Chet – The Keepnews Collection, Riverside/Concord Music

by | Jun 22, 2007 | Jazz CD Reviews | 0 comments

Chet – The Keepnews Collection, Riverside/Concord Music RCD 30183, 51:15 ****:

(Chet Baker, trumpet; Pepper Adams, baritone sax; Herbie Mann, flute; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Bill Evans, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Connie Key or Philly Joe Jones, drums)

Another in the series of classic jazz albums produced by Orrin Keepnews for either Riverside or Milestone Records and now given the 24-bit remastering treatment at Fantasy Studios and being reissued again by Concord. Keepnews admitted in some of his reminiscences about the various jazz stars that he produced, that he never could stand Chet’s vocals, and I’m with him.  If you feel the same, this is your CD to pick up on, because he doesn’t do a single vocal on any of the ten great tracks!

And just look at that lineup! Wow – that alone should make any jazz fan savor this album.  Chet’s lyrical trumpet style is hip and romantic at the same time, and his backing from all the other top flight performers can’t be beat. The two sessions that resulted in this album took place in late 1958 and early 1959, and Riverside was one of the pioneers in recording in stereo, along with Contemporary Records, so these are excellent two-channel and they don’t suffer badly from the exaggerated left/right spatiality that so many early stereo discs had.  There is also a nine-minute very lovely  bonus track which would never have fit on the original LP – Early Morning Mood.

TrackList: Alone Together, How High the Moon, It Never Entered My Mind, ‘Tis Autumn, If You Could See me Now, September Song, You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To, Time on My Hands, You and the Night and the Music, Early Morning Mood.

– John Henry

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