Baker's Holiday (Remastered) Chet Baker

• 1 Trav'lin' Light 03:12
• 2 Easy Living 03:22
• 3 That Ole Devil Called Love 03:18
• 4 You're My Thrill 03:00
• 5 Crazy She Calls Me 03:23
• 6 When Your Lover Has Gone 02:56
• 7 Mean To Me 03:37
• 8 These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You) 03:31
• 9 There Is No Greater Love 02:35
• 10 Don't Explain 03:26
• Total Runtime 32:20

Info for Baker's Holiday (Remastered)

„Bakers Holiday“ is an endearing and smoky tribute to singing legend Billie Holiday. Backed by a smartly arranged reed section, Chet Baker and his quartet swing with great dynamism on all 10 tracks. Jimmy Mundy's arrangements give this album the feel of a 1940's big band, and Baker seems comfortable recreating some of the mystique and elegance of a bygone era. On this album, Baker plays only the flugelhorn; the instrument's dark and mellow tone only adds to Baker's already wistful sense of melodiousness.

We hear this most poignantly on 'Don't Explain,' a composition co-written by Billie Holiday herself. Here, Baker mournfully 'sings' the melody on his horn, while an English horn echoes him hauntingly. Baker sings on four of the 10 tracks, and his boyish, soft-spoken singing style is right at home with these classic tunes. Here, without copying Holiday, Baker through his elusive musical genius conjures her magic.

Chet Baker, vocals, flugelhorn
Everett Barksdale, guitar
Hank Jones, piano
Richard Davis, bass
Connie Kay, drums
Wilford Holcombe, reeds
Seldon Powell, reeds
Léon Cohen, reeds
Hank Freeman, reeds
Alan Ross, reeds

Digitally 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.