Chet Baker at Wolfgang's Vault

[medjuck]

Wolfgang's Vault is offering a set by Chet Baker from Newport '55. Here's their description (edited):

"Chet Baker - trumpet, vocals

Russ Freeman - piano

Bob Carter - bass

Peter Littman - drums

Special guests:

Gerry Mulligan - baritone sax

Baker is accompanied here by a strictly West Coast lineup of pianist Russ Freeman, bassist Bob Carter and drummer Peter Littman. They open their set with a cool rendition of "Walkin'," a modern 12-bar blues introduced a year earlier by Miles Davis on a Prestige recording of the same name with his All-Stars.... Baker's trumpet playing is bright and rhythmically assured while Freeman offers some soulful piano work on his solo. Carter adds a laid back bass solo before Baker returns with a bold attack in his spirited eight-bar exchanges with drummer Littman.

The melancholy torch song "You Don't Know What Love Is" is a fitting showcase for Baker's tender, emotionally-charged vocals, which increased his popularity among the masses but alienated hardcore jazz fans. Inveterate jammer and former partner Mulligan joins the quartet on a rousing rendition of the baritone saxophonist's boppish romp "Five Brothers," which Mulligan had recorded in 1949 with Stan Getz and again in 1952 with Baker. Sparks fly toward the end of this energized number as the two principal soloists exchange eights with drummer Littman and intertwine their horn lines simultaneously before returning to the jaunty head."

I'd add that it's interesting to compare Baker's set with Miles Davis' "comeback" performance which took place at the festival that same year.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

west coast jazz on the east coast, unsettling and revolutionary!