Two questions about Getz/Baker.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Is the 'Getz meets Chet Baker' Verve cd one that folks would put in the 'essential' category? I'm not familiar with this one. Also, the Getz/Baker personality conflict that was mentioned on AMG......was it really an all out feud, or more of a 'don't crowd me' sort of thing?

Edited August 10, 2004 by Son-of-a-Weizen

[J.A.W.]

Is the 'Getz meets Chet Baker' Verve cd one that folks would put in the 'essential' category?

I wouldn't, I prefer Getz in quartet settings.

[jazzbo]

Hmmm. . . I don't think I've ever heard this one. With that Chicago R-Section it looks quite good!

[JSngry]

My guess re:the feud is that one egomaniacal junkie white jazz superstar (not playing the race card, but to be a white jazz superstar in those days was a whole 'nother sociological thing than it is now) is twisted enough. Put two in the same room...

And IIRC, neither Getz nor Baker got along well w/Art Pepper, another egomaniacal junkie white jazz superstar. These three all made beautiful music but were basically phukked-up human beings, probably with not a little self-loathing involved somewhere in the mix. You take somebody like that, they see somebody who is VERY much like themselves in a lot of ways, and the self-loathing (and fear, which goes back to the white thing - a big part of being a white jazz superstar back then was the whole "that white boy's got SOUL!" thing, and you're really supposed to be UNIQUE in that regard, but here's somebody else who shows you that you're not TOTALLY unique, so may you're a fraud, or he is, or you BOTH are, so here comes the self-laothing again...) goes off the meter, both inwardly and outwardly...

Shouldn't you be asking Dr. Freud about stuff like this?

[John Tapscott]

The liner notes to Verve's 3 CD set " Stan Getz/Chet Baker - the Stockholm Concerts" (1983) are quite enlightening. Mike Hennessey describes the problem as a conflict of addictions - Getz and booze vs. Baker and heroin. Getz was also jealous of Baker and the how warmly audiences received Baker on that tour. (You can hear the sutained applause for Chet on the CD). Getz was resentful of the fact that Baker was supplying a rhythm section for Baker and on the tunes Getz and Baker played together, Getz turned it up a notch, trying to embarass the trumpeter. But it didn't really work as Getz planned. Chet hung right in there. After several concerts, Getz said to the promoter, "Either he goes or I go," and Baker was dropped from the tour. But honestly, if you listened to the music alone, you wouldn't know any of this.

The music is very good, the rhythm section, (McNeely, Mraz, Victor Lewis), excellent, but I wouldn't call this one essential, either. Very enjoyable, but not essential.

[JohnS]

I've not played this for a while but I recall I rather like their take on Cherokee.

[brownie]

None of the Getz-Baker 'collaborations' can be termed essential.

But on the two Concord volumes 'Quintessence' 'The Stan Getz Quartet with Chet Baker' that were recorded in Norway one day after the Stockhom concert that produced the 3CD Verve set, they seemed to have found a gentleman's agreement and managed to make very worthy music.

[Pete B]

I really like the Stockholm cds. Baker's scatting on "Just Friends" (disc 3) is gorgeous (and I've never liked his singing before). Z haven't heard the Quintessence discs yet, but I would think they are similar, given the timeframe.

However, the I find the Stan Meets Chet disc much less engaging, FWIW.

As for the conflict of personalities, I've read much the same as what Jim wrote. From what I've read, beyond his alcoholism Stan Getz was at bottom a mean SOB, and Chet was somebody he could bully. I'm sure that fact entered into the dynamic as well.

Pete

Edited August 10, 2004 by Pete B