CD1 – Vocal
1. My Funny Valentine
2. Let’s Get Lost
3. The Thrill is Gone
4. But Not for Me
5. Grey December
6. I Fall in Love Too Easily
7. Like Someone in Love
8. Daybreak
9. Just Friends
10. Look for the Silver Lining
11. There Will Never Be Another You
12. That Old Feeling
13. I Remember You
14. My Buddy
15. It’s Always You
16. Long Ago and Far Away
17. My Ideal
18. I’ve Never Been in Love Before
19. You Don’t Know What Love Is
20. Time After Time
21. I Get Along Without You Very Well
22. Someone to Watch Over Me.
CD2 – Instrumental
1. A Foggy Day
2. Mythe
3. Tenderly
4. V-Line
5. To Mickey’s Memory
6. Worrying the Life Out of Me
7. For Minors Only
8. Summertime
9. These Foolish Things
10. I’ll Remember April
11. All the Things You Are
12. There’s a Small Hotel
13. A Little Duet for Zoot and Chet
14. Love
15. Love Walked In
16. Moonlight Becomes You
17. Stella By Starlight
18. I’m Glad There is You
19. Isn’t It Romantic
20. Imagination.
This CD is possibly the
greatest bargain any jazz lover could have.
This is Chet at the height
of his powers and before the drugs took their
toll on both the man and his music. His playing,
particularly on the instrumental tracks, is
as good as any jazz trumpet player you have
heard or are likely to hear. He is also working
in the company of many other jazz "greats".
I can easily recognise Zoot Sims on tenor
as well as Art Pepper on alto. I don’t know
who the rhythm sections were on the instrumental
tracks, but they are all top men, that’s for
sure.
The vocal part of the album
is really down to whether you like Chet’s
type of singing. It is very cool in its approach
and has overtones of Mel Tormé. I like
it - and apparently it drove the ladies wild
when he was a young man, or so I have heard!
Everything to do with Chet
and his life and times, is a classic example
of how having a drug habit can ruin your life,
even if you are a very handsome young man
with an extraordinary musical talent. Gerry
Mulligan said that Chet knew nothing about
chord sequences, but at the same time he knew
everything about them. What is the meaning
of this seeming paradox? Chet didn’t know
an A minor 7th from a B major 9th, but he
didn’t need to: he had such a marvellous ear
that he knew which notes to play on any sequence
as soon as he heard it. A gift only very few
people are given, and one almost every musician
would like to have.
Tracks 13 to 15 feature Chet
with an alto player and a string section;
the strings sound very thin. Once again Zoot
Sims' superb swinging tenor is heard. He seems
to be an ideal foil to the leader's trumpet
improvisations, but why the strings were there
is anybody’s guess: the soloists just ignore
them and get on with the jazz!
The selection of tunes is
superb throughout. What a delight to hear
an album of songs from the great songbook
of the past instead of banal rubbish made
up for records but never played by anybody
again. All in the name of avoiding royalties!
As I said at the start,
this is the best value-for-money album you
will ever find. My advice is: buy it!
Don Mather
CD Reviews
Delta
Leisure Group 38288
