The first two choices lie somewhere outside the time frame of the bulk of the collection - Chet as featured member of the 1952-1953 Gerry Mulligan Quartet, playing his signature tune, "My Funny Valentine," along with "Moonlight in Vermont." From there, Keepnews jumps to Baker's brief period as a Riverside headliner - from August 1958 to July 1959 - starting with three vocals of three standards. You don't have to read between the lines of Keepnews' carefully chosen words to realize that he and the unreliable Baker weren't exactly the best of chums, and that only the passage of time allowed Keepnews to reach some kind of objectivity about their sessions. Orrin Keepnews, the co-head of the Riverside operation, selects the material and writes the notes, working in chronological order. The Chet Baker volume in Fantasy's Best Of series covers only a relatively tiny portion of his lifespan, yet it does capture the self-destructive trumpeter/singer at two crucial times - when the jazz world was his oyster, and during one of his many attempts to regain his old appeal.
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