimate playing style and he attracted attention beyond jazz for his photogenic looks and singing.

This 45-minute disc of primordial Chet Baker rarities shares its name with a companion volume of William Claxton's timeless photographs. The book visually preserves Baker and company during many of the same recording sessions heard on this release. The two presented here - produced by Dick Bock in Los Angeles during the early to mid-'50s - are the subject of some debate. The first date was originally recorded with the intent for Baker to add lead vocals, which he ultimately did. However, to get the most mileage out of the tapes, producer Bock re-released the same recordings three years later on the Pretty/Groovy album as instrumentals by substituting Baker's vocals with a lead tenor sax, performed by Bill Perkins…

Chet Baker Quartet Featuring Russ Freeman (1998) is a perfect studio companion to the Mosaic Records set Complete Pacific Jazz Live Recordings of Chet Baker With Russ Freeman (1988). As was the custom for jazz platters of the time, both Baker and Freeman are joined by a different combo on each date. The luminaries include Bobby Whitlock (bass), Joe Mondragon (bass), Bobby White (bass), Larry Bunker (drums) and Shelly Manne (drums) from sessions held circa July and October of 1953.

Chet Baker - Four - Chet Baker In Tokyo (1987) { {King Record Japan K32Y-6281, Early Press}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 339 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 142 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 138 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1987, 1989 King Record Japan / Paddle Wheel | K32Y-6281
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Trumpet

Like a number of live Chet Baker albums released over the last ten years, this one documents a concert that took place shortly before his tragic death (having recently resumed his drug habit, he fell from a hotel room window in 1988). Unlike most of them, though, this one shows him to have still been in complete control of his musical faculties, playing not just beautifully and well, but with energy and even speed despite his deteriorating health. His singing, too, sounds uncannily like that of the quiet young sex symbol he'd been in the 1950s, before age and heroin ravaged his face and emptied his eyes.

If you're a romantic with a yen for lush and dreamy music, "With Fifty Italian Strings" is the album for you. Chet Baker's trumpet soliloquizes over the aforementioned strings in carefree yet deliberate phrases. His voice glides smoothly and effortlessly over the legato accompaniment, while the arrangements are never too dense, weighty or dramatic.

Chet Baker - Memories - Chet Baker In Tokyo (1987) {King Record Japan K32Y-6270}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 310 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 132 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 117 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1987-88 King Record Japan / Paddle Wheel / Sound-Service Bellaphon Int. | K32Y-6270
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Trumpet

Like a number of live Chet Baker albums released over the last ten years, this one documents a concert that took place shortly before his tragic death (having recently resumed his drug habit, he fell from a hotel room window in 1988). Unlike most of them, though, this one shows him to have still been in complete control of his musical faculties, playing not just beautifully and well, but with energy and even speed despite his deteriorating health. His singing, too, sounds uncannily like that of the quiet young sex symbol he'd been in the 1950s, before age and heroin ravaged his face and emptied his eyes.

Chet Baker - In Paris: The Complete 1955-1956 Barclay Sessions (2007) {Barclay–Universal 983839-7 , 8CD, Rare photos}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.20 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 689 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 4.10 Gb | 5% repair rar
© 1955-56, 2007 Barclay Disques / Universal Music Jazz France | 983839-7
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Trumpet

2007 eight CD box set from the Jazz legend. Chet baker lived and worked in Paris in 1955 and 1956 and in this short time span, he left a great legacy of extraordinary recordings for the Barclay label. For the first time, these recordings are gathered together complete and in chronological order for this astounding box set. Chet In Paris includes 15 previously unreleased recordings (eight of them being full-takes), a new remastered mix and beautiful packaging: a 12 x 12 box containing four double digipaks, an 84 page booklet with rare covers, concert programs, pictures and extensive liner notes, interviews and discographies.

Chet Baker was a primary exponent of the West Coast school of cool jazz in the early and mid-'50s. As a trumpeter, he had a generally restrained, intimate playing style and he attracted attention beyond jazz for his photogenic looks and singing. But his career was marred by drug addiction. Baker's father, Chesney Henry Baker,Sr., was a guitarist who was forced to turn to other work during the Depression; his mother, Vera (Moser) Baker, worked in a perfumery. The family moved from Oklahoma to Glendale, CA, in 1940. As a child, Baker sang at amateur competitions and in a church choir.