Search - Chet Baker :: Italian Sessions

Chet Baker
Italian Sessions
Genres: Jazz, Pop

Track Listings (8) - Disc #1
1. Well, You Needn't - Chet Baker, Monk, Thelonious
2. These Foolish Things - Chet Baker, Link, Harry
3. Barbados - Chet Baker, Parker, Charlie [Sa
4. Star Eyes - Chet Baker, DePaul, Gene
5. Over the Rainbow - Chet Baker, Arlen, Harold
6. Pent-Up House - Chet Baker, Rollins, Sonny
7. Ballata in Forma Di Blues - Chet Baker, Tommasi, Amedeo
8. Blues in the Closet - Chet Baker, Pettiford, Oscar

CD Details

All Artists: Chet Baker
Title: Italian Sessions
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: RCA
Release Date: 10/15/1996
Genres: Jazz, Pop
Style: Cool Jazz
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 090266859023, 035628200129, 078635200119, 078635200140, 090266859047

Synopsis

Amazon.com essential recording

Chet Baker covering "Well You Needn't"--a typically knotty tune by Thelonious Monk? Here's an excellent and surprisingly muscular session from Baker, a trumpeter known for his soft-as-butter tone and his heart-on-sleeve emotive playing. Throughout, Baker's playing is uncommonly crisp as he gets out in front of notes and stays there, never lagging behind or having to reach to hit his mark. He was never known as a bop player, yet this exceptionally recorded date shows he had both the timing and the chops to handle just about anything that came his way. Baker even manages to fit in "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," so fans of the romantic Chet will also have something sigh over. --S. Duda

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Member CD Reviews

Philip S. from NORWICH, VT
Reviewed on 9/6/2006...

recorded in 1961 in Rome, digitally remastered.

CD Reviews

Exceptionally focused and commanding trumpet playing

Michael Laprarie | Oklahoma City, OK USA | 05/09/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The 1960's are often considered the low point of Chet Baker's rocky career, but this album recorded in 1962 is undoubtedly one of the finest efforts of his early playing. Baker is aided and abetted by American tenorman and flutist Bobby Jaspar and propelled by the exhuberant Daniel Humair, Europe's answer to the sensational hard bop drummer Philly Joe Jones.Although Chet is primarily known as an interpreter of wispy ballads and standards, he stands out on this set as an advanced, aggressive be-bop improviser. His playing on the Thelonious Monk classic "Well, You Needn't" and high-speed romp through "Pent-Up House" are two of the best versions of these tunes ever recorded, and he excels on Charlie Parker's "Barbados". Also worth mentioning is "Blues In The Closet", unusual in the sense that Chet did not record many good interpretations of tunes based on blues changes.Although there is no singing here, Chet's unusually focused command and skilled playing make this album a must-have for fans of Chet's trumpet playing. If you are a traditional be-bop/hard bop fan who has never approached Chet Baker, give this album a try."

Chet Baker, Horns In

Michael Laprarie | 08/09/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I imagine if you're reading these reviews that you are familiar with Chet Baker's music. I got into listening to him after seeing the flick "Let's Get Lost", a biography of his life and how drug use brought him down. It's not a flattering film, but it is honest. I'm glad to have a cd of him just playing his trumpet without singing. His soft, warm voice, is excellent for setting a romantic mood. The "Italian Sessions" however, is more for attentive listening. It shows he could have done straight bop had he chosen to. This is a great cd, and it deserves to be included in anyone's jazz collection."

Italian Sessions

Bob Schlump | WA | 10/26/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I've owned half a dozen Chet Baker CD's and half of them were poorly recorded or the performances were mediocre. This album, however, is absolutely awesome. I've owned it for a couple of years and it is all scratched up but I still listen to it often. Chet is in top form here and the sound quality as well as the musicianship has to be the best I've ever heard. The strength of material wanes a bit after track 5 but this is still remarkable stuff. There is no singing on this album for those of you looking for a vocal CD (try My Funny Valentine-it's great). His tone is so powerful on this CD and really pries at something inside -- a great recording and a fantastic CD. You can't go wrong here."

Chet Baker at or near his very best

madamemusico | Cincinnati, Ohio USA | 09/03/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"At a time when jazz fans were arguing over the relative merits of Miles Davis, Lee Morgan and Don Cherry, outstanding players all, Chet Baker recorded this album with an Italian rhythm section that virtually redefined his talent as a "soft" West Coast trumpeter. Never at a loss for ideas and on top of the rhythm throughout, Baker shows just how great he could be on those rare days when he played his very best. Only with the advent of Freddie Hubbard was Baker's supremacy as a trumpeter in this era surpassed. Small wonder that, in 1951, Bird told Diz "there's this white cat out West who is going to eat you alive." What a tragic waste of talent for this remarkable talent to spin out of control for 30 years in a heroin haze, lose his teeth and make enemies everywhere he went. The late jazz critic Ralph Berton used to say that Chet was the modern-day Bix Beiderbecke. This CD shows why."

One of Chet's best

John F. Ray | Atlanta, GA USA | 09/17/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This session is by far and away one of Chet's best. "Well You Needn't" is worth the price of the CD alone, and is a wonderful example of how dextrous Baker was in his prime. If you know his history, you'll be wistful as you listen to these tracks, wondering what might have been if he had keep his life together."