Customer Reviews

Italian Sessions

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4 star:		(1)
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The 1960's are often considered the low point of Chet Baker's rocky career, but this album recorded in 1962 is undoubtedly one of the finest efforts of his early playing. Baker is aided and abetted by American tenorman and flutist Bobby Jaspar and propelled by the exhuberant Daniel Humair, Europe's answer to the sensational hard bop drummer Philly Joe Jones.

Although Chet is primarily known as an interpreter of wispy ballads and standards, he stands out on this set as an advanced, aggressive be-bop improviser. His playing on the Thelonious Monk classic "Well, You Needn't" and high-speed romp through "Pent-Up House" are two of the best versions of these tunes ever recorded, and he excels on Charlie Parker's "Barbados". Also worth mentioning is "Blues In The Closet", unusual in the sense that Chet did not record many good interpretations of tunes based on blues changes.

Although there is no singing here, Chet's unusually focused command and skilled playing make this album a must-have for fans of Chet's trumpet playing. If you are a traditional be-bop/hard bop fan who has never approached Chet Baker, give this album a try.

I imagine if you're reading these reviews that you are familiar with Chet Baker's music. I got into listening to him after seeing the flick "Let's Get Lost", a biography of his life and how drug use brought him down. It's not a flattering film, but it is honest. I'm glad to have a cd of him just playing his trumpet without singing. His soft, warm voice, is excellent for setting a romantic mood. The "Italian Sessions" however, is more for attentive listening. It shows he could have done straight bop had he chosen to. This is a great cd, and it deserves to be included in anyone's jazz collection.

I've owned half a dozen Chet Baker CD's and half of them were poorly recorded or the performances were mediocre. This album, however, is absolutely awesome. I've owned it for a couple of years and it is all scratched up but I still listen to it often. Chet is in top form here and the sound quality as well as the musicianship has to be the best I've ever heard. The strength of material wanes a bit after track 5 but this is still remarkable stuff. There is no singing on this album for those of you looking for a vocal CD (try My Funny Valentine-it's great). His tone is so powerful on this CD and really pries at something inside -- a great recording and a fantastic CD. You can't go wrong here.

At a time when jazz fans were arguing over the relative merits of Miles Davis, Lee Morgan and Don Cherry, outstanding players all, Chet Baker recorded this album with an Italian rhythm section that virtually redefined his talent as a "soft" West Coast trumpeter. Never at a loss for ideas and on top of the rhythm throughout, Baker shows just how great he could be on those rare days when he played his very best. Only with the advent of Freddie Hubbard was Baker's supremacy as a trumpeter in this era surpassed. Small wonder that, in 1951, Bird told Diz "there's this white cat out West who is going to eat you alive." What a tragic waste of talent for this remarkable talent to spin out of control for 30 years in a heroin haze, lose his teeth and make enemies everywhere he went. The late jazz critic Ralph Berton used to say that Chet was the modern-day Bix Beiderbecke. This CD shows why.

This session is by far and away one of Chet's best. "Well You Needn't" is worth the price of the CD alone, and is a wonderful example of how dextrous Baker was in his prime. If you know his history, you'll be wistful as you listen to these tracks, wondering what might have been if he had keep his life together.

I have been a Chet Baker junkie, for more then 40 years and in my opinion, this was the finest album that he ever made. although the prestige sessions with chet on flugel horn with george coleman on tennor are very good also.

For those looking for key non-vocal Chet Baker recordings this is where you should start. The best of the early phase, up-tempo Chet releases.

I enjoy Chet's more mellow tunes but these sessions show him in an upbeat and bopping jam!

This is one hot jazz cd every cut is awesome!
Might be chet bakers best work.sound quality
is so super!

For my money, this is one of the best Jazz recordings ever. I bought it on cassette (with a different title) along with Jackie McLean's "Lights Out" almost twenty years ago, and both are still among my favorites. When I was a kid, I played the trumpet, and I idolised Miles Davis. I am sick to death of all this Miles vs. Chet, Chet vs. Miles crap. I quit playing trumpet when I was a teenager because Wynton Marsalis (allegedly)had made a racist comment about how only black men could play Jazz, or something like that. Also, way too many white people apparently have considered Chet to be the great white hope of Jazz trumpet. Anyone who loves Miles and hates Chet, or vice versa, is nothing but an evil racist bigot who should go die. I have a friend who I trade Jazz recordings with; we are different colors, but our love of this music (among other things) makes us brothers- and both of us like both Miles and Chet.

Dimestore Liam
Detroit