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 If you're a stickler for clean hi-fi sound, this is not for you, but it's an important historical document for Chetophiles and contains some great swinging jazz from the West Coast.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?

An odd line-up

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!

Dental stuff

Most Chet fans know that he played on dentures for the latter part of his career, after having most of his teeth knocked out in a drug-related incident, which we don't need to go into, since there are several different versions of this story around and we'll never know which one is entirely accurate. However, it's less well-known that he had played for many years missing an upper incisor, which didn't seem to hamper his playing, and maybe contributed to his unique sound.

He was not the first trumpet player to overcome the problem of playing on dentures, and I've been compiling a list of other famous names who were in a similar position. So far, I have: Roy Eldridge, Bobby Hackett and Kenny Baker, but I'm sure there are many more ...

Free Chet

My friend Zoot has pointed out that there are quite a few of Chet's early tracks available for free download on http://www.jazz-on-line.com/lastacquired.htm

Some of these are quite rare, at least I've never heard them before, eg, alternate takes, tracks from old 10-inch LPs, etc. Some excellent stuff, with CB in boppish mood.

More Mulligan

Speaking of Mulligan, he and Chet had several things in common: a similar musical approach, massive egos and drugs. In view of the last two factors, it's a miracle that they ever got together long enough to produce anything at all. Although apparently on stage they were super cool, because they were both stoned, so maybe their habits helped them to stay together, even for a relatively short time.