Chet Baker/Art Pepper: Picture of Heath (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This Tone Poet Series reissue is cut directly from the original analogue tapes, in mono on 180g vinyl, with an extra liner-notes insert. AllMusic's Lindsay Planer called these high-energy sides perfect for bop connoisseurs and mainstream jazz listeners alike.

This edition

• Blue Note Tone Poet series
• 180g vinyl
• Mono
• Cut from the original analogue tapes
• Liner notes insert
• Pressed in the USA

About the album

This album has had two names and two covers. Chet Baker and Art Pepper recorded it on October 31, 1956, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, and it came out as Playboys with a cover borrowed rather freely from a certain men's magazine. Hugh Hefner reportedly threatened to sue, so in 1961 Pacific Jazz renamed it Picture of Heath and swapped in a photo of the band in the studio.

It was the third Baker and Pepper session of 1956, and the front line has a third horn, Phil Urso on tenor. All but two of the tunes come from Jimmy Heath, a gift of a songbook for a band like this: "Picture of Heath," "For Miles and Miles," "C.T.A." and "For Minors Only" swing hard and bright, with Baker's cool trumpet and Pepper's alto chasing each other through the changes. Pepper adds two of his own, "Minor-Yours" and "Tynan Tyme," and Richard Bock produced.

It's West Coast jazz at its liveliest, sunny and quick on its feet. Of the two titles, this one is a lot easier to ask for at the counter.

Also at Kops: more Chet Baker on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Pacific Jazz / Blue Note (cat# B0033674-01), a reissue of the 1956 album.