Chet Baker had a busy, up-and-down career as a jazz trumpeter and singer, and perhaps remains best known today as the king of cool jazz. I’m a huge cool jazz fan but don’t have much Chet Baker in my collection. Probably my favorites of his works are the recordings he did with baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan’s quartet, in which the two play lots of fun, swinging counterpoint in front of a solid rhythm section.
Beginning in the early 1950s Baker made dozens of albums on numerous labels, as a leader and as a side player. His career suffered from heroin addiction, time served in jail, and physical injuries, and he died too young at age 58 in 1988. He made something of a comeback and turned out quite a few records in the ’80s, including seven for the Danish label Steeplechase. When Sunny Gets Blue, in 1986, was his last for the label. It’s released here on vinyl, after many years out of print in that format, though it was released on CD in the ’90s and 2017.
Baker was joined for this date by a world class rhythm section: American expat Butch Lacy on piano, Dane Jesper Lundgaard on bass and Finnish drummer Jukkis Uotila. The program consists of five standards and one original, “Two In The Dew” by Lacy, and the best parts of the album are, sad to say, all played by the rhythm section. Never blessed with highly technical chops at his best, Baker wasn’t having his best day in the studio, frequently sounding tentative or just not very focused, and clearly unable to reach some notes.
This is some solid material, recorded and sequenced well. The mid-tempo opener “Long Ago And Far Away,” a WWII-era chestnut by Jerome Kern, evokes some fine playing by Baker on the head, Lacy takes a great solo turn, and Lundgaard and Uotila keep things (read: Baker) moving along in the solo sections. Baker fares better on the lovely ballad “Here’s That Rainy Day,” and Lundgaard shines on bass on this one. Lacy’s “Two In The Dew” is another swinging mid-tempo gem and the combo lays it down like it’s a standard — probably the standout of this disc.
The title track, Jack Segal and Marvin Fischer’s “When Sunny Gets Blue” is a nice cool blues on which Lacy shines again, and the disc closes on an up note with Cole Porter’s “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To” — great bass and piano solos, and a short but melodic solo turn by drummer Uotila, himself a pianist — although at times Baker sounds like he’s running out of steam. The less said about his one vocal performance, on “Isn’t It Romantic,” the better.
I hesitate to totally pan this record, especially because of the solid work by the side players. A fine late example of cool jazz, but definitely not a great performance by Chet Baker.
(Steeplechase, 2025)
