Chet Baker Plays and Sings

Trumpet player Chet Baker had a tumultuous life and career, with some highs and many lows, the latter mainly caused by substance abuse. Today we'll hear one of his most neglected LPs - dating from a generally fallow period in the 1960s - and his first vocal album, from the 1950s. Both are enjoyable, if very different.

Chet Baker Sings

Baker became a singer almost by accident. Supposedly his mother heard him vocalizing, and she encouraged him to record. So he did.

The first people (beside Mom) to hear him were his band mates, who were not impressed. Russ Freeman, the pianist depicted on the cover above, thought he had no feeling for lyrics and sang in a wispy, high voice like a girl.

This may have been envy - Freeman was well regarded but Baker was a star on the West Coast cool jazz scene and (when young) was almost absurdly good looking. Now he sings?

Well, Chet could sing. He even became influential - the vibratoless and emotionless voice of Astrud Gilberto comes to mind. (They said she couldn't sing, either.)

To me, Baker's model was the young Frank Sinatra, at least the Frank who sang tender ballads. Chet even includes two of the Voice's signature songs among the eight selections on this 10-inch LP from 1954 - "I Fall in Love Too Easily" and "Time After Time," both by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne. Baker's signature song became "My Funny Valentine," which he had recorded as an instrumental with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet in 1953.

Then again, it was said that Baker had no vocal repertoire when he began recording; that the songs were suggested to him by Freeman and others, and he needed many takes to record them successfully. Paradoxically, Baker sounds both relaxed and innocent, which he certainly was not.

The other songs on the LP are standards - "But Not for Me," "There Will Never Be Another You," "I Get Along without You Very Well," "The Thrill Is Gone" and "Look for the Silver Lining."

This transfer comes from my two-EP version of the 10-inch LP.

LINK to Chet Baker Sings

Chet Baker and the Carmel Strings - Into My Life

Blog follower Keek asked me for one of Chet's 1960s LPs with the Carmel Strings. I was going to transfer my mono copy of 1966's Into My Life, but then I found a good stereo copy on Internet Archive that I cleaned up for this post.

From 1954 to 1966, the musical zeitgeist had changed from Sinatra to the Beatles, so instead of two Frankie songs, the later LP includes two by the Fab Four - the lovely "Here, There and Everywhere" and the grating "Got to Get You into My Life."

These presumably were chosen by Baker, producer Richard Bock or arranger-conductor Harry Betts, a former big band trombonist.

The idea apparently was to produce an easy-listening, jazz-inflected instrumental LP featuring Baker on fluegelhorn. Baker was a relatively early adopter of this brass instrument that is pitched like a trumpet but has a more mellow tone.

It's said that Chet took on these dates to pay the rent, but the results are pleasing, even though the arrangements are very much of their time. The program encompasses:

• A few clunkers (Francis Lai's maddeningly repetitive "A Man and a Woman," Jerry Herman's "If He Walked into My Life," which can be bombastic, but is thankfully toned down here)

• A few oldies (Irving Berlin's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," Leroy Anderson's lovely "Serenata")

• A folk song of sorts ("Guantanamera," actually a Cuban patriotic song taken up by the Weavers and then the Seekers)

• A French tune (Louiguy's "Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)," a hit in the US by Pérez Prado in the 50s)

• A cabaret favorite (Tommy Wolf and Fran Landesman's "The Ballad of the Sad Young Men")

• A now-forgotten tune ("All" by Nico Fidenco, Marian Grudeff, Nino Oliviero and Raymond Jessel, which was recorded by many artists at the time)

• A Herb Alpert-associated number (Sol Lake's "More and More Amor," which appeared on the trumpeter's mega-popular LP Going Places)

• And, of course, Bacharach and David ("Trains and Boats and Planes")

You will enjoy this one if you like the sounds of the 60s melded with easy listening and a tinge of jazz. The sound is excellent.

LINK to Chet Baker and the Carmel Strings - Into My Life