I was just listening to the album 'Chet', which I downloaded free from the site previously mentioned (see past posts). Apart from the eponymous hero, this features Pepper Adams, the other great baritone player, and Herbie Mann on flute, with an all-star rhythm section comprising Bill Evans, Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers and Connie Kay. James Gavin seems to like it and called it 'Baker's ultimate "make-out" album', adding 'the whole band fell under his spell'. I disagree: Chet sounds great -very cool- but Pepper Adams is his usual terrific, exciting, blustering self; rather separate from the trumpeter, and lacking the empathy and interplay that characterized the Mulligan/Baker sessions. Herbie Mann seems surplus to requirements, tootling away ineffectually in the low register. A disappointing album in my opinion, despite the stellar line-up. A successful one though, with a glamour cover, featuring a soft-focus Chet in a wooly jumper being hugged from behind by a glamorous girl. Must have been sweltering under those studio lights!
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