I once read a Blind Fold Test interview with a jazz guitarist listening to various inspirations and peers. When they played him Wes Montgomery and George Benson the musician said that everything they played was like ice cream — everybody loves ice cream — and just because ice cream is delicious doesn’t mean its not good. He added that some listeners want to be in a special club devoted to artists who others don’t “get” — he ended with a sentiment like, “Who the hell doesn’t love ice cream???”
That sums up Chet Baker’s musical style perfectly — everything he played was ice cream. His playing is easy to like — you understand it instantly, and, even people who don’t listen to much jazz at all still listen to Chet Baker (and lately I have seen him included on many lists of favorite artists of younger hip-hop and R&B acts). Everybody loves ice cream and that universal appeal doesn’t make it bad.
A highly lyrical player, Chet, like the more technically accomplished Stan Getz and Bill Evans, made strong melodies even more beautiful when he played them and then crafted improvised solos that sounded like continuations of the melody. If this was easy to do everybody would do it. Lyricism is an ability. Baker himself was hurt that critics didn’t recognize his major strength — he felt he picked “the right notes to play.”
To this day Baker is often slagged off as an imitator of 1950s Miles Davis — only Miles kept evolving and Chet did not. But, Miles’ super strength was evolving and Baker was born with a gift for melody. Interestingly, the pronounced Miles influence came a little later with Chet. To hear the most original playing Chet Baker ever did you need to go back to the very beginning — at the dawn of the 1950s. First, check out his sides with Gerry Mulligan’s pianoless quartet. Then, jump right over to his first batch of recordings as a solo artist, four platters of which are captured on the vinyl box set The Complete Pacific Jazz Studio Recordings Of The Chet Baker Quartet With Russ Freeman.
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