Carson City Stage
Imagination
All The Things You Are
Bea's Flat
Happy Little Sunbeam
Pro Defunctus
Moonlight Becomes You
Stella By Starlight
Darn That Dream
Sweet Lorraine
Minor Yours
C.T.A.
To Mickey's Memory
Jumpin' Off A Clef
Frogtoon Music Album Info: The Best Of Chet Baker Plays
Published: 05 May 2023, 20:08
Whether As A Trumpeter Or Singer Chet Baker Was Always The Subject Of Controversy Among Jazz Listeners A Victim Of Fashion Who Was Doomed In His Lifetime To Be Either Over- Or Underrated. These Pacific Jazz Recordings From The Mid-1950s Present Baker The Instrumentalist At The Height Of His Popularity. While His Coolly Passive Treatments Of Ballads Like "Imagination" And "Stella By Starlight" May Play To The Languid Stereotype Of West Coast Jazz There's Boppish Fire And Invention On The Medium- And Up-Tempo Tunes With Baker Emphasizing The Middle Register That Was His Forte. Altoist Art Pepper And Valve Trombonist Bob Brookmeyer Turn Up Among The Supporting Cast And There's A Good Choice Of Material By Boppish Heads From Both Coasts Including Carson Smith's "Carson City Stage " Jimmy Heath's "C.T.A. " And Al Haig's "Jumping Off A Clef." --Stuart Broomer