Chet Baker's entry in the
Compact Jazz series is essentially an odyssey between two continents, chronicling his wanderings through Europe and America over the span of a decade. The disc begins with some of his 1955 Paris sessions, and then skips over to Baden-Baden for an eerie duo encounter with pop singer/guitarist
Caterina Valente that is rhythmically close to a premonition of bossa nova. On to Chicago in 1958, where
Chet communes and races with
Stan Getz for 15 often thrilling minutes on "Halfbreed Apache." Two New York tracks from 1965 catch
Chet nonchalantly blowing at ballad tempo with a section of reeds and rhythm section. Finally the disc backtracks a year with four tracks from a New York sextet and quartet (whose personnel includes the young
Bob James or
Hal Galper on piano) where
Chet is in prime bop form; no limp tones here. Although these are not his most famous sessions, you'll get a better impression of Chet's work here than with some other single-disc samplers that come to mind. ~ Richard S. Ginell