For years, I passed by the treasure trove of guitarist Laurindo Almedia records that packed the bins of so many of the used-record stores I’ve trolled over the years. I can’t say why I avoided these records. They were certainly easy enough to come by. After seeing some of the posters in Facebook’s “Exotica…and other…
“Let’s Get Lost” (1989)
Pianist and composer Herbie Hancock, in his liner notes to the Let’s Get Lost soundtrack, wrote that “many people would agree that [Chet Baker] played a very important role in their love life.” This suggests not only that Baker’s romantic brand of jazz could serve as the soundtrack to falling in or out of love…
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…
Chet Baker and the Carmel Strings (1966)
After several years in New York, trumpeter Chet Baker (1929-88) returned to California in 1965, desperately needing cash. He had a habit and, in theory, a family to support. After nearly a decade away from the West Coast, Baker asked World Pacific’s Richard Bock for money. Bock, whose Pacific Jazz label was built during the…
Bud Shank with Chet Baker: 1965-68
Clifford Everett “Bud” Shank, or “C.E. Shank” (1926-2009), was one of the great West Coast “cool” legends who played in the big bands of Pete Rugolo, Maynard Ferguson, Shorty Rogers and Gerald Wilson. While born in Dayton, Ohio, Shank became the epitome of the “cool” jazz style California so prominently heralded in the early fifties…