Chet Baker

INCLUDES FREE MP3 ALBUM DOWNLOAD

PLUS 2 BONUS TRACKS

This release presents the complete original LP "Chet Baker & Strings" (Columbia CL 549), which marked the trumpeter’s first experience recording with a string orchestra.

The album also featured such important jazz luminaries as Zoot Sims, Jack Montrose, Bud Shank, Russ Freeman, and Shelly Manne. While many jazz recordings of the period were close to blowing sessions with few or no arrangements at all and a jam sessionlike spirit, Chet Baker & Strings was a completely different matter.

In a 1954 article for the California magazine Theme, the date’s producer, Dick Bock, stated that: “Columbia Records, through Paul Weston, made Pacific Jazz an offer that was too interesting to dismiss. Because Chet is under exclusive contract to Pacific Jazz, Columbia wondered if we would agree to record a twelve-inch long-playing album featuring Chet. We were to be allowed complete freedom to select the material, arranger’s instrumentation, and even the cover artist. Pacific Jazz and Chet Baker could be persuaded and were. Terms were agreed upon. Chet, Russ Freeman, and myself had discussed the possibility of recording with just a string section and a rhythm section, perhaps with one other solo horn added.

Columbia’s offer proved to be the opportunity to try such an album.” In order to achieve this goal, Bock called four of the most renowned arrangers on the West Coast: Johnny Mandel, Marty Paich, Jack Montrose, and Shorty Rogers.

PERSONNEL:

CHET BAKER, trumpet
ZOOT SIMS, tenor sax (out on A1-A2, A6-A7, B1-B2 & B5)
JACK MONTROSE, tenor sax (out on A6, B1-B2 & B5)
BUD SHANK, alto sax (on A6, B1-B2 & B5 only)
RUSS FREEMAN, piano (out on A6, B1-B2 & B5)
JOE MONDRAGON, bass
SHELLY MANNE, drums

PLUS STRING ORCHESTRA
Eudice Shapiro, Paul Robyn, Victor Gottlieb, George Kast, Paul Shure, Jacques Gasselin (violin), Samuel Cytron, Lou Kievman (viola), Felix Slatkin (cello).

Los Angeles, December 1953-February 1954.
Tracks A3-A5, B4 & B7: December 30, 1953.
Tracks A1-A2, B3, B6 & A7: December 31, 1953.
Tracks A6, B1-B2 & B5: February 20, 1954

SIDE A:

01 YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT LOVE IS 3:30
02 I’M THRU WITH LOVE 2:39
03 LOVE WALKED IN 2:59
04 YOU BETTER GO NOW 3:06
05 I MARRIED AN ANGEL 3:37
06 LOVE 2:34
07 YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT LOVE IS [alternate take] 3:30*

SIDE B:

01 I LOVE YOU 2:48
02 WHAT A DIFF’RENCE A DAY MADE 2:40
03 WHY SHOULDN’T I? 3:35
04 A LITTLE DUET FOR ZOOT AND CHET 2:37
05 THE WIND 4:02
06 TRICKLEYDIDLIER 2:40
07 A LITTLE DUET FOR ZOOT AND CHET [alternate take] 2:39*

*BONUS TRACKS: From the same sessions but not included on the original LP.