Identification
This album is called "The Best of Chet Baker Sings" on the outside, but the disc itself says "Let's Get Lost" above "The Best of Chet Baker Sings". But there is an older Chet Baker album "Let's Get Lost" (at least on cassette tape, I have it) which features the older Chet doing modern performances of songs from the movie "Let's Get Lost" (1988), filmed just before (and possibly contributing to) his death by self-inflicted second-story defenestration in Amsterdam on May 13th, 1988.
This is not related to that "Let's Get Lost" project (which doesn't appear to be available on CD). This is the young 1953-1956 West Coast Cool jazz Chet Baker.
The liner notes have 5 pages of notes about Chet's career, and the cover is a semi-famous photograph of Chet at a piano looking down, his face reflected in the mirror finish on the top of the piano, a trumpet in the background over his left shoulder.
The disc is copyright 1989.

Discovery
Long Ago And Far Away there was this really cool Funky Art Chick™, with mussed-almost-matted blonde hair, like Barbie after a term of 3 year-old's play. The absent-minded look behind those black-rim glasses. She must have been either a 5th year senior, or maybe a graduate student, but she seemed far more comfortable in her body than most college students. She moved with the grace of someone approaching 35, every move competent. I see her there, in the printmaking studio, dripping ink upon her Plexiglas, attaching it with her palette knife or q-tips, or inking up her intaglio plate, rubbing the plate with tarlatan, putting the plate on the press, washing her hands, getting the paper out of the paper-tray and drying it off, placing the paper exactly, gracefully on the plate, covering the paper with scratchy felt blankets, and turning the crank to run it all beneath the roller of the printmaking press. Yes, she was the sort of Funky Art Chick™ that our young geeky, blue-haired protagonist could really flip over. And she played music in that printmaking studio that was inhabited only by these two souls. Here is where I really listened to Leonard Cohen for the first time (I'd heard him before when I bought his Best of tape on the way home from Minneapolis, but was so shocked by it ('sounds like *gag* Simon and Garfunkle') that I took it back to a store in Iowa!), and it was where I was introduced to Chet Baker.
Funky Art Chick™, I Remember You as we rubbed, brushed, wiped, and burnished the late night hours in that studio, we listened to the old 50's standards sung by that...person. I believe I was pretty convinced that it was a black woman singing. The Funky Art Chick™ informed me that it was Chet Baker, a well-known jazz trumpet player. He did some singing on the side and had a pretty big gay following in the 50's because his voice was so androgynous.
SOLD!
While that blue-haired bisexual was thinking that he felt Like Someone In Love, that he had had infatuations but I've Never Been In Love Before, when we might have wanted to tell him You Don't Know What Love Is so he'd wake up and think to himself "I Fall In Love Too Easily", that as Daybreak approached, these two would still be, at most, Just Friends, while all of that was going on, the cool jazz, androgyny, and Gay Culture Stamp Of Approval would make this a staple of his music collection. That "Chet Baker's Unsung Swan Song" by David Wilcox, the last song on the first Rare On Air CD ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000004AVY/roymeosreadinglo/ ) would always move him. Much like Little Jimmy Scott's singing in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me would sell that androgynous voiced jazz musician ("And I see you / And you see me / and I see you in the printmaking studio / on fifth floor / in the Design Center on the fifth floooooor"). I had fantasies about My Ideal and saying "I'll jump in your van and go with you to San Francisco when you get your MFA in a week! Let's just grab our etching tools, some burnt plate oil, and Let's Get Lost!"
Alas, My art Buddy, I Get Along Without You Very Well. Of course I do. Except when I get That Old Feeling of pulling paper from copper and having that art-orgasm from the perfect aquatint revealed. But sometimes, The Thrill Is Gone like when you realize that that itching-burning sensation is because you dripped down your leg while taking your plate from acid bath to sink.
When I Look For The Silver Lining I can see what I learned from you: moving out of the dorms is an important first step to having the tools necessary to being able to be independent and handle moving as an adult, and that Chet Baker was part of he West Coast Cool jazz group, he sang as well as playing trumpet, he had a following in the gay community of the time because of his androgynous white-guy/black-woman voice and he did a lot of heroin.


Performers/Sessions
This is a pretty small group, especially when you look and realize that each song has only: Bass, Drums, Piano, and Chet singing and playing his trumpet. A great stripped down set to showcase and accent Chet without really distracting from his performance.

October 27, 1953 at Radio Recorders, LA #1
Chet Baker: vocals, trumpet
Russ Freeman: piano
Joe Mondragon: bass on #1
Shelly Manne: drums on #1

February 15, 1954 at Capitol Studios, LA #2-8 &
March 7, 1955 at Capitol Studios, LA #9-14
Chet Baker: vocals, trumpet
Russ Freeman: piano
Carson Smith: bass
Bob Neel: drums

July 23, 1956 at the Forum Theatre, LA #15-17
Chet Baker: vocals, trumpet
Russ Freeman: piano
Jimmy Bond: bass
Peter Littman: drums

July 30, 1956 at the Forum Theatre, LA #18-20
Chet Baker: vocals, trumpet
Russ Freeman: piano
Jimmy Bond: bass
Lawrence Marable: drums

Tracks
Apparently the record exec also liked screwing with the mixing of the music and several of the Chet Baker singing tracks have reverb, guitar and even other artists (Bix!) overdubbed into the tracks. But these are the original, unmessed-with versions, basically as they were recorded.

1. The Thrill Is Gone (Brown-Henderson) 2:46
This is one of the two songs from Chet's first vocal recording gig. The other, "I Fall In Love Too Easily" is on The Complete Pacific Jazz Studio Recordings of the Chet Baker Quartet with Russ Freeman. This single became a runaway success that lead to the second gig (including tracks 2-8).
This is a pretty self-indulgent, sorrowful treatment of the song, with trumpet and vocals simultaneous.

2. But Not for Me (Gershwin) 3:00
Pretty swinging, upbeat tempo. Cheerful singing and trumpet work. Especially for a song of this type.
3. Time After Time (Cahn-Styne) 2:44
Pretty mournful version, or at least laid back. Occasionally picks up on the climatic verses, but you could almost hear this as a 'well, I lost the only good thing in my life, again' sort of tone through most of it.
4. I Get Along Without You Very Well (Carmichael) 2:56
Perfect 'I'm filled with void' tone. No trumpet that I can hear on this, just bass, drums, piano and some sort of music-box sounding percussion.
5. There Will Never Be Another You (Gordon-Warren) 2:56
Swinging trumpet solo opening has you snapping right along with this peppy tune. Turns a touch more melancholic just at the end, in a pining sort of way.
6. Look for the Silver Lining (DeSylva-Kern) 2:36
Chet didn't just do a verse of his songs, somehow between drink and drugs, he also had the time to not only learn all the verses to his songs, but to treat them with respect. This version of Look For The Silver Lining includes the original second line, "When e'er a cloud appears..." circa 1920 version. The liner notes also mention using the 16-bar introductions being pretty scarce by the 50's.
This song is upbeat, but perhaps not as upbeat as some of the other songs on the album that you wouldn’t expect to be so upbeat. Piano solo before the trumpet one.
7. My Funny Valentine (Rodgers-Hart) 2:15
Sweet melancholic valentine. This song is really mellow, sung with an almost pathetic tone, perhaps this would be a good song to sing while trying to convince someone to come bail you out of a jail in Europe. No trumpet.
8. I Fall in Love Too Easily (Cahn-Styne) 3:18
Re-recorded at Chet's second gig because the record exec didn't like the first gig recording.
Crooning delivery, and the trumpet parts really work well with that delivery.

9. Daybreak (Grofe-Adamson) 2:38
The first minute is instrumental playing, cheerful delivery, and intensive trumpet.
10. Just Friends (Klenner-Lewis) 2:40
Peppy and swinging. The bass-brushes-piano seem to stand out quite a bit to me in this one. Another song that sounds pretty upbeat for “two friends, one broken heart” and “suddenly love died/the story ended.”
11. I Remember You (Mercer-Schwertzinger) 3:12
This one is a touch better than Joe Frank’s singing on his radio show (joke for Pookie).
Upbeat, good piano and trumpet solos, duetish stuff. Could this whole session have been upbeat?
12. Let's Get Lost (Loesser-McHugh) 3:41
Romantic crooning, bright trumpet parts, the rest of the quartet is grooving.
13. Long Ago And Far Away (Gershwin-Kern) 3:55
Quick and peppy. Trumpet (with mute sometimes) and piano opening.
14. You Don't Know What Love Is (Raye-DePaul) 4:48
Well, the entire session couldn’t be upbeat. This is a just ”beaten up and tossed in a jail in Europe” sort of song.

15. That Old Feeling (Brown-Fain) 2:59
This session is back to the cool Chet. A little swinging, a little flirting, a little crooning. The rest of the quartet shines pretty well, here.
16. It's Always You (Burke-Van Heusen) 3:31
Everyone’s laid back here, from the tempo, the delivery, to the trumpet work.
17. I've Never Been in Love Before (Loesser) 4:23
Lots of twinkly piano, especially good work staying along with the singing without overpowering it. A crooning and fragile delivery. It’s easy to imagine the whole group playing this song live, with the smoky pauses in between singing to casually wait for the cue to play.

18. My Buddy (Donaldson-Kahn) 3:16
Starts with a muted trumpet, languorous delivery of the vocals. Good showcase of piano and bass.
19. Like Someone in Love (Burke-Van Heusen) 2:23
A romantic, languorous song without trumpet.
20. My Ideal (Chase-Whiting-Robin) 4:19
Romantic, but not quite crooning. Xylophone as well as trumpet.


Chet Baker's performance (especially his singing) was often referred to as "innocent" and "sweetness". And there is a very emotionally open feeling to his singing. But considering the hard living he was doing, there can also be an ironic edge to his performance. An ironic twist that doesn't so much come across as SMARMY (listen up Harry and Frank) so much as a dangerous seduction. But even then, the irony isn't the cold, hard defensive posturing one would expect, but more a recognition of the truth. Perhaps some of it is the same innocent "drugs are going to change the world" belief shared by the Beats and the Hippies. Despite the hard living he was doing, Chet really does have that naive innocence and emotional vulnerability. He's just another guy struggling through this world, he doesn't have any more answers than anyone else just because he's up there behind the microphone, and he opens up and shares his pain and fragile humanity.


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Romancing