Chet Baker – Chet Baker Sings (180g LP)

Label: Tone Poet / Blue Note – 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl AAA 100% Analogue

This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio

AAA 100% Analogue – Limited Edition – Audiophile Mastering – Pressed at RTI

The Absolute Sound Super Disc List TAS Harry Pearson Super LP List

Trumpeter Chet Baker’s singing still provokes debate. Some love it, others wish he’d saved his singing for the shower. Here’s a chance to make up your own mind by sampling some of the best singing of Baker’s early career, when the voice was fresh, the ideas new. We live in partisan times, we’re told. Republicans and Democrats, Sox fans and Yankee fans, sushi lovers and those who need their fish cooked. So why not toss trumpeter Chet Baker’s singing into the mix? As Gerald Heard’s liner notes point out, it’s difficult to decide whether Chet Baker was a trumpet player who sang or a singer who played trumpet. When the 24-year-old California-based trumpeter started his vocal career in 1954, his singing was revolutionary; as delicate and clear as his trumpet playing, with a similarly bright and vibrato-free tone, Baker simply didn’t sound like any previous jazz singer. His first vocal session, recorded in February 1954 and covering tracks seven through 14 of this disc, is so innocent-sounding it’s like cub reporter Jimmy Olsen had started a new career as a jazz singer. The album’s first six tracks, recorded in July 1956, are even more milk and cookies, thanks in no small part to syrupy material like Frank Loesser’s ‘I’ve Never Been in Love Before’ and Donaldson/Kahn’s drippy ‘My Buddy.’ Choices from the earlier session like ‘My Funny Valentine’ — arguably the definitive version of this oft-recorded song — and ‘There Will Never Be Another You’ work much, much better. The spacious musical setting, a simple trumpet and piano-bass-drums rhythm section, is perfect for Baker’s low-key style. Despite the few faults of song selection, Chet Baker Sings is a classic of West Coast cool jazz. Musicians: Chet Baker, vocals, trumpet Russ Freeman, piano, celeste Jimmy Bond, bass on Side A Carson Smith, bass on B1-B5 & B7-B8 Joe Mondragon, bass on B6 Peter Littman, drums on A1-A2 & A5 Lawrence Marable, drums on A3-A4 & A6 Bob Neel, drums on B1-B5 & B7-B8 Shelly Manne, drums on B6 Selections: Side A: 1. That Old Feeling 2. It’s Always You 3. Like Someone In Love 4. My Ideal 5. I’ve Never Been In Love Before 6. My Buddy Side B: 1. But Not For Me 2. Time After Time 3. I Get Along Without You Very Well 4. My Funny Valentine 5. There Will Never Be Another You 6. The Thrill Is Gone 7. I Fall In Love Too Easily 8. Look For The Silver Lining