Chet Baker: In New York [CRAFT]

Why you'll love it

This 180g reissue uses Kevin Gray's remaster from all-analog transfers of the original Riverside tapes. It finds the West Coast's coolest trumpeter in a hard-bop mood, with Miles Davis's rhythm section of Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones behind him.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Remastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes

About the album

Chet Baker was the face of West Coast cool, all soft tone and matinee-idol cheekbones. In September 1958 he went to Reeves Sound Studios in New York with a band that played with considerably more grit, and the result is one of the most bracing records of his career.

Al Haig is on piano, with Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones holding everything together. Johnny Griffin's big tenor joins on three tracks, including Benny Golson's "Fair Weather" and "Blue Thoughts" and the near ten-minute "Hotel 49." Baker answers with a gorgeous "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," "Solar" and Benny Carter's "When Lights Are Low." Griffin sits out the ballad, leaving Baker's trumpet alone out front, and Orrin Keepnews produced for Riverside.

Pitchfork gave it 7.1, AllMusic calls it a highly recommended entry in Baker's catalogue, and this remaster first appeared in Craft's Riverside box set. For a matinee idol from the West Coast, he holds his own in this company rather handsomely.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Riverside / Craft Recordings (cat# RLP 1119), a reissue of the 1959 album.