Chet Baker Quartet Featuring Russ Freeman

Performer: Chet Baker (Trumpet/Vocals/Composer)
Artist: Russ Freeman; Shelly Manne
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Chet Baker (vocals, trumpet); Russ Freeman (piano); Bob Whitlock, Carson Smith, Joe Mondragon (bass); Bobby White, Larry Bunker, Shelly Manne (drums). Producer: Richard Bock. Reissue producer: Michael Cuscuna. Recorded in Los Angeles, California in July and October 1953. Includes liner notes by Doug Ramsey. Digitally remastered using 20-bit technology by Ron McMaster. This is part of Pacific Jazz Records' West Coast Classics series. Personnel: Chet Baker (trumpet); Russ Freeman (piano); Shelly Manne (drums). Liner Note Author: Pete Welding. Recording information: Los Angeles, CA (07/24/1953-10/??/1953). Director: Russ Freeman . Illustrator: John Altoon. Photographer: William Claxton. These early sides for the Pacific Jazz label feature a young Chet Baker just at the beginning of his musical prime. Baker is joined by many of his regular West Coast buddies, and on the whole, the sessions encapsulate the essence of the West Coast "cool" style that was coming into its own in the early '50s. Since this was still the age of the 10-inch disc, Baker and Freeman produce many fine, concise solo efforts, keeping the arrangements short but full of life. Baker plays trumpet throughout, but puts in a gorgeous vocal performance on his soon-to-be signature ballad "I Fall in Love Too Easily," greatly shortened here and taken at a slightly quicker pace than usual. Freeman proves to be Baker's ultimate musical compatriot, keeping pace with the young trumpeter every step of the way. Standout cuts include the dreamy "Isn't it Romantic," the wonderfully frantic swinger "Bea's Flat," and two cuts of the delightfully arranged "Winter Wonderland."

As the poster boy for cool jazz in the '50s, trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker symbolized, at least briefly, that decade's soulful underside. But rather than ascend the throne of celebrity, he remained the outsider, the quintessential beautiful loser. For the next three decades, Baker wandered in and out of the spotlight, with moments of brilliance scattered amidst physical decline and personal travails. After getting his teeth knocked out in a drug-related scuffle, he quit playing for years. When he finally returned he was still powerful, but something of a haunted presence. An acclaimed Baker documentary, LET'S GET LOST, was released in 1987, but the next year Baker fell out of a window while under the influence of drugs and died a death as tragic as much of his genius-speckled life.

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