Timeless

timeless
  1. Walkin' Shoes - Pacific Jazz
  2. Love Me Or Leave Me
  3. Soft Shoe - Pacific
  4. My Funny Valentine Pacific
  5. Carson City Stage notes - Pacific
  6. Freeway - Pacific
1, 6: Chet Baker, Chico Hamilton, Bob Whitlock (October 15, 1952)

2: Chet Baker, Larry Bunker, Gerry Mulligan, Carson Smith (September 16, 1953)

3: Chet Baker, Chico Hamilton, Gerry Mulligan, Bob Whitlock (October 16, 1952)

4: Chet Baker, Larry Bunker, Gerry Mulligan, Carson Smith (May 20, 1953)

5: Chet Baker, Chico Hamilton, Gerry Mulligan, Bob Whitlock (February 24, 1953)

 LINER NOTES

The February 2, 1953 issue of Time magazine gave the Gerry Mulligan Quartet featuring Chet Baker its first international rave review. One year later, Time February 1, 1954 devoted a page to the Chet Baker Quartet stating, "The 24 year old ex-army trumpeter stands at the top of the list, he was voted the country's best jazz trumpeter in the year end popularity polls by both Down Beat and Metronome magazine."

The majority of the performances heard in this collection were recorded between those two issues of Time magazine. It is my opinion that the original 1952-1953 Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker has never been equaled by any of the later editions of the quartet. Gerry recently expressed himself in print in Down Beat January 17, 1963 regarding Chet and the first quartet. "We used to get some remarkable things going. I remember one night at The Haig in Los Angeles, nobody called a tune all evening. As a tune ended, someone would noodle with another melody, and we would all go into the same thing. We'd play for an hour and a half that way, take a break and go on and do it again. It never let up. It was one of the most exciting evenings of playing I can remember." I know just how he felt for I was working at The Haig during that period. Night after night Gerry and Chet improvised with a breathless freedom that to this day still remains among the high spots of my musical experience.

The Mulligan Quartet tracks with Chet Baker were all recorded during The Haig engagement. "My Funny Valentine," a previously unreleased performance, was actually recorded at The Haig during the evening performance of May 20, 1953.

In the fall of 1953 Gerry and Chet parted company, Gerry to establish the sextet, the big concert band and three or four later editions of the quartet. Chet then became a leader in his own right and in collaboration with pianist Russ Freeman toured the U.S. playing clubs and concerts. Some of the best examples of Chet's styles from the quartet, quintet and sextet context are included here.

Largely due to personal problems, Chet Baker no longer receives the recognition he deserves. He has been in and out of trouble here and abroad. Chet Baker isremembered by his onetime collaborator pianist Russ Freeman, "Chet Baker is the only one who could play my songs the way I hear them. He had such an innate feeling for them. When he was right, he was as good as anyone - and that includes Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and all. And that's a wide statement to make, I realize, but it's true. There were nights when Chet would finish playing a solo, and I'd be sitting there, and I'd feel: what's the point of trying to play a solo now? He's just said it all."

It is hoped that this record will possibly introduce to a new audience the timeless music of Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, one of the most successful collaborations in the short history of jazz music.

-RICHARD BOCK