Chet Baker And His Quintet With Bobby Jaspar (Chet Baker in Paris Vol. 3) (Mono Remastered) Chet Baker

• 1How About You? (Master Take 7)04:33
• 2Once In A While (Instrumental)05:37
• 3Chik-Eta (Master Take 6)06:00
• 4Alone Together (Instrumental)03:53
• 5Chet (Take 5)03:17
• 6Dinah (Master Take)03:01
• 7Tasty Pudding04:45
• 8Anticipated Blues02:27
• 9Vline (1st Version)03:02
• 10Exitus08:33
• Total Runtime45:08

Info for Chet Baker And His Quintet With Bobby Jaspar (Chet Baker in Paris Vol. 3) (Mono Remastered)

Newly remastered! In answer to an offer from Nicole Barclay, Chet Baker arrived in Paris early in September 1955. On the 22nd — or maybe the 23rd — he signed a contract to make seven records... (The figure was later erased and replaced by 'three', which turned out to be correct). Released after the trumpeter's return to the USA, this last volume was construed as rather a poor relation opposite the others in the trilogy, all the more so because, hurriedly drafted, the sleeve-notes did little to render unto Caesar the things which were Caesar's. Unlike the earlier opuses, this one was in no way a concept-album: It contented itself with a simple overview of Chet's Parisian associations, depending on where his fancies took him in the course of his stay.

Chet entered the Studio Pathé-Magellan on October 25th with only Jimmy Bond and his contrabass left from his original accompanying trio. In the ensuing octet session Chet’s melodic gifts were magnified by (remarkable) scores penned by Pierre Michelot – Chet, Dinah – and Christian Chevalier (Vline). The three pieces were mini-concertos, and sounded magnificent. On November 28, Chet went back into the same studio, this time with Raymond Fol on piano, Benoît Quersin on bass and Jean-Louis Viale on drums. They recorded two improvisations: the first was based on a 1932 standard from Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz, "Alone Together", while the second began with "Exitus", a composition written by one of Baker’s friends, Phil Urso. The performances are among the most beautiful that Chet produced during this period, along with "Chekeeta" — or Chik-Etah — and "How about You?"

To respect his next bookings, Chet had to get a stable band together, and as his pianist he chose Raph Schecroun - later known as Errol Parker - who was himself replaced by Francy Boland. Alongside him were bassist Eddie de Haas, who'd previously been with Martial Solal and Henri Renaud (the latter, in the adventure, also lost his regular drummer, Charles Saudrais, who was just seventeen. According to Jean-Louis Chautemps, »When Bobby Jaspar couldn't do it or just wanted too much, they looked for someone cheaper; and that was me. There wasn't really an audition: we were in the Tabou, I played with Chet, he said OK and, two days later, we found ourselves in Reykjavik, Iceland.« The tune "Tasty Pudding" written by Al Cohn and "Anticipated Blues", one of the rare pieces Chet claimed to have written, were in the repertoire played by this last Baker-led formation on the Old Continent.

Both pieces, once again, moved Pierre Michelot to pass judgement: With ordinary means, Chet managed to play phrases of extraordinary beauty with simplicity and clarity.

Chet Baker, trumpet
Bobby Jaspar, tenor saxophone, flute
Francy Bolland, piano
Benoit Quersin, double bass
Pierre Lemarchand, drums
Teddy Hameline, alto saxophone
William Boucaya, baritone saxophone
Armand Migiani, tenor saxophone
Benny Vasseur, trombone

Recorded at Studio Pathe-Magellan in Paris, between Tuesday October, 25th, 1955 and February, 10th, 1956.

Digital remastered

Chet Baker Trumpeter and singer Chet Baker encountered jazz when playing with Army bands where he quickly developed his distinctive style. A short stint with Charlie Parker (1952) was followed by a long association with baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan. The pianoless quartet performed and recorded with great success - immediate fame came to Chet Baker and his cool, subdued style. His lyricism became typically associated with West Coast jazz and found many followers around the world. Baker led his own groups after leaving Mulligan for many years in both the US and Europe. His career became somewhat erratic in the sixties when he lived and worked mostly in Europe.

In the seventies he began his comeback and his very unique talent as a vocalist and instrumentalist soon put him back on the major concert stages. Excellent albums were done during the last ten years of his life which were maybe less perfect than his early West Coast work in the technical sense but showed a depth of feeling and intensity rarely heard. Luckily his last concert was recorded: it is one of the finest of his career (The Last Concert ENJ-6074 22). Chet Baker was very involved with the production of the concert, choose the music well in advance which was arranged for an ensemble consisting of a regular bigband, a symphony orchestra and a jazz quintet. He was very happy that he could finally record and perform under the best of circumstances. That night's version of My Funny Valentine,a song he had performed uncountable times before will stand out for all times as an absolute masterpiece of vocal jazz.

Dec. 23, 1929 (Yale, Oklahoma) - May 13, 1988 (Amsterdam).

This album contains no booklet.