Chet Baker: Easy To Love - Jazz Reference (CD)

Chet Baker (1929-1988)

Easy To Love - Jazz Reference

CD

CD (Compact Disc)

Herkömmliche CD, die mit allen CD-Playern und Computerlaufwerken, aber auch mit den meisten SACD- oder Multiplayern abspielbar ist.

Chet Baker (1929-1988): Easy To Love - Jazz Reference, CD

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Label: Dreyfus, 1953
Erscheinungstermin: 16.4.2010

Two months after cutting the last discs of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, a group which had brought him success from both the public and critics, Chet Baker at last recorded in his name with his quartet. The best sides of this series featured here, starting with the first, Isn’t It Romantic, on 24 July 1953, are among the most beautiful phonographic achievements of the trumpeter, who was voted as that year’s ‘New Star’ by the critics of the magazine Down Beat.

At the young age of twenty-three, fate pushed Chet to the forefront – Mulligan having had some legal problems due to ‘personal’ reasons – and he appeared to deal with his new responsibilities efficiently, backed up by a pianist, Russ Freeman, who chose or composed the pieces of the repertory and demonstrated competence as the group’s musical director. Russ was three years older than Chet and was already well-seasoned having, in particular, played alongside saxists Art Pepper, Wardell Gray and Dexter Gordon. Here, Chet proves to be very sure of himself, technically speaking, his phrases are clear and melodious, his sonority is soft and velvety while still remaining luminous, his ideas are logical and are wonderfully developed.

In October 53, again in a quartet with Freeman, he recorded his debut vocal number, I Fall In Love Too Easily. He sings in the same way he plays his instrument, with the same absence of vibrato, the same daintiness, the same fragility. In December 1953, he recorded with a septet which was in fact an extension of the quartet, with the addition of three saxists, including tenor Jack Montrose, the author of the arrangements. These sides, three of which are included here, are perfect examples of a style to be known as ‘West Coast’ stemming from the geographical location of its protagonists, California, the carefree land of technicolored dreams on the silver screens. This impeccable music, in direct descent of the groups that Miles Davis had reunited five years before in New York, suit the smooth and relaxed playing of Chet’s initial style. At the end of the same month he is wrapped by pleasant strings, with arrangements by Shorty Rogers and Johnny Mandel, which accentuate the romantic image of the trumpeter, an image to be rapidly muddled through excess. Which renders the present selection even more moving and precious.