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Reviewers: Tony Augarde [Editor], Don Mather, Sam Webster, Jonathan Woolf, Glyn Pursglove



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CHET BAKER
Jazz Manifesto
Delta Leisure Group 38288

 

 


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

 

 

 

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