CONTENTS OF THIS 3-CD BOX

SJP192 - Chet Baker, M.Graillier - Mr. B.
SJP251/252 - Chet Baker Quartet - As Time Goes By
SJP262 - Chet Baker, H.Danko, B.Riley - Cool Cat

Chet Baker & His Life

Chet Baker was undoubtedly one of the leading jazz trumpet players of the Fifties. Born Chesney Henry Baker in Yale, Oklahoma, December 23, 1929, he started to play trumpet while still in his teens as a member of the 298th Army Band. Beginning in 1950, he sat in at countless jam sessions at Bop City and the Blackhawk in San Francisco. This perios marked his first encounters with the altoplayers Paul Desmond and Charlie Parker.After his final army discharge in 1952, Baker moved to Los Angeles where he participated in some historic Pacific Jazz recording sessions at a club called the Haig and with a group led by Gerry Mulligan. This group was to evolve in to the famous pianoless Gerry Mulligan Quartet. From this point on, the popularity of Chet Baker grew quite fast, quickly garnering him the number one position in popularity polls in Down Beat and Metronome, and winning him many thousands of fans worldwide.
The Chet Baker Quartet was established when Mulligan temporarily retired from music in 1953. In 1953 Baker's Quartet made the longest European tour yet made by an American jazz group. Originally scheduled for four months, the tour eventually stretched to eight. During this tour, Chet's piano player, Dick Twardzik, 24, died in a Paris hotel of an overdose. The narcotics problem was rearing his ugly head and Baker himself soon became hopelessly strung out. He was arrested in April 1959 for having heroin in his possession.
Reentering society in the fall of 1959, Chet Baker embarked upon yet another extended tour of Europe and probably the bleakest period of his life. He was hospitalized and arrested several times, generating little except a lot of nasty rumours and quite a few unflattering portraits in popular magazines.
March 1964 found him deported back to the United States from Germany. He switched to flugelhorn to replace his stolen trumpet. The roller coaster of Baker's career continued to go up and down, only this time with less velocity and diminished public notice. The recordings he made for Pacific Jazz and Verve in the late Sixties were disappointing and often embarrassing, showcasin stifling arrangements, rock rhythms and a low flame of inspiration.
Baker lived in New York and Los Angeles until 1968, when he moved to San Francisco and was promptly mugged there by five hoodlums who knocked many of his teeth out. Chet stopped playing for two years, controlling his drug addiction through methadone. He slowly made his way back in 1974 and started to record again. Of course, his playing was a bit different now but startingly his work began to show more and more range and authority. He returned to Europe in 1975, where he started to extensively play on concerts and record with quartet, trio and duo. The renewed assurance and heart felt lyricism in both his playing and singing continued to impress both fan and critic alike. His music always projecting beauty, passion and emotion. But it all ended too soon, when on May 1988 he fell out of his hotelwindow in Amsterdam. Baker was dead, jazz lost a giant.
Chet Baker Ò His Music
When Chet Baker was still a member of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, his playing was inspired by that of Miles Davis, characterized by restrained dynamics and an intimate, warm delivery. His tone had a certain melancholy quality, never overly sharpedged or raw, a quality often referred to as 'tristesse',Chet Baker is often wrongly associated with the so-called West Coast Jazz, but his musical roots and sense of swing derive very clearly from the classic BeBop stylists prominent in New York City in the late Forties and early Fifties. Chet's playing is moody, with natural ease and originality of conception, a model of economic inventiveness.
After Baker returned from Europe to the USA in the mid-sixties his playing underwent a very marked evolution. His musical ideas somehow showed a stronger sense of logic, his more muscular attack seemed to owe a lot less to Miles and a lot more to Fats Navarro. After his return to Europe (1975) his playing got even more emotion and his timing became unique, relaxed and warm, soft and deepÖ
Ò Wim van Eyle He wasn't at all the pathetic character everybody liked to see in him. He didn't think himself pathetic, absolutely not! This was his life, this was what he had chosen. The drugs too. It was a fact of life, nothing more and nothing less. And he didn't mind travelling from hotel to hotel with a couple of bags, or sleeping on the floor at a friend s or acquaintance's occasionally. He was a gypsy till his last night.
Of course you had to look after him. When he was to perform at some place, and was staying at the hotel so-and-so far away, you had to see to it that he was on the stage at such and such time. Usually it did work. Sometimes you had to pick him up and drive over to the hall. Sometimes he was not to be found and then you had to try and find out on the grapevine where exactly he was hanging out. That could be sweaty hours now and then. He himself always remained...cool.
He remained cool because he had accepted his own life. It was the others who sometimes panicked or called him everything under the sun for not having turned up at exactly the agreed time or agreed place. He even remained cool when he was to perform at Verona, had to drive from Brussels to Verona and somewhere near Munchen found that he had forgotten his trumpet. Big deal. He simply drove back to Brussels to pick up the thing. Then, of course, you needed to race, fly and organize. A private plane had to be chartered in Milan, to get him to Verona in time. And of course this time everything fell out well again. Or when he was going to tour Japan. He was still in Rome in some hotel while he should have been on the plane already. He hadn't even applied for a visa. Again everybody into a state. What nonsense. That visa can be arranged in a minute and we simply take the next plane. One day later he was in Japan, perfectly cool, and that same night he played fabulously.
Yes, he was having a hard time now and then. Then he was, fair's fair, not so cool. Had to do with that stuff, of course. You could already hear how matters stood through the phone. He was unpredictable on such occasions. You sometimes had to come with him to get hold of the stuff. He did have his regular addresses but still liked someone who was straight to come with him. Just to be sure. But for the rest it was: let me get on with it. In Italy he played on the streets to pay for the petrol for his expensive sportscar. He didn't mind. He had been world famous for two decades when he took on a job as a pump attendant in Oklahoma because he was rather hard up. He really didn't mind. On that particular night it was the same old sons, again. Where is Chet, guys? He will probably be there and there again. He does know, doesn't he, that he is to play with Archie Shepp in TROS Sesjun tonight? . Phoning everywhere. Somebody seen Chet? No? When you see him, tell him we are waiting for him.

ARTIST PROFILE : CHET BAKER trumpet, vocals Chet Baker – His Life

Chet Baker was undoubtedly one of the leading jazz trumpet players of the Fifties. Born Chesney Henry Baker in Yale, Oklahoma, December 23, 1929, he started to play trumpet while still in his teens as a member of the 298th Army Band. Beginning in 1950, he sat in at countless jam sessions at Bop City and the Blackhawk in San Francisco. This perios marked his first encounters with the altoplayers Paul Desmond and Charlie Parker.After his final army discharge in 1952, Baker moved to Los Angeles where he participated in some historic Pacific Jazz recording sessions at a club called the Haig and with a group led by Gerry Mulligan. This group was to evolve in to the famous pianoless Gerry Mulligan Quartet. From this point on, the popularity of Chet Baker grew quite fast, quickly garnering him the number one position in popularity polls in Down Beat and Metronome, and winning him many thousands of fans worldwide.

The Chet Baker Quartet was established when Mulligan temporarily retired from music in 1953. In 1953 Baker's Quartet made the longest European tour yet made by an American jazz group. Originally scheduled for four months, the tour eventually stretched to eight. During this tour, Chet's piano player, Dick Twardzik, 24, died in a Paris hotel of an overdose. The narcotics problem was rearing his ugly head and Baker himself soon became hopelessly strung out. He was arrested in April 1959 for having heroin in his possession.

Reentering society in the fall of 1959, Chet Baker embarked upon yet another extended tour of Europe and probably the bleakest period of his life. He was hospitalized and arrested several times, generating little except a lot of nasty rumours and quite a few unflattering portraits in popular magazines.

March 1964 found him deported back to the United States from Germany. He switched to flugelhorn to replace his stolen trumpet. The roller coaster of Baker's career continued to go up and down, only this time with less velocity and diminished public notice. The recordings he made for Pacific Jazz and Verve in the late Sixties were disappointing and often embarrassing, showcasin stifling arrangements, rock rhythms and a low flame of inspiration.

Baker lived in New York and Los Angeles until 1968, when he moved to San Francisco and was promptly mugged there by five hoodlums who knocked many of his teeth out. Chet stopped playing for two years, controlling his drug addiction through methadone. He slowly made his way back in 1974 and started to record again. Of course, his playing was a bit different now but startingly his work began to show more and more range and authority. He returned to Europe in 1975, where he started to extensively play on concerts and record with quartet, trio and duo. The renewed assurance and heart felt lyricism in both his playing and singing continued to impress both fan and critic alike. His music always projecting beauty, passion and emotion. But it all ended too soon, when on May 1988 he fell out of his hotelwindow in Amsterdam. Baker was dead, jazz lost a giant.
Chet Baker – His Music

When Chet Baker was still a member of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, his playing was inspired by that of Miles Davis, characterized by restrained dynamics and an intimate, warm delivery. His tone had a certain melancholy quality, never overly sharpedged or raw, a quality often referred to as 'tristesse',Chet Baker is often wrongly associated with the so-called West Coast Jazz, but his musical roots and sense of swing derive very clearly from the classic BeBop stylists prominent in New York City in the late Forties and early Fifties. Chet's playing is moody, with natural ease and originality of conception, a model of economic inventiveness.

After Baker returned from Europe to the USA in the mid-sixties his playing underwent a very marked evolution. His musical ideas somehow showed a stronger sense of logic, his more muscular attack seemed to owe a lot less to Miles and a lot more to Fats Navarro. After his return to Europe (1975) his playing got even more emotion and his timing became unique, relaxed and warm, soft and deepÉ
– Wim van Eyle

He wasn't at all the pathetic character everybody liked to see in him. He didn't think himself pathetic, absolutely not! This was his life, this was what he had chosen. The drugs too. It was a fact of life, nothing more and nothing less. And he didn't mind travelling from hotel to hotel with a couple of bags, or sleeping on the floor at a friend s or acquaintance's occasionally. He was a gypsy till his last night.

Of course you had to look after him. When he was to perform at some place, and was staying at the hotel so-and-so far away, you had to see to it that he was on the stage at such and such time. Usually it did work. Sometimes you had to pick him up and drive over to the hall. Sometimes he was not to be found and then you had to try and find out on the grapevine where exactly he was hanging out. That could be sweaty hours now and then. He himself always remained...cool.
He remained cool because he had accepted his own life. It was the others who sometimes panicked or called him everything under the sun for not having turned up at exactly the agreed time or agreed place. He even remained cool when he was to perform at Verona, had to drive from Brussels to Verona and somewhere near Munchen found that he had forgotten his trumpet. Big deal. He simply drove back to Brussels to pick up the thing. Then, of course, you needed to race, fly and organize. A private plane had to be chartered in Milan, to get him to Verona in time. And of course this time everything fell out well again. Or when he was going to tour Japan. He was still in Rome in some hotel while he should have been on the plane already. He hadn't even applied for a visa. Again everybody into a state. What nonsense. That visa can be arranged in a minute and we simply take the next plane. One day later he was in Japan, perfectly cool, and that same night he played fabulously.

Yes, he was having a hard time now and then. Then he was, fair's fair, not so cool. Had to do with that stuff, of course. You could already hear how matters stood through the phone. He was unpredictable on such occasions. You sometimes had to come with him to get hold of the stuff. He did have his regular addresses but still liked someone who was straight to come with him. Just to be sure. But for the rest it was: let me get on with it. In Italy he played on the streets to pay for the petrol for his expensive sportscar. He didn't mind. He had been world famous for two decades when he took on a job as a pump attendant in Oklahoma because he was rather hard up. He really didn't mind. On that particular night it was the same old sons, again. Where is Chet, guys? He will probably be there and there again. He does know, doesn't he, that he is to play with Archie Shepp in TROS Sesjun tonight? P.inL -i^ain. Phoning everywhere. Somebody seen Cher? No? When you see him, cell him we are waiting for him.