Chet Baker

Did I say that jazz puzzles me?

This is Chet Baker, he played trumpet, he sang a bit, and his music was cool jazz. And I can listen to this. This makes a kind of sense to me. Baker was not an innovator like Miles Davis, but he didn’t have to be. This music moves to where it’s supposed to go without requiring great leaps of faith from the listener, but it’s not unsophisticated, not by a long shot. So I like it.

The first part of this is the Sony Compact Jazz release, and the second part, starting from Freeway, is extracted from The Pacific Jazz Years. And I got both collections at the West Kildonan Library.

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Chet Baker:

• Summertime – Well it was Billie Holiday that transformed this song into jazz, which it always was anyway whether Gershwin knew it or not. This really a cool reading of the song, in every sense of the word, except temperature.
• The Girl From Greenland – She must be cool too. Distant relative of the girl from Ipanema.
• Anticipated Blues
• Chet – A self-portrait in music I guess. For what it’s worth, I’ve never known anyone named Chet.
• I’ll Remember April – Vocals by Caterena Valente
• Everytime We Say Goodbye – Ditto
• That Old Devil Called Love
• Don’t Explain – No relation to Can’t Explain by The Who.
• Baby Breeze
• Halfbreed Apache – Never get away with a title like this now. No relation to Halfbreed by Cher.
• This Is The Thing
• Pamela’s Passion – I once went out with a girl named Pamela – twice, I twice went out with a girl named Pamela – I’d met her at university. Didn’t become acquainted with her passion though.
• Comin’ Down – An upbeat song with a downbeat title.
• Freeway – Santana did a long song called Freeway but this isn’t it.
• My Funny Valentine – I seem to hear spoons clattering in the background. I have a version of this by Sammy Davis Jr.
• Half Nelson – I’m guessing that this is the only popular song extant whose title is a wrestling hold.
• Moon Love – This sounds like Annie’s Song, by John Denver, which is really weird until you realize that Annie’s Song sounds like the slow movement of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. Check it out.
• I Get Along Without You Very Well – He sings this one. Of course the whole idea here is that he doesn’t get along without her well at all. Baker’s voice appeals to some I understand, but he reminds me of Herb Alpert – as a singer, he is a good trumpeter.
• You Don’t Know What Love Is – The old story – you don’t know what love is until you’ve lost it. Another vocal. The style here reminds me of Julie London.
• Lullaby Of The Leaves – The Ventures did this, but it doesn’t sound like the same song to me.
• Pro Defunctus
• Stella By Starlight – Tempo on this is a bit faster than what we are used to, but it works. We’ve heard this by Ray Charles and by The Ames Brothers.
• Mythe
• Bockhanal
• All The Things You Are
• Lush Life – A hit for Nat King Cole
• Minor Yours
• CTA – Chiago Transit Authority? Who knows..
• Jumpin’ Off A Clef
• My Old Flame