Earliest Chet

I recently came across a CD called Ascent of the Cool: Rare and Unissued Chet Baker from the 1950s. It begins with a version of Get Happy, from a home recording made in 1949, between Chet's stints in the US Army, and it's amazing how assured he was even at that early time, when he was just 19. He had mastered the bebop idiom even then and his incisive trumpet cuts through the crackly recording as he negotiates the chord sequence with great confidence and force. Apparently another title (All The Things You Are) was recorded that day, but it is not included on the CD. Other tracks feature Chet alongside Bird, Mulligan (of course), Pepper, Rogers, Clifford Brown, Paul Desmond and Percy Faith (!). A rich mixture. If you're a stickler for clean hi-fi sound, this is not for you, but it's an important historical document for Chetophiles and contains some great swinging jazz from the West Coast.

Chet's horns

Like many jazz trumpeters of the 'fifties, Chet played a Martin Committee. Distinctive and beautiful with no fripperies, triggers, struts or bars, the Committee was a masterpiece of minimalist design. It was also notable for a 'smokey' sound which was ideal for hard bop and West Coast stylists alike. The way Chet played it was the ultimate 'cool' sound: who needs a flugel when you have a Committee? I think at that time he was using a fairly deep Bach 6B mouthpiece. Chet's classic recordings, including those with Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper, and his own quartet featuring Russ Freeman on piano, were all played on the Martin. He later switched briefly to flugelhorn (a French Selmer), but as he once said on a radio interview, he preferred to get a flugel-like sound on the trumpet, which also gave the option of a little more power when needed. On his big 'comeback' in the 'eighties', Chet played a Conn Connstellation (with a 6C), which gave him the sound he was looking for. Apparently he really liked that horn, but like many others, it was 'stolen': code for his having sold it for drug money. He next appeared with a fairly unimpressive Beuscher, which featured in the films 'Let's Get Lost' and 'Live at Ronnie Scott's'. Finally he was given, or loaned, a Vincent Bach Stradivarius that can be seen in the stunning footage of the Japanese concert in 1987, which illustrates what I've been saying about the sound. Great stuff! You have to wait for the trumpet solo, but what the hell, its a good rhythm section. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C_hSbJ_IO4&feature=related

Stu Williamson

I've been listening to quite a bit of Stu Williamson recently, an underrated player, don't you think? I suppose he was overshadowed by Chet, Shorty, Conte and co but I think he was a nice player in his own right. I particularly like the sessions he did with Charlie Mariano, Russ Freeman, Leroy Vinnegar & Shelly Manne. Also the recordings he made with Clifford Brown & Zoot Sims on which he played valve trombone. There aren't many trumpet players who can switch from trumpet to trombone with equal facility and creativity, but I think Stu did it better than anyone. Listen him on the rare 'On Stage' with the Bill Perkins Octet. Did I read somewhere that he got totally screwed up with drugs and gave up music completely?