Track Listing

1. That Old Feeling
2. It's Always You
3. Like Someone in Love
4. My Ideal
5. I've Never Been in Love Before
6. My Buddy
7. But Not for Me
8. Time After Time
9. I Get Along Without You Very Well
10. My Funny Valentine
11. There Will Never Be Another You
12. Thrill Is Gone
13. I Fall in Love Too Easily
14. Look for the Silver Lining

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9837 in Music
• Released on: 1998-01-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
Recorded with pianist Russ Freeman's ensemble in 1954 and 1956, this is the archetypal Baker release, and the first one to get if you're testing the waters. Baker sings standards (including "My Funny Valentine," of course) as if stepping out of an androgynous dream, although it would take another 20 years of hard living for his voice to take on otherworldly qualities. Relaxed West Coast swing such as this can't be duplicated today. In its sweetly melancholic post- war foreboding, this is a Mike Davis book set to music. "Sings" should be on the required listening list for any history class covering the city of L.A. --D. Strauss

Customer Reviews

Quality: songs, trumpeting, singing, accompaniment
I don't think Chet Baker would be rated by most casual jazz fans as the best male vocalist of his era...probably, he wouldn't be number one even for the trumpet on most lists. However, when you combine his better-than-average singing with his much-better-than-average horn playing and his impeccable taste in songs and his excellent choice of sidemen, you have durable art and a good value for the music lover's money. This CD combines a 1954 recording session with one in '56 using different bass players and drummers. My, does it all hold up well. Call it smooth jazz, call it lounge music, call it pop, even...it's all good. I like the '54 session better because those eight songs are a little stronger overall than the six he produced in '56. If anyone is writing songs this good now, somebody point me to them: "But Not For Me"; "Time After Time"; "I Get Along Without You Very Well"; his signature tune, "My Funny Valentine"; "There Will Never Be Another You" and "I Fall in Love Too Easily." Chet didn't write them, he just demonstrates how good the writers are. If you like lightly swinging love songs, a little trumpet improv in the middle, and a short list of some of the best three-minute pop songs of the century, buy this one. Chet ended up a tragic figure, doomed by heroin, but here he is young and full of promise, enjoying that decade inbetween the end of the Korean War and the start of the Vietnam mistake known generically as "The Fifties." Rock and Roll was just beginning when these sessions were held...ten years later, people like Chet Baker were relegated to cult-type followings, but when these performances were fresh, this kind of music held the main stage.

Absolute soul-ful beauty
Chet is my main man...Ever since i saw the documentary about him ("Let's Get Lost"), I have never been able to get enough of this man's musical genius. And that goes for both his trumpet-paying and his singing.

Some people try to make the argument that he's really not a singer. Excuse me? Do you have ears? Aside from Billie Holiday, I don't think there is another jazz singer who can touch Baker.

I listen to a lot of singers...from Louie Armstrong to Abbie Lincoln to Nina Simone to Ella to Kurt Elling...and nobody moves me like Baker...

He's phenomenal...Buy this cd...do yourself a favor...

CHET BAKER SINGS.
Of all Chet Baker recordings, this is the original from the mid-50s, and it remains the best. No quirky phrasings, just pure Chet. Don't confuse it with 'Chet Baker Sings and Plays,' a later recording with similar arrangements which seems much less fresh than the original, slower, chet's voice a bit strained and not as sincere, if that's the right word. His trumpet lags in many instances; and the piano work I found to be lacking. If you want to start a Chet collection, first get the original, CHET BAKER SINGS.

Barbara H., California poet.