Chet Baker - The Complete Timeless Records Albums Collection

[mjzee]

Release date February 21:

This beautiful 7CD clamshell boxset contains Chet Baker's complete Timeless Records album collection with the 7 albums in separate wallet sleeves with a 16-page booklet with photos and liner notes. Chet Baker's first Timeless recording was actually as a featured sideman on a date led by pianist Kirk Lightsey, performing "Ray's Idea" and "Everything Happens To Me" (which he also sings effectively). His Mr. B album finds the trumpeter making such songs as Hancock's "Dolphin Dance, " Horace Silver's "Strollin', " and Sam Rivers' "Beatrice" sound as if they were written for him. While Mr. B. is an instrumental set, Chet Baker Sings Again has Baker singing and playing eight standards including "My Funny Valentine" which had been his trademark song ever since his days with Gerry Mulligan. Baker always enjoyed the versatile and tasteful playing of guitarist Philip Catherine. They recorded several memorable trio albums together but There'll Never Be Another You, made in Zagreb, Yugoslavia in 1985, was their only duet set. Cool Cat and As Time Goes By are both from the trumpeter's extended recording sessions of Dec. 17-18, 1986. Pianist Harold Danko, bassist Jon Burr, and drummer Ben Riley were not only subtle accompanists, but they pushed the trumpeter a bit and the result is some of his finest playing from this period. The final Chet Baker album on Timeless, Live In Rosenheim from April 17, 1988, was the last time that he recorded with a small group. Baker, who takes a vocal on "I'm A Fool To Want You" and plays piano on "Portrait In Black And White, " shows that he was still an impressive trumpeter this late in his career. Just 26 days later Chet Baker was gone. Despite that, his recordings and his musical legacy live on.

 

[soulpope]

Some fine Chet Baker in there ....

[Holy Ghost]

Agree. Can listen to Chet any time. Love this dude from the start to the end. 

Proposed to my now wife, with "It Could Only Happen to You: Do it the Hard Way." 

[jazzbo]

Pre-ordered.

[Holy Ghost]

9 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

Pre-ordered.

Love Chet, dude lived the life, and made amazing music along the way. 

1 minute ago, Holy Ghost said:

Love Chet, dude lived the life, and made amazing music along the way. 

Side note: Has anyone seen Chet live?

[soulpope]

57 minutes ago, Holy Ghost said:

Side note: Has anyone seen Chet live?

Yep, a couple of times in the 80's .... he was located @ Europe at said time ....

[jlhoots]

2 hours ago, soulpope said:

Yep, a couple of times in the 80's .... he was located @ Europe at said time ....

I saw him live too when I was living in the midwest.

[Pim]

4 hours ago, Holy Ghost said:

Love Chet, dude lived the life, and made amazing music along the way. 

Side note: Has anyone seen Chet live?

What do you mean with 'lived the life'?

[Holy Ghost]

On 12/31/2024 at 10:36 AM, Pim said:

What do you mean with 'lived the life'?

Easy, he doped, to deal with the down time, yet got girls and fame in the meantime. I do not have the book handy, but it has been researched. 

[Peter Friedman]

I saw Chet Baker live in Detroit in the 1950's. As I recall he had Phil Urso with him on tenor.

[Pim]

5 hours ago, Holy Ghost said:

Easy, he doped, to deal with the down time, yet got girls and fame in the meantime. I do not have the book handy, but it has been researched. 

Yeah I know about his lifestyle. That was pretty well documented. It was more that you sounded like you'd glorify that kind of lifestyle, like he had a great life.

[Holy Ghost]

1 hour ago, Pim said:

Yeah I know about his lifestyle. That was pretty well documented. It was more that you sounded like you'd glorify that kind of lifestyle, like he had a great life.

 

1 hour ago, Pim said:

I know about his lifestyle. That was pretty well documented. It was more that you sounded like you'd glorify that kind of lifestyle, like he had a great life.

Pim, no way I'm condoning this behavior; I lost a good friend, from this BS, I am not glorifying this way of behaving; Chet was doomed ( he had no real friends but fellow junkies) A close friend of mine, lived this life  (he was a rocker) but he couldn't quite live the life style. He drank too hard, and punished his wife (with drinking only, she went on and remarried) It's real and it sucks. Chet blew everything. He had it all, but blew everything. Sad. 

[Pim]

10 minutes ago, Holy Ghost said:

 

Pim, no way I'm condoning this behavior; I lost a good friend, from this BS, I am not glorifying this way of behaving; Chet was doomed ( he had no real friends but fellow junkies) A close friend of mine, lived this life  (he was a rocker) but he couldn't quite live the life style. He drank too hard, and punished his wife (with drinking only, she went on and remarried) It's real and it sucks. Chet blew everything. He had it all, but blew everything. Sad. 

Thanks I understand now He was such a gifted person but such a sad person. My father in law was at the police force of Bureau Warmoesstraat in Amsterdam in the ‘80’s. He doesn’t know Chet as a musician but as a junky only. He told me Chet was a sweet guy but always in trouble because of the drugs. 

[Holy Ghost]

6 minutes ago, Pim said:

Thanks I understand now He was such a gifted person but such a sad person. My father in law was at the police force of Bureau Warmoesstraat in Amsterdam in the ‘80’s. He doesn’t know Chet as a musician but as a junky only. He told me Chet was a sweet guy but always in trouble because of the drugs. 

LOVE Chet, but wow, blown away with this story. Just another fucked upped dude on the street. Its painful to hear that, wow, thanks for sharing. 

[Д.Д.]

Oh, the Chet sad, Chet tragic thing... What is exactly so "sad" about Chet? That he was a junkie? That he lost his youthful good looks? Might be sad for someone, but I just do not see Chet ever being "sad" about it. On the contrary, I see Chet as a guy who lived his life just as he wanted and, in objective terms, he somehow faired much better than most (definitely better than any junkie musician I can think of). In the '80s he earned better than the vast majority of the musicians of his generation (the guy lost count of Ferraris he bought) and definitely did not suffer from the lack of touring and recording opportunities or recognition (contrast this to another contemporaneous junkie trumpeter, Woody Show, for example). He played as well as ever and produced some of the best jazz albums of the '80s. He was surrounded by friends (no, not everybody in his circle was a drugs enabler) who doggedly took care of him when he needed it - even when he himself was completely unreliable. Ladies flocked to him (so much for the worn-out looks). Even health-wise, he was surprisingly robust for his lifestyle at the time of his death (I remember reading that the examining coroner estimated his age as "mid-thirties" in the pathology report). Regarding the circumstances of his death - most likely this is neither a murder, nor a suicide, but an accident. Sad fact, for sure - but not a sad life.  

 

Edited yesterday at 11:45 AM by Д.Д.

[soulpope]

8 hours ago, Д.Д. said:

Oh, the Chet sad, Chet tragic thing... What is exactly so "sad" about Chet? That he was a junkie? That he lost his youthful good looks? Might be sad for someone, but I just do not see Chet ever being "sad" about it. On the contrary, I see Chet as a guy who lived his life just as he wanted and, in objectives terms, he somehow faired much better than most (definitely better than any junkie musician I can think of). In the '80s he earned better than the vast majority of the musicians of his generation (the guy lost count of Ferraris he bought) and definitely did not suffer from the lack of touring and recording opportunities or recognition (contrast this to another contemporaneous junkie trumpeter, Woody Show, for example). He played as well as ever and produced some of the best jazz albums of the '80s. He was surrounded by friends (no, not everybody in his circle was a drugs enabler) who doggedly took care of him when he needed it - even when he himself was completely unreliable. Ladies flocked to him (so much for the worn-out looks). Even health-wise, he was surprisingly robust for his lifestyle at the time of his death (I remember reading that the examining coroner estimated his age as "mid-thirties" in the pathology report). Regarding the circumstances of his death - most likely this is neither a murder, nor a suicide, but an accident. Sad fact, for sure - but not a sad life.  

A fair assesment ....

[Pim]

9 hours ago, Д.Д. said:

Oh, the Chet sad, Chet tragic thing... What is exactly so "sad" about Chet? That he was a junkie? That he lost his youthful good looks? Might be sad for someone, but I just do not see Chet ever being "sad" about it. On the contrary, I see Chet as a guy who lived his life just as he wanted and, in objectives terms, he somehow faired much better than most (definitely better than any junkie musician I can think of). In the '80s he earned better than the vast majority of the musicians of his generation (the guy lost count of Ferraris he bought) and definitely did not suffer from the lack of touring and recording opportunities or recognition (contrast this to another contemporaneous junkie trumpeter, Woody Show, for example). He played as well as ever and produced some of the best jazz albums of the '80s. He was surrounded by friends (no, not everybody in his circle was a drugs enabler) who doggedly took care of him when he needed it - even when he himself was completely unreliable. Ladies flocked to him (so much for the worn-out looks). Even health-wise, he was surprisingly robust for his lifestyle at the time of his death (I remember reading that the examining coroner estimated his age as "mid-thirties" in the pathology report). Regarding the circumstances of his death - most likely this is neither a murder, nor a suicide, but an accident. Sad fact, for sure - but not a sad life.  

 

I can’t say I agree. You claim that Chet lived his life the way he wanted. That sounds like he was in control of his own life while I believe a heroin addict is never in control of his life and could never live the life he wants. Sure he remained successful up till the end of his life but succes doesn’t equal happiness as so many musicians have proved. Chet was a regular visitor of the police station my father in law worked. He was in all sorts of trouble always related to drugs. He got robbed, beaten up and he ended his life by jumping out of a hotel window. That doesn’t sound like a happy person in charge of his own life.

Maybe I shouldn’t have used the term sad person as that has a negative feeling. But he lived a life that could have been so much better and, though he certainly had his moments, I very much doubt if he was really happy.

[Niko]

"he ended his life by jumping out of a hotel window" is not the conclusion that Jeroen de Valk reaches in his excellent book - his most likely scenario after talking to many people is that Chet was sitting on the window sill and then fell... Not saying that what your father in law saw wasn't real (that particular police station must have been an interesting place to work anyway), but it seems fair to say that he saw mostly the low points of a life where the highs and lows lie a lot further apart than for you and me... I agree with  Д.Д. that Chet did better in the 80s than pretty much any comparable junkie musician and legions of sober ones; and that there is not much reason to believe that he was particularly unhappy in those years even though there were certainly moments where he would have wished stuff was different

[Д.Д.]

Pim, a junkie is not in control of his life, that is for sure. That does not necessarily make him "sad" in his own eyes. Also, "control of one's life" is a fleeting and relative concept anyway. A health issue, random accident, a war or even a loss of job can deal a swift and decisive blow to the "I control my life" illusion.    

[JSngry]

Seems to me that Baker lived a life of perpetually looking for enablers, including through his playing.

[T.D.]

32 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Seems to me that Baker lived a life of perpetually looking for enablers, including through his playing.

Part and parcel of the long-time addict's world IMO. I am inclined to agree, but of course can't pretend to know.

[JSngry]

Been around "the life" enough to recognize the con, but where I draw a line is when the playing itself reeks of con.

I got the same vibe from Frank Morgan sometimes, more on ballads than otherwise 

It's the vibe where they explosingt you to their "vulnerability" is a tool to soften you up for the touch. And to be fair, it's not only junkies that play the game. But jeezus, Chet Baker was just so...shamelessly blatant about it.

IMO, of course

[Д.Д.]

2 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Been around "the life" enough to recognize the con, but where I draw a line is when the playing itself reeks of con.

Would you care to share an example of an '80s Chet Baker performance "reeking of con"? 

[JSngry]

Any of them.