Chet Baker - Chet Baker Quartet: In Paris, Volume 2

Limited edition 180-gram French reissue

Remastered from the original master tapes

Pressed by Optimal in Germany; artwork using the original photos

In the tradition of labels wholly devoted to vinyl re-pressing, Sam Records puts out a product of top-notch musical and visual quality. Sam Records uses only master tapes and re-creates record covers using the original photographs, paintings and/or drawings. That generally involves some painstaking detective work, so it's a job for conscientious professionals, not corner-cutting amateurs.

This Chet Baker reissue uses the original photos from Jean-Pierre Leloir, and is remastered from the original master tapes. Edition limited to 750 copies, on 180-gram vinyl pressed by Optimal in Germany.

This LP comes with a large-sized high-quality print of a photograph from the archives of Jean-Pierre Leloir. 

The session was recorded at Studio Pathe-Magellan in Paris, Monday, October 24, 1955. By that date only Jimmy Bond was still with Chet. Peter Littman had returned to America, and his seat was now occupied by Nils-Bertil "Bert" Dahlander, a Swedish drummer who'd accompanied Lars Gullin. At the keyboard was an almost-unknown pianist named Gerard Gustin who'd just been signed to a contract by Eddie Barclay. Given the context, they were obliged to fall back on standards. Chet knew how to play these better than anyone. He chose eight: "These Foolish Things", which stayed in his quartet's repertoire for a while; plus five others that the trumpeter performs here for the first time — "There's a Small Hotel", "Autumn In New York", "Summertime", "You Go To My Head", "Tenderly"; and two — "I'll Remember April" and "Lover Man" — that he'd done less than ten days earlier together with Lars Gullin and Dick Twardzik, whose disappearance was still something Chet refused to accept. Given this state of affairs, the whole session exudes a kind of sadness that's impossible to put down, whatever the choice of tune or tempo.

 

 

Side A

1. Summertime

2. You Go To My Head

3. Tenderly

4. Lover Man

Side B

1. Small Hotel

2. I’ll Remember April

3. These Foolish Things

4. Autumn In New York

Customer Reviews (4.78 Stars) 9 person(s) rated this product.

track listing incorrect. posted on 12/29/2021 4 Stars Reviewer: Noel Side A is labeled B and vice versa. Also tracks "I'll Remember April" and "Autumn in New York" are switched. Like like "autumn in New York" is the second track and not the fourth. "I'll Remember April" is fourth and not second like it says on the label. Weird. Just something to note in case you are used to the correct order of the tracks. Sonically though, the music is great. very quiet.

Highly recommended posted on 05/27/2021 5 Stars An excellent pressing, with a sound that is warm and intimate. I am listening to it as I type this, on a perfectly dreary, rainy morning, and Chet and his band feel like they are right here with me.

Absolute perfection posted on 05/20/2021 5 Stars Reviewer: Felipe Salles I was waiting for some time for a restock on these albums and pulled the trigger as soon as they came back. Couldn’t be more satisfied. SAM delivers a great, meticulous packaging and outstanding pressings. One of the few records where the band is actually in my living room. And I mean it

Great but... not perfect posted on 10/06/2014 4 Stars Reviewer: Jeff C - Australia I'd read about how meticulous SAM records are and have to say the jacket is perfect. However, my record is not perfect. It has a few loud pops & ticks here and there. Record was washed before first play and ticks and pops remain in same places so not static. And here is the weird thing, the labels on the record are on the wrong sides! Yes I could not believe it they are reversed. Not sure if mine is a one off or all of them have this fault. Apart from that the sound is fantastic and great tooting!

Vinyl crafted with love and care posted on 08/05/2014 5 Stars Reviewer: Hishou Didn't know what to expect when i bought this but Sam Records did an excellent job with this reissue, not only is the sound spacious, dynamic, clear and analogue-sounding, it is also very well pressed (in Pallas) and the cover is just fantastic, the photo is crisp, the colours very lively, the quality of the cardboard feels precious. As a bonus, another high quality photo of Chet Baker is included inside. This label truly cares about the music and the products they make (which is even more surprising considering it is a small label). These kinds of efforts are truly worth mentioning.

Move over Miles there's another horn in town posted on 12/31/2012 5 Stars Been a fan of Chet's all my life, owning several original pressings but not this one. What a great recording. The clarity is amazing, seems like he's in the room with you. A must have for the jazz aficionado.

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