Creed Taylor Produced

I was prompted to write this post after Doug Payne wrote about the Creed Taylor produced, Chet Baker, comeback album. It’s such an interesting review I wanted to make sure you’d seen it. Chet Baker first entered the popular zeitgeist in 1952 for a trumpet solo on a Gerry Mulligan recording of “My Funny Valentine”. Some 20-years later, Baker would find himself in the hallowed hall of Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs studio with Producer Creed Taylor.

How Baker got there, has always interested me, also what happened next? Well, here is a biographical timeline, live set and more.

This post includes Chet Baker’s Newport Festival 1975 performance plus download link. Also included is a streaming link to his CTI album “She Was Too Good To Me” ^[1]https://www.discogs.com/master/60234-Chet-Baker-She-Was-Too-Good-To-Me; the streaming link can be used on all major services. Also included at the end is a pdf link for some of the articles discussed.

As Doug Payne notes in his review of the Baker CTI album, the sessions were “between July and November 1974.” The 1974 Newport Jazz festival ran from June 28th to July 8th, and so a few days before going into the studio with Taylor, Chet Baker would make an appearance in a late night Newport Jazz Festival jam session(June 29th, 1974).

Come the 1975 festival Baker, more than a little shaky, was on the main stage at the same festival, How did Chet Baker get here, press play and read on.

Chet Baker – trumpet, vocals; Bob Mover – alto sax; Warren Chiasson – vibes; Harold Danko – piano; Dave Shapiro – bass; Jimmy Madison – drums

Background and Books

There are a number of books about Chet Baker. Two are particularly of interest for the period of his comeback, the first “Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker” by James Gavin, originally published in 2002 ^[2]Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker” by James Gavin – Welcome Rain Publishers, LLC – ISBN: 1-56649-284-X deals mostly with Bakers problems and relationships using his recordings as a background. The second, Matthew Ruddick’s 2012 “Funny Valentine – The Story Of Chet Baker” ^[3]Funny Valentine – The Story Of Chet Baker – Melrose Books – ISBN 978-1-907732-71-3 deals mostly with the recordings and music, with Baker’s relationships and problems as background.

Chet Baker’s personal life and his music were quite different. His life was tumultuous because of long-term drug addiction and constant touring. Baker once described his nomadic lifestyle as 1/3 driving, 1/3 sleeping and 1/3 playing music. It might be more reasonable to describe his life as one long “car crash”, with periods of amazingly beautiful music.

In 1964, Baker was deported from Italy after another drug bust. Back in America, a couple of years later while in San Francisco, Baker was severely beaten up by two men. Although Baker had been playing with one missing front tooth for 20 years, having most of his front teeth knocked out or removed had a profound impact on both his confidence and his playing.

For the next six years, Baker wouldn’t play or perform in public, he would get by doing whatever it took including working at a gas station from 8a.m. to 11p.m. six days a week, unnoticed. I’ve listed below all the dates in 1974 I could find for Chet. They paint a true picture of his comeback, a lot of grind at small unremarkable clubs and restaurants.

1974 and All That Jazz

So, what about that comeback? What was Baker doing prior to his 1975 Newport Jazz Festival appearance?

Doug Payne notes in his piece, the Baker CTI album was Baker’s first record on a major label since 1970, and arguably his first major recording since 1968. Baker would also appear on a number of other late period recordings, not least the Carnegie Hall set which produce a CTI live album with Gerry Mulligan.

1973 would be one of just a few years where Baker didn’t record anything, not even bootleg live sessions appeared. In early 1974, Baker would start doing club dates again and that was what most interested me about the Baker comeback.

In January and March there were a couple of interesting long form stories about Baker, one by Peter Goddard in the January 16th Toronto Star, and in March 5th in the Baltimore Sun and article by James D. Dilts. I think Dilts article perhaps provides a better biographic sketch of Chet Baker and his trials and tribulations. It is reproduced here courtesy of the Baltimore Sun, along with the picture by Ray McFadden that appeared with the Toronto Star article.

The article is reproduced in full is accurately as I could. It may contain transcription or punctuation errors not found in the original. No other changes or corrections have been made.

Chet Baker, back from drugs and prison, is playing again

by James D. Dilts

“He’s the guy who started me listening to jazz,” said the middle-aged fan. “He’s been away a long time.”

Chet Baker, who as a young, babyfaced trumpet player was a member of the famed “pianoless” Gerry Mulligan Quartet that in 1952 produced “the freshest and most interesting sound to come out of jazz in some time,” according to a critic, has been away for about 20 years. They comprise a long string of drug arrests and jail terms, interspersed with periodic bouts of playing.

Baker is back now. playing his horn in that wispy, withdrawn, understated style and singing the soft-voiced vocals that used to have such a profound effect on women. He was standing beside the stage at the Famous Ballroom last Sunday, talking to the Left Bank Jazz Society fans who wanted to tell him that they remembered.

As he turned to go, a young man rushed up. “I have to talk to you about Stockholm,” he said. “I saw you there with . .” he mentioned several Swedish-sounding names.

Baker regarded him coolly. “I’ve never been to Stockholm,” he said and retired to his dressing room.

“I’m in the process now of putting it all down.” said Chet Baker. “I’m only up to 1966.” He produced several strips of cardboard from his music case — they looked like cut up shirt backs — on which dates and names had been neatly written.

Born Yale. Okla., 1929 (Baker is 44 now); moved to Southern California in 1940; drafted. 1946; studied theory and harmony at El Camino College; played with Charlie Parker. Stan Getz. … But Baker’s sunken lips and ravaged face told as much about where he had been.

Although the band was together for only about a year, Baker is best known for his work with the Mulligan Quartet, in which he was a featured soloist. But lacking Mulligan’s formidable instrumental and compositional skills, the two traveled separate musical paths — Mulligan to big bands and other work, Baker increasing to drugs.

“Mulligan got busted, and I formed my own quartet.” the trumpeter said. Baker toured Europe with it in 1955. and Dick Twardzik, a brilliant. 24-year-old jazz pianist with the band, died while they were playing in Paris. Drugs were suspected.

“I stayed a year and came home in 1957,” Baker said. “I formed another group and went back on the road and started using stuff and getting busted.”

In 1959, he was back in Europe and living in Italy. In April, 1960. Baker was jailed on a drug charge. Later he. his wife, Helena^[4]Halema Alli, and four Italian friends were ordered to stand trial. The trumpeter had been playing in Lucca, a resort 75 miles south of Florence.

“I was living in a clinic,” he said. “A doctor used to take me to work and bring me back. “Then one day I had to go to the club and he couldn’t come. I stopped in a gas station. I was there for a long time. I was just about done. There was a knock on the door. It was the police.

“The papers said I had passed out, the police had to break in. and there was blood all over,” Baker said. “It wasn’t like that.” The news dispatches said he was found in a “semi-conscious condition.”)

“The prosecuting attorney in Lucca wanted to make a name for himself,” the trumpeter continued, “and three weeks later we all got busted. I did 15 months in jail and my wife did 6 months —I could hear her crying every day across the way.”

Returning to the United States again in the mid-1960’s. Baker lived in California, recorded extensively without much critical acclaim. “I got busted out there a couple times and I got three years probation,” he said. “I had all my teeth pulled and I stopped playing. I just started about 12 months ago.”

Baker played the Half Note in New York last August and is returning for another engagement there this month. He is working on a record album for Paramount or Columbia to be called “The Chet Baker Story.” And he has been on methadone for 3 years.

“We have some tapes recorded live 20 years ago at a session with Bird and Sonny Criss,” he said. “Then we have some things I recorded in Pueblo. Colorado, in 1966. Plus we will be doing some new things.”

He also wants to do a book, or maybe a film about his life. “They’ve done the Gene Krupa story and the Billie Holiday story,” he said. “How about the Chet Baker story?”

The trumpeter returned to the band stand. Seated on a chair, for the most part, he played early 1950’s jazz including a few tunes associated with Miles Davis, whose style his own derives from. Some of the phrases were sharp and clear; others would trail off into the mist.

Then he stood up and sang “Look For the Silver Lining,” and remaining on his feet played a fast theme with the band, harder than he had played all afternoon, his manner suggesting “You see — this is what I can do when I really want to.”

In 1974, Baker barely got a mention in the music press. He was indeed a trumpeter from a forgotten era. As far as I can establish his name only appeared once in Downbeat magazine, and that was in the advert from CTI announcing “Chet Baker is back”. Doug Payne’s article includes a picture/PDF of the advert. The rest were little more than mentions of Chet as if he’d died already. Compare that to 10-years earlier, in 1964 Baker’s name would appear in pretty much every issue of Downbeat that year.

Baker would appear at the following events in 1974 as he started out on the comeback trail.

A pdf of the original press articles, plus a few other clippings can be downloaded here.

I sourced the comeback appearances listed for 1974 from publicly available newspaper archives and crossed checked with both book accounts of Baker’s performances. Both books also include consistent details about the 1975 Newport Jazz Festival performance.

If this post wets your appetite for Chet Baker, the film that Bruce Webber made of Baker, in the last year of Baker’s life, can be streamed free with adverts and without registration on Tubi TV ^[10]https://tubitv.com/movies/312555/let-s-get-lost

1975 Newport Festival

The “Chet Baker 4” appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 1st, 1975, almost a year after first going into the studio with Creed Taylor. The whole night had been planned by George Wein, and the show was broadcast live on NPR. It’s from their archive that the recording came from. It’s also why the segments at least for the early evening show were just shy of 30-minutes, to fit in with the news.

They opened the night at the Avery Fisher (Philharmonic) Hall at 7:30 pm. The theme for the night was “A Salute to Jazz and American Song”. MC for the night was Phyllis Diller, who does a few gags, band introductions, and then Chet Baker and the band go for 3-songs 30-minutes.

When you hear the Creed Taylor studio recording from a year earlier, Chet sounds so much more calm compared to live here. Some of that must be down to Creed’s calming influence, and the sound is obviously better with Van Gelder’s recording. Baker was rightfully nervous here though. The same evening in the same ‘hall, the night was closed out by Miles Davis with a 2-hour set, which guaranteed a sellout. Sandwiched in-between Baker and Davis were Cy Coleman, Johnny Hartman, Ellis Larkins, the shades of Duke Ellington and Fats Waller; Zoot Sims in person, Margaret Whiting celebrating Harold Arlen.

On the same night over at Carnegie Hall was Dizzy Gillespie’s group and Freddie Hubbard’s Five. At 11:30 that night. Also “Piano Solo” in the Carnegie listing, the 88-keyed-up characters include Eubie Blake, a distinguishee 92-year-old ragtime virtuoso; John Lewis, Dorothy Donegan, Cedar Walton, Barry Harris, Roland Hanna, Harold Mabern, Freddie Hubbard.

Baker chose the songs to fit the theme, all Rodgers and Hart standards. Chet though sounds nervous and hurried as the “Chet Baker 4” launch into their three Rogers and Hart numbers – “With A Song In My Heart”, “She Was Too Good For Me” and “Have You Met Miss Jones”. Baker settles down on trumpet quickly but his voice doesn’t until the final track.

Of the three tracks, Baker barely knew the final track. He had been practicing backstage and bought the lyrics on to the stage in a Bob Mover book. Mover worried the book might be too heavy for the lightweight music stand, but Baker dismissed the concern. During the performance, the stand tipped over, causing pages to fly, leaving Baker to fumble through the rest of the tune in embarrassment. This clearly explains what is going on during the Newport Jazz Festival set.

Another “time machine” date. Given a choice though, I’d have taken the time machine back to Avery Fisher Hall. Phillip Elwood writing in the San Francisco Examiner on July 3rd, wasn’t impressed, he’d obviously spotted the problem. Among his take-downs, Elwood wrote of Ms Diller “her vulgar, irrelevant and offensive wisecracks helped to ruin the concert” and “Trumpeter Chet Baker fumbled through some Rogers and Hart material (he tried to sing, too) and botched the job. Vibraharpist Warren Chiasson and alto saxist Bob Mover helped rescue Baker.” Harsh, but fair at the time.

Approximately a week later, Jack Kleinsinger introduced Baker at New York University as part of his concert series, Highlights in Jazz. Baker arrived in worn jeans and frayed moccasins, delivering a lackluster performance that left the audience disheartened. Wein had arranged for Italian jazz promoter Alberto Alberti to be in New York at the time, Alberti had been the promoter that had taken Baker to Italy 20-years earlier.

Within a couple of weeks, Baker left for Europe and appeared at the Umbria Jazz Festival at Pescara in Italy on July 13th with Zoot Sims, Ruby Braff/George Barnes Quartet, Don Cherry, Red Norvo, McCoy Tyner and Charlie Mingus. A number of the tracks from the performance were issued on Italian only release “It Happened In Pescara” ^[11]https://www.discogs.com/release/11211416-Various-It-Happened-In-Pescara-1969-1989.

Next up would be the Nice Jazz Festival which ran from July 17-27th, and finally, Baker went to the Laren Jazz Festival in Holland (Aug. 5-9) with Johnny Griffin, Freddie Hubbard Sextet, the Roswell Rudd Quintet with Sheila Jordan, Chris Hinze, Sarah Vaughan, Phil Woods, and Slide Hampton.

1977 – Snyder Tried Twice

As Doug Payne notes, John Snyder convinced Taylor to record Chet Baker; the failure of the CTI album commercially was more to do with CTI Records’ failing distribution channels and fights with Motown, rather than a musical failure. It didn’t dissuade Snyder from trying again. In early 1977, Snyder assembled a CTI-like entourage including Ron Carter, Kenny Barron, Hubert Laws, Paul Desmond, Michael Brecker, Alphonso Johnson, Tony Williams and Don Sebesky for piano, arranging, conducting.

Snyder had left CTI Records in 1975 and joined forces with former A&M/CTI promotions man Harold Childs at A&M to start the A&M sublabel Horizon. Although it is not known why, an extensive front page article by Eliot Tiegel in Billboard magazine, October 11th 1975 issue, notes that “Snyder had been fired from CTI in February 1975”, this was just after the Baker CTI album had been released. The Baker CTI album would first enter the jazz charts in February it would only rise to #20 in March before slipping out of site ^[12]Record World March 8th, 1975 Pg49. Jazz magazine Downbeat did not even review the album until it’s April 24th, 1975 edition.

The Horizon/Baker/Synder/Sebesky album released on vinyl, yielded just 4-tracks including a Sebesky do-over of his “El Morro” track minus “The Rape Of” and substituting Chet Baker for Randy Brecker. Sebesky’s “El Morro” previously recorded as “The Rape Of El Morro is one of his most successful compositions. It is an ideal vehicle for Baker’s newly intensified conception” – Doug Ramsey, liner notes “You Can’t Go Home” ^[13]https://www.discogs.com/master/255344-Chet-Baker-You-Cant-Go-Home-Again

According to Gavin the session had been planned as a double album. Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss only agreed to fund the project if Snyder “do something commercial”. One disk would be fusion and funk, the other straight-ahead jazz. Arranger Don Sebesky was hired to make Baker sound current.” ^[14]Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker” by James Gavin – Welcome Rain Publishers, LLC – ISBN: 1-56649-284-X – Herb Alpert vetoed the double album. According to Ruddick, the album sat on the shelves for more than a year before being released as a single album with 4-tracks ^[15]Funny Valentine – The Story Of Chet Baker – Melrose Books – ISBN 978-1-907732-71-3.

“You Can’t Go Home Again” didn’t sell well and Alpert fired Snyder and didn’t require Baker to complete his contract. The rest of the tracks would get stored away, when Baker died in 1988, the tracks would appear as another album entitled “The Best Thing For You” released by A&M ^[16]https://www.discogs.com/release/2991933-Chet-Baker-The-Best-Thing-For-You.

This album would include three more tracks that featured Paul Desmond and received good reviews including this from Billboard magazine May 13th, 1989. The release itself though would lag behind chart success of “Chet Baker Sings And Plays (From Let’s Get Lost)”, the Bruce Weber film soundtrack album issued by Novus, an RCA imprint ^[17]https://www.discogs.com/master/53586-Chet-Baker-Chet-Baker-Sings-And-Plays-From-The-Film-Lets-Get-Lost.

Perhaps the best review of May 1989 “The Best Thing For You” came in the June 1990 issue of Stereo Review Incorporating High Fidelity® – the album is reviewed on page 102 Jazz releases. They rate the performance “superb” and the Recording as “Quite Good” – saying

The original 4-track Baker A&M album “The Best Thing For You” were both re-engineered and issued on CD in May 1989. In 2000, they would re-packed and issued as a double CD, more in-line with John Snyder’s original vision ^[18]https://www.discogs.com/master/1526819-Chet-Baker-You-Cant-Go-Home-Again.

It’s rare that I prefer “extended” or deluxe editions of albums, but the 2x CD release of this, ironically now on Verve records, is well worth exploring ^[19]https://www.discogs.com/master/1526819-Chet-Baker-You-Cant-Go-Home-Again ^[20]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Go_Home_Again_(album). It brings in another 9 tracks, as well as a number of alternate takes. Apart from an alternate take of “El Morro,” which is a composite overdub that I really like, “How Deep Is the Ocean” sees Baker in fine vocal form and the opening track “Love For Sale” is both funky and well delivered by, the Cole Porter penned title track, though, sees Baker in great form.

James Gavin in his book says of “You Can’t Go Home Again” was “an album he [Chet] basically loathed” and included this from Richie Beirach, who played on the album:

You have to wonder what Chet Baker would have made of the double CD version? We will never know of course.

Baker returned to Europe, where he always felt more at home, possibly because the expectations for, and judgments of his playing were lower. Not least because he’d escaped the IRS and the wife he never divorced, Carol Ann Jackson.

In 1988, just before the premiere of Bruce Weber’s biopic of Baker, he fell from a balcony at the Hotel Prins Hendrik, Amsterdam. Speculation was rife about how Baker fell and subsequent death occurred. I’m not a conspiracy theorist and believe the simplest answer is probably the most accurate. Tom Schnabel wrote on the KCRW website that Baker, having locked himself out of his hotel room, was attempting to climb from an adjacent room’s balcony onto his own when he fell. Seems the most likely. (https://www.kcrw.com/music/articles/how-chet-baker-really-died).

Doug Payne also wrote about a little known track that Baker recorded with Astrud Gilberto in 1977. I for one didn’t know about it and found a copy in my collection on an 8x CD collection.

UPDATES:
April 4th, 2026 – Updated TOC