Chet Baker Takes It Easy: The Mariachi Brass and Carmel Strings Records (1966-67)

By the mid sixties, trumpeter Chet Baker (1929-88) was known – amazingly, for the time – as much for his music as he was for his drug use.

As the literal – and figurative – poster boy for West Coast Jazz and West Coast “cool” in the early fifties, the-previously beautiful, beatific and Beatnik-ish Baker’s meteoric rise-and-fall career had more than its share of ups and downs by this point. Mostly, they were all downs.

But Baker had burned so many bridges by this point that it’s a miracle these records even exist.

Chet Baker (1929-88) recorded some of his earliest records – from Chet Baker Quartet (1953) to Chet Baker Big Band (1957) – for Richard Bock’s Pacific Jazz label, a haven for some of the biggest stars riding the hot wave of the West Coast Jazz movement at the time.

Baker made his own waves as a talented trumpeter – who displaced Miles Davis’ prominence for a couple of years or so – and as a budding singer of a certain style. But Baker’s marquee good looks – a God-like chiseled handsomeness that rivaled no less a rising star of the day than James Dean – probably made one forgive whatever they thought of his shortcomings. (I suspect Baker had some awareness of all that.)

When Bock expanded his reach beyond jazz, he created the World Pacific label in 1957. One of the first records for that label was Johnny Mandel and Bill Holman’s soundtrack to The James Dean Story, front-lining Baker (of all people) and fellow West Coaster and alto sax player Bud Shank.

Baker left California around this time for New York, where he recorded a string of records for the Riverside label. A European excursion resulted in Baker’s being banned from Germany and a lengthy stint in an Italian prison. Back in New York around 1964, Baker managed to get some records out on Colpix, Limelight and five records recorded in just one week for Prestige Records.

By 1965, Baker – whose good looks had intractably faded – was back in California, desperate for work and even more desperate for money to support his drug habit. Oh, and his family, too. As he had done with all his friends and acquaintances for years before (and after), Baker went back to Bock asking, not for recording opportunities, but, rather, money.

Bock had recently sold his stake in the Pacific Jazz/World Pacific label to the powerful pop label Liberty Records – which would similarly take over the storied Blue Note label in 1967 – while staying on (at least until 1970) as the head. Bock’s label now needed to make its own money.

Bock offered Baker the opportunity, not to record his own record…but one that could potentially crossover. Baker would have likely consented to anything. The records covered here were the result of that deal. Not art, but commerce. None are great or particularly notable in the trumpeter’s capacious catalog, but each is enjoyable in its own way and totally listenable.

Baker had already recorded what was then considered “mood music,” as early as Chet Baker & Strings (1954).

These records, though, are, quite frankly, much more gimmicky and decidedly less substantial as jazz than those Baker recorded around the same time with fellow World Pacific artists Joe Pass and Bud Shank, each of which was arranged by Bob Florence.

To be fair, though, these records, on which “Deep in a Dream” author James Gavin summed up as “the so-called Miles Davis imitator turned into a Herb Alpert wanna-be,”¹ are not well-liked and pretty well forgotten these days.

“Baker recorded a ghastly series of popish albums under the banner of “Mariachi Brass,” wrote Kirk Silsbee in 2014. Gavin added that “Baker hated doing the Tijuana Brass knockoffs, but they saved his life. Even Herb Alpert said, ‘Oh, those records stunk’.” No one ever talked much about Baker’s Carmel Strings records either.

As a result, most discographies either omit these records from Chet Baker’s vast output or provide no detail about them whatsoever. That led me to want to find out more. I worked with American Federation of Musicians Local 47, the Los Angeles-based musicians union that had the contracts of these sessions and was able to find the discographical details for all but three songs from these six LPs and one single release.

Here, then, are the details in their public debut:

A Taste of Tequila

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Ollie Mitchell, Roy Caton, Jules Vogel, Virgil Evans (trumpet, flugelhorn), Lew McCreary, Lou Blackburn (trombone), Dennis Budimir, Bud Coleman and Don Peake (guitar)², Lyle Ritz (electric bass), Frank Capp (drums), Julius Wechter, Gene Estes (percussion). Jack Nitzsche (arranger). Recorded at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, California, on December 3, 1965 (two sessions).

(Notably, Dave Pell is credited here as the leader of both sessions.)

“Flowers on the Wall” (Lew DeWitt) – 2:19
“Tequila” (Chuck Rio) – 2:06
“Mexico” (Boudleaux Bryant) – 2:14
“Cuando Calienta el Sol” (Rafael Gaston Perez) – 2:44
“Hot Toddy” (Ralph Flanagan/Herb Hendler) – 2:12
“Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa” (Burt Bacharach/Hal David) – 3:10
“Speedy Gonzales” (Buddy Kaye/Ethel Lee/David Hess) – 2:36
“Come a Little Bit Closer” (Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart/Wes Farrell) – 2:52
“El Paso” (Marty Robbins) – 3:10
“La Bamba” (Traditional) – 2:15

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A Taste of Tequila, the first of four Mariachi Brass albums, was released in January 1966,³ around the same time that Bud Shank’s album Michelle (also featuring Chet Baker) and the first Carmel Strings album, Boss Baroque (without Baker) were issued.

The arrangements are a little stiff and a bit too precise for jazz listeners, but will do just fine for ears that enjoy easy-listening music. The Mariachi-thing disappears every so often, leading things to almost come across as a country album. Indeed, a number of tunes covered here were originally country-music hits.

The leads are naturally helmed by one or a chorus of trumpets/flugelhorns (Herb Alpert was known for overdubbing his trumpet for a “two trumpet” sound), but one doubts very much that it’s Chet Baker’s horn. The faded beauty comes in only for some startlingly lazy and sloppy fills and the occasional meaningless solo. Said Tony Rounce in the CD’s liner notes, “Chet’s blowing [here] is on an entirely different plane, and so relaxed that it seems in danger of falling over at times.”

While A Taste of Tequila reached number 120 in March 1966, it is the only Chet Baker album that ever cracked the Billboard 200 – making it the trumpeter’s single best-selling album.

Hats Off

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Ollie Mitchell, Roy Caton, Jules Chaiken (trumpet, flugelhorn), Lew McCreary, Lou Blackburn (trombone), Al Casey, Dennis Budimir, Bill Pitman (guitar), Lyle Ritz (electric bass), Frank Capp (drums), Julius Wechter, Gene Estes (percussion). Jack Nitzsche (arranger). Recorded at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, California, on February 21, 1966.

“Chiquita Banana” (Garth Montgomery/Len MacKenzie/William Wirges) – 1:55
“These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” (Lee Hazlewood) – 2:54
“You Baby” (P. F. Sloan/Steve Barri) – 2:38
“The Phoenix Love Theme (Senza Fine)” (Alec Wilder/Gino Paoli) – 2:43

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Ollie Mitchell, John Audino, Roy Caton (trumpet, flugelhorn), Lew McCreary, Lou Blackburn (trombone), Bill Pitman, Dennis Budimir, Al Casey (guitar), Lyle Ritz (electric bass), Frank Capp (drums), Elliot Franks, Gene Estes (percussion), George Tipton (arranger). Recorded at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, California, on March 17, 1966.

5. “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” (Sonny Bono) – 2:40
6. “Happiness Is” (Paul Evans/Paul Parnes) – 1:57
7. “Spanish Harlem” (Jerry Leiber/Phil Spector) – 2:23
8. “On the Street Where You Live” (Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe) – 2:04
9. “Sure Gonna Miss Her” (Bobby Russell) – 2:29

Same or similar.

10. “Armen’s Theme” (Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.) – 2:32
11. “When the Day Is All Done (Foy O)” (Andrew Tracey/Paul Tracey/Will Holt) – 2:15
12. “It’s Too Late” (Bobby Goldsboro) – 2:38

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Hats Off was released in May 1966.⁴ In this, the second of four Mariachi Brass albums, the goal seems to be to Tijuana Brass-ify pop favorites of the day. Interestingly, while the program covers then-in hits by Gary Lewis and The Playboys, Cher, Bobby Goldsboro, The Turtles, Ben E. King and Nancy Sinatra, it also takes in two TV commercial jingles with “Happiness Is” and “Chiquita Banana.” The fifties novelty hit “Armen’s Theme” was also added to the program, written by the man later known as David Seville of Alvin and The Chipmunks fame.

Jack Nitzsche returns to helm only four tracks here. For some reason, he was unable – or unwilling? – to soldier on with Baker and company, so veteran composer and arranger George Tipton was brought in. And, frankly, Hats Off is the more vigorous and enjoyable program. The inventive arrangements – particularly on “Bang Bang,” “Spanish Harlem” and “On the Street Where You Live” – tend to cover up or lessen the impact of Baker’s still-sloppy interjections (Baker’s best moment here comes on “You Baby,” of all things). Tipton’s charts are really first rate.

“This album may make a mountain of money,” wrote DownBeat‘s Don Nelson in his “no stars” review of Hats Off, “but as music it is a loser. A wipe-out…The fluegelhornist did little more than show up at the studio and blow pretty nothings in accompaniment to some of the dullest, most formularized ensemble music…Surely this album must be one of the sadder moments in this fine musician’s life.”⁵

In August 2006, A Taste of Tequila and Hats Off were combined for the only Mariachi Brass CD ever issued. Superbly and scrupulously curated, researched and presented by MB fanboy Tony Rounce, this compilation probably came and went with little notice, In 2024, a friend gifted me with this previously-unknown to me CD, launching my own obsession with this strange period of trumpeter Chet Baker’s long and winding career. It’s a worthy collection for anyone interested in the odd intersection of jazz and easy listening music. Also included here is the single-only “Colonel Bogey March,” discussed below.

Quietly There

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Kenny Shroyer, Herb Harper, Harry Betts, Tommy Shepard (trombone), Bob Florence (piano), Dennis Budimir, Herb Ellis, Bill Pitman (guitar), Lyle Ritz (bass), Frank Capp (drums), Anatol Kaminsky, Gerald Vinci, Marvin Limonick, Paulo Allencar (violin), Robert Ostrowsky, Virginia Majewski, Sam Ross (viola), Eleanor Slatkin, Anne Goodman (cello), Julian Lee (arranger). Recorded at T.T.G. Studios, Los Angeles, California, on May 10, 1966.

“I Left My Heart in San Francisco” (George Cory/Douglass Cross) – 2:29
“Quietly There” (Johnny Mandel/Morgan Ames) – 2:38
“Forget Him” (Tony Hatch) – 2:41
“No More Blues (Chega de Saudade)” (Antônio Carlos Jobim/Vinícius de Moraes) – 2:24

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Bob Florence (piano), Bill Pitman, Tommy Tedesco, Dennis Budimir (guitar), Lyle Ritz (bass), Frank Capp (drums), Victor Feldman (percussion), Sam Freed, Anatol Kaminsky, Gerald Vinci, Marvin Limonick, Paulo Allencar (violin), Robert Ostrowsky, Virginia Majewski, Sam Ross (viola), Anne Goodman, Armand Kaproff (cello), Harry Betts (arranger). Recorded at T.T.G. Studios, Los Angeles, California, on May 13, 1966.

5. “Early Autumn” (Ralph Burns/Woody Herman/Johnny Mercer) – 2:43
6. “The More I See You” (Harry Warren/Mack Gordon) – 2:48
7. “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” (Fran Landesman/Tommy Wolf) – 2:52
8. “Christmas Song” (Mel Tormé/Bob Wells) – 3:05

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Kenny Shroyer, Herb Harper, Harry Betts, Tommy Shepard, Dave Wells (trombone), Bob Florence (piano), Bill Pitman, Herb Ellis, Dennis Budimir (guitar), Lyle Ritz (bass), Jerry Williams (drums), Victor Feldman (percussion), Anatol Kaminsky, Marvin Limonick, Gerald Vinci, James Geztoff, Leonard Malarsky, SIdney Sharp, Paulo Alencar (violin). Julian Lee (arranger). Recorded at T.T.G. Studios, Los Angeles, California, on June 21, 1966.

9. “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” (Pino Donaggio/Vito Pallavicini/Vicki Wickham/Simon Napier-Bell) – 2:35
10. “Stranger on the Shore” (Acker Bilk) – 2:39
11. “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration” (Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil) – 2:38
12. “Message to Michael” (Burt Bacharach/Hal David) – 2:42

(Again, Dave Pell is credited here as the leader of all three sessions.)

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Released in August 1966, Quietly There is the second “Carmel Strings” record and the first of two featuring Chet Baker. More about the Carmel Strings records is available here.

DownBeat‘s Pete Welding was merciless in his “half-star” review”: [This] disc…contains a dozen samples of “mood jazz,” a debased musical hybrid that dilutes whatever vitality jazz might possess by reducing it to the androgynous level of background music.

“This art of the epicene is practiced superbly here; rarely, in fact, has Baker sounded as flaccid as he does against the keening strings and choral ooh-ings and aah-ings of these performances. He’s a shade out of tune, too, for added drama.”⁶

Double-Shot

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Ollie Mitchell, Tony Terran (trumpet, flugelhorn), Jack Spurlock, Lew McCreary (trombone), Dennis Budimir, Bill Pittman, Tommy Tedesco (guitar), Lyle Ritz (electric bass), Jerry Williams (drums), Emil Richards, Julius Wechter (percussion), George Tipton (arranger). Recorded at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, California, on June 6, 1966.

“Enamorado” (Keith Colley/Paul Rubio) – 1:59
“Green Grass” (Roger Greenaway/Roger Cook) – 2:10
“Ring of Fire” (June Carter/Merle Kilgore) – 2:10
“Agua Caliente” (Mike Miller/George Freeborn) – 2:30

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Tony Terran, John Audino, Ollie Mitchell, Bobby Bryant (trumpet, flugelhorn), Lou Blackburn, Lew McCreary (trombone), Dennis Budimir, Herb Ellis, Bill Pittman (guitar), Lyle Ritz (electric bass), Jerry Williams (drums), Victor Feldman, Julius Wechter (percussion), Tibor Zelig, Arnold Belnick, Leonard Malarsky, Jerome Reisler, William Kurasch, Sidney Sharp (strings) George Tipton, Frank Capp (arranger). Recorded at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 1966.

5. “Dancing in the Street” (Rod McKuen) – 2:18
6. “But Not Today” (Buddy Scott/Jimmy Radcliffe/Bert Kaempfert) – 2:37
7. “Danke Schoen” (Bert Kaempfert/Kurt Schwabach/Milt Gabler) – 2:12
8. “Yesterday’s Gone” (Chad Stuart/Wendy Kidd) – 2:29

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Tony Terran, Bobby Bryant (trumpet, flugelhorn), Lou Blackburn, Lew McCreary (trombone), Tom Scott (woodwinds), Dennis Budimir, Bill Pittman, Tony Rizzi (guitar), Lyle Ritz (electric bass), Jerry Williams (drums), Victor Feldman, Gene Estes (percussion), Tibor Zelig, Arnold Belnick, Leonard Malarsky, Jerome Reisler, William Kurasch, Sidney Sharp (strings), George Tipton (arranger). Recorded at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, California, on June 14, 1966.

9. “When You’re Smiling” (Larry Shay/ Mark Fisher/Joe Goodwin) – 1:50
10. “The Blue Dove” (Farlan Myer/Hal Levy) – 2:17
11. “Wheels” (Richard Stephens/Jimmy Torres/Norman Petty) – 2:05
12. “Red Rubber Ball” (Paul Simon/Bruce Woodley) – 2:22

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The third of four Mariachi Brass albums, Double-Shot – likely a bartender’s nod to the Mariachi Brass’ first title, A Taste of Tequila – was recorded during June 1966 and released in August of that year. The sequel-sounding title did nothing to help this album sell – or chart. It didn’t.

In addition to the Mariachi Brass debut, it’s likely one of the better records from this series of issues. The song selection here is, well, pretty good, and Baker’s participation is much more notable here than on any of the previous entries in the Mariachi Brass records. But it hardly ranks among Baker’s more notable playing elsewhere.

As arranger George Tipton’s notes state, Baker’s flugelhorn is accompanied here by two trumpets, two trombones and two percussionists, three guitars, a bassist, a drummer- and, on some tracks, strings.

Almost none of this has anything to do with copying the Tijuana Brass. But nomenclature has everything to do with something.

The program takes in such recent hits by The Cyrkle (“Red Rubber Ball,” co-written by Paul Simon) and Gary Lewis and the Playboys’ (“Green Grass”) as well as such previous-year hits by Johnny Cash (“Ring of Fire”), Chad & Jeremy (“Yesterday’s Gone”) and Wayne Newton (“Danke Schoen”). Interestingly, the “Dancing in the Street” heard here is not the 1964 Martha and the Vandellas hit, but one written by Rod McKuen and also performed by Jan Garber and Jerry Crutchfield.

The lone oldie here is “When You’re Smiling.” But the surprising non-hits included on this set – The String-A-Longs’ “Wheels” (1960), Keith Colley’s “Enamorado” (1963) and Bert Kaempfert’s “But Not Today,” which factors on Bert Kaempfert’s 1966 soundtrack to the flop film A Man Could Get Killed – are among the album’s highlights.

The surprisingly familiar “The Blue Dove” originally appeared on Affairs of the Heart, a 1965 album by former Limeliters singer Alex Hassilev. The song had never even been issued as a single – and the Mariachi Brass version is the only known cover of the song.

Neither the album opener, “Dancing in the Street,” nor “Danke Schoen” even attempt to fit into the mariachi mold.

Despite the dent to Chet Baker’s already wrecked reputation for making such copycat crossover music, these albums seemed to find some degree of popularity on easy-listening radio stations.

According to a report in Billboard magazine, in the very same month Double-Shot was issued, advance orders for “a Chet Baker-Mariachi Brass LP” topped a stunning 50,000 copies.⁷ This is at least 50 to 100 times more than the average jazz release of the day and certainly many more times the number of easy-listening records produced at the time.

If this number isn’t hyperbolic or merely wishful spin, there must have been many retailers returning vast quantities of unsold records to the wholesalers. Or, more likely, after having experienced the performance of the previous two Mariachi Brass records, the retailers probably ordered more judiciously.

“The set with the Mariachi Brass,” wrote Pete Welding in his one-star DownBeat review of Double-Shot, “is a trifle better [than Quietly There, chronicled above] but only as the lesser of two evils. The whole tenor of the proceedings is considerably less dyspeptic—one might even say exuberant. Baker, at any rate, plays with greater drive, incisiveness, and —if one might exercise a bit of poetic license—conviction, as though sensing a slightly healthier atmosphere in this music. At least it’s more in tune with the vitality of the common run of contemporary popular music. And when this is the best that can be said of it, the reader can get some idea of its desultoriness.”⁸

“Colonel Bogey March”

Al Porcino, Carroll Lewis (trumpet, flugelhorn), Lew McCreary, Lou Blackburn (trombone), Larry Knechtel (piano), Al Casey, Dennis Budimir, Mac Rebennack (guitar), Ray Pohlman (electric bass), Earl Palmer (drums), Jerry Williams, Gene Estes (percussion), George Tipton (arranger). Recorded at T.T.G. Studios, Los Angeles, California, on September 13, 1966.

“Colonel Bogey March” (Kenneth Alford) – 2:15

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Released in late September 1966, this single-only release – backed with “La Bamba” from A Taste of Tequila – was recorded during the first session for the In the Mood album (discussed below).

Kenneth J. Alford’s well-known 1914 composition found renewed popularity as part of David Lean’s massively successful 1957 war epic Bridge on the River Kwai. The song’s appearance in that film sparked dozens of easy-listening covers but only one jazz cover in 1962 by trombonist Bob Brookmeyer as “Col. Bogey Bossa Nova.”

This version of the march – more easy listening than jazz – was sparked by the hype surrounding the film’s American television debut on ABC-TV on September 25, 1966.

Even though the single was credited to The Mariachi Brass Featuring Chet Baker, the trumpeter was not even present during the recording. More on that appears below. Despite its timing, “Colonel Bogey March,” which Cashbox described as having a “bright bullfight-like music finesse,” ⁹ failed to chart.

For whatever reason, “Colonel Bogey March” was not included on In The Mood, but it did appear as a bonus track on the 2006 Mariachi Brass CD, A Taste of Tequila/Hats Off. More interestingly, though, Simpsons fans will recognize “Colonel Bogey March” as the melody Bart uses as his birthday song for Lisa in the third-season episode “Stark Raving Dad.”

In The Mood

“Pennsylvania 6-5000” (Carl Sigman/Jerry Gray) – 1:55
“Tuxedo Junction” (Erskine Hawkins/Bill Johnson/Julian Dash) – 2:38

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Ollie Mitchell, Carroll Lewis (trumpet, flugelhorn), Milt Bernhart, Gail Martin, Tommy Shepard (trombone), Bud Shank (woodwinds), Bob Florence (piano, arranger), Dick Hamilton (piano), Tommy Tedesco, Dennis Budimir, Barney Kessel (guitar), Chuck Berghofer (bass), Frank Capp (drums), Victor Feldman (percussion), Leonard Malarsky, Sidney Sharp, William Kurasch, George Poole, John de Voogdt, Israel Baker (strings), George Tipton (violin, arranger), Harry Betts (arranger). Recorded at T.T.G. Studio, Los Angeles, California, on September 28, 1966.

3. “The Dating Game” (Chuck Barris/David Mook) – 2:10

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Ollie Mitchell, Carroll Lewis (trumpet, flugelhorn), Lew McCreary, Lou Blackburn (trombone), Plas Johnson (tenor sax), Larry Knechtel (piano), Dennis Budimir, Mac Rebennack (guitar) Ray Pohlman (electric bass), Earl Palmer (drums), Victor Feldman, Gary Coleman (percussion), George Tipton (arranger). Recorded at T.T.G. Studios, Los Angeles, California, on October 5, 1966.

4. “In The Mood” (Joseph Garland) – 2:45
5. “(I’ve Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo” (Mack Gordon/Harry Warren) – 2:30
6. “At Last” (Mack Gordon/Harry Warren) – 2:35
7. “Chattanooga Choo Choo” (Mack Gordon/Harry Warren) – 2:42

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Ollie Mitchell, Carroll Lewis (trumpet, flugelhorn), Lew McCreary, Louis Blackburn (trombone), Jim Horn (sax), Dennis Budimir, Mac Rebennack (guitar), Ray Pohlman (electric bass), Earl Palmer (drums), Julius Wechter, Victor Feldman (percussion), George Tipton (arranger). Recorded at T.T.G. Studios, Los Angeles, California, on October 7, 1966.

8. “Sunrise Serenade” (Frankie Carle/Jack Lawrence) – 2:15
9. “Little Brown Jug” (Joseph Winner) – 1:49
10. “Moonlight Serenade” (Glenn Miller/Mitchell Parish) – 2:36
11. “String of Pearls” (Jerry Gray/Eddie DeLange) – 2:45
12. Serenade In Blue” (Mack Gordon/Harry Warren) – 2:27

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Released January 1967, In the Mood is the fourth and final Mariachi Brass disc. Someone had the bright idea to give a Tijuana Brass spin on the popular tunes of the Glenn Miller Band book, most already a quarter of a century old at that point. Improbably, it turned out to be a pretty good idea: instead of trying to lure younger listeners to the Mariachi Brass, they attempted to appeal to the kids’ parents. But it was probably too late at that point for the Mariachi Brass.

“The original Miller mood was meant to entertain,” wrote Billboard jazz critic Eliot Tiegel in the album’s liner notes. “Chet Baker’s salute to a legend in the band business continues this tradition.”

Except it’s not really Chet Baker’s salute at all. Despite his name appearing on the album jacket and the trumpeter helming the previous three Mariachi Brass albums, Chet Baker was in no condition to perform during these sessions. Indeed, he is not even present during the first of this album’s four sessions. And he’s probably not on much of the remaining sessions either.

Baker was involved in a brawl outside of a club after a performance in July 1966 – a dispute likely involving a drug deal. The damage to his mouth and lips prevented him from playing the trumpet very well, if at all, for many months afterwards. These were the first sessions Baker participated in since the melee and it was clear to all participants there that Baker could barely manage to play.

Baker’s friend Bob Zieff told Baker biographer James Gavin that while Baker was handed simple parts at the sessions, “he just couldn’t get through anything.” Another trumpet player on the session had to sub while Baker added whatever weak fills he could (likely edited out of the final mix).¹⁰

One listen is all it takes to determine that the trumpet and flugelhorn leads heard here are not as lazy or sloppily handled as they were on the previous Mariachi Brass records. These are session pros all the way. And, with one or two exceptions – (notably the theme to the TV show “The Dating Game,” which comes from the Into My Life sessions, noted below) – it is a perky, enjoyable recording. Highlights include “Little Brown Jug,” “Tuxedo Junction” and “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” with its title (a New York City telephone exchange) cleverly chanted in Spanish.

Curiously, at the time of this album’s release, it was announced¹¹ that a “road-show” version of the Mariachi Brass had been formed and was soon to hit the road. A trumpeter named Marcus Antonio – who is not known to have recorded anything under that name – was set to front the band in Chet Baker’s stead. This touring version of the Mariachi Brass was to consist of nine players and was being booked by the Agency for the Performing Arts. But it’s not clear if that ever happened: In the Mood‘s poor performance probably doomed the group early on.

Into My Life

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Ollie Mitchell, Carroll Lewis (trumpet, flugelhorn), Milt Bernhart, Gail Martin, Tommy Shepard (trombone), Bud Shank (woodwinds), Bob Florence (piano, arranger), Dick Hamilton (piano), Tommy Tedesco, Dennis Budimir, Barney Kessel (guitar), Chuck Berghofer (bass), Frank Capp (drums), Victor Feldman (percussion), Leonard Malarsky, Sidney Sharp, William Kurasch, George Poole, John de Voogdt, Israel Baker (strings), George Tipton (violin, arranger), Harry Betts (arranger). Recorded at T.T.G. Studios, Los Angeles, California on September 28, 1966.

“Paris Smiles” (from Is Paris Burning) Ray Evans/Jay Livingston/Maurice Jarre) – unissued
“All” (from Run for Your Wife) (Ray Jessell/Marian Grudeff/Nino Oliviero) – 2:56
“Guantanamera” (Fernández) – 3:05
“Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” (Louis Guglielmi/Mack David) – 2:50

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Mike Barone, Lloyd Ulyate, Gail Martin (trombone), Bob Florence, Dick Hamilton (piano), Tommy Tedesco, Dennis Budimir, John Gray (guitar), Chuck Berghofer (bass), Gene Estes (drums), Leonard Malarsky, William Kurasch, Ralph Schaeffer, Sidney Sharp, George Poole, Isreal Baker (violin), Harry Betts (arranger). Recorded at T.T.G. Studios, Los Angeles, California, on October 4, 1966.

5. “A Man and a Woman (Un Homme et une Femme)” (Francis Lai) – 2:10
6. “More and More Amor” (Sol Lake) – 2:59
7. “Here, There and Everywhere” (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) – 2:45
8. “Got to Get You Into My Life” (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) – 2:15
9. “Trains and Boats and Planes” (Burt Bacharach/Hal David) – 2:22

Chet Baker (flugelhorn) with Bob Florence (piano), Tommy Tedesco, Dennis Budimir, Herb Ellis (guitar), Chuck Berghofer (bass), Victor Feldman (percussion), Leonard Malarsky, Darrell Terwilliger, John de Voogdt, George Poole, Irving Katz, Donald Gelman (violin), Samuel Boghossian, Gareth Nuttycombe (viola), Joseph Saxon, Jesse Ehrlich (cello), Harry Betts (arranger). Recorded at T.T.G. Studios, Los Angeles, California, on October 18, 1966.

10. “The Ballad of the Sad Young Men” (Jay Landesman/Fran Landesman/Thomas Wolf) – 4:09
11. “Serenata” (Mitchell Parish, Leroy Anderson) – 1:50
12. “If He Walked Into My Life” (Jerry Herman) – 4:03
13. “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” (Irving Berlin) – 3:04

2 to 13 on World Pacific WS-1858, WPS-21858

Released in January 1967, Into My Life is the final Chet Baker record on World Pacific Records – or, perhaps, the last straw in the trumpeter’s strained relationship with producer Richard Bock. Surely, Bock gave Baker far more than Baker ever gave back. But records like this didn’t give Baker much of a chance to pay it back in any meaningful way. More about the Carmel Strings records is available here.

Perhaps more interesting than even the music heard here – none of which is particularly memorable – is that on two of Into My Life‘s three sessions, Baker has no trumpet or flugelhorn backup that was identified in any official way. This listener, however, does not believe that Chet Baker played the clean and pretty lines heard throughout this dismal artistic success, yet it’s exceedingly difficult to prove otherwise.

At this point, Baker was in no condition to provide such playing. Even before his July 1966 beating, Baker’s playing on the Mariachi Brass and Carmel Strings records was pretty spotty. (Check out Bud Shank‘s Michelle and California Dreamin’ for better examples of Baker on a good day during this period.)

Chet Baker disappeared again until a fan/friend, a drummer known as Artt Frank, remarkably persuaded the legendary Verve Records – then helmed by Christian pop mogul Mike Curb – to issue the desultory, poppy and horribly-titled Blood, Chet and Tears (1970). Baker’s next appearance on records was for his second – or third – “comeback” effort on the comparatively superb CTI record She Was Too Good to Me (1974).

Since then, the formerly unknown 1972 studio pairing of fellow trumpeter/vocalists Chet Baker and Jack Sheldon, In Perfect Harmony – The Lost Recording, was released on vinyl and CD in 2024.

Endnotes:

Gavin, James, Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker (Chicago, Chicago Review Press, 2003), p 426. ↩︎
Tony Rounce’s notes in the BGP Mariachi Brass CD (2006) cites Al Casey on guitar during the Hats Off sessions, but the guitarist is not listed on the contracts I viewed. ↩︎
Rounce further cites arranger Jack Nitzsche’s diaries, which indicate that the arranger’s first meeting to discuss the “Chet Baker…trying to cash in on the Tijuana Brass” album as being held in late January 1966. Rounce correctly concludes that this date is unlikely as the album was already out by late January 1966. Nitzche’s diaries also had this on Baker: “No teeth – eight years in an Italian prison – can’t play anymore.” (Actually, it was a little over a year in an Italian prison.) ↩︎
Rounce’s notes incorrectly indicate that “In June ’66, a new line-up of the Mariachi Brass convened at Sunset Sound to begin work on the sessions that eventually comprised ‘Hats Off.'” The first session for the record was in February, not June. ↩︎
DownBeat, August 25, 1966, p. 24 ↩︎
DownBeat, December 1, 1966, p. 30. ↩︎
Billboard, August 27, 1966, p. 6. ↩︎
DownBeat, December 1, 1966, p. 30. ↩︎
Cashbox, October 1, 1966, p. 32. ↩︎
Gavin, p. 438. ↩︎
Billboard, October 1, 1966, p. 52 ↩︎

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