Chet Baker – Chet Baker Sings (Mono, Blue Note, Tone Poet Series)

The complementary talents of Chet Baker (1929-1988) as both a trumpeter and a singer are well known today. Both Chet's trumpet and his voice seem to be extensions of the same musical personality, and once you become familiar with both facets of Baker, expect to hear them both

This album, however, was a revelation at the time and brought Baker new fame and a new audience less familiar with jazz than with pop music. The reasons are obvious: Chet's voice is delicate and beautiful, and at the same time his phrasing always swings and surprises. While Chet Baker Sings is now considered a classic and continues to be a jazz bestseller, its initial critical reception was not too good, and many renowned jazz writers disapproved of Chet's singing as rough, unprofessional and not manly. Despite the critics' opinions, the album never stopped selling, and its popularity was such that after its initial release in 1954 as a 10-inch LP (Pacific Jazz LP11), which contained only eight tracks, it reappeared in 1956 as a 12-inch LP (World Pacific PJ-1222)

These two original LPs were recorded in mono, but Chet Baker Sings had not lost its popularity in 1962, when the new craze of stereo recording began. So Pacific Jazz decided to reissue the LP in stereo. To accomplish this, they recorded a complementary guitar accompaniment by Joe Pass and mixed it with the original mono tapes. The result, heard here, was a new album that did not respect the track listing order of its mono predecessors. While the 10-inch version contained eight tracks and the 12-inch version 14, the new stereo edition contained 12 tunes (three songs were removed from the 12-inch album and a version of "Someone to Watch Over Me" was added from another recording)

Arnold Heus (2022)

There are several Chet Baker albums with the title Chet Baker Sings, but this one recorded for Pacific Jazz in 1954 and 1956 is the original, and arguably, the best. The album features Chet's indelible vocals and sterling trumpet playing with two different quartet line-ups both featuring pianist Russ Freeman on a set of classic standards that he made his own including "My Funny Valentine," "That Old Feeling," and "I Fall In Love Too Easily." For the first time in more than 60 years, this definitive edition was cut from the original master tapes in the correct order with pristine fidelity. The gatefold packaging includes additional session photography by William Claxton.

Blue Note Tone Poet Series

The Blue Note Tone Poet Series was born out of Blue Note President Don Was' admiration for the exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was brought Joe Harley (from Music Matters), a. k.a. the "Tone Poet," on board to curate and supervise a series of reissues from the Blue Note family of labels.

Extreme attention to detail has been paid to getting these right in every conceivable way, from the jacket graphics and printing quality to superior LP mastering (direct from the master tapes) by Kevin Gray to superb 180 gm audiophile LP pressings by Record Technology Inc. Every aspect of these Blue Note / Tone Poet releases is done to the highest possible standard. It means that you will never find a superior version. This is IT

Blue Note Records' Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series is produced by Joe Harley and features all-analog, mastered-from-the-original-master-tape 180g audiophile vinyl reissues in deluxe gatefold packaging. Mastering is by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) and vinyl is manufactured at Record Technology Incorporated (RTI).