Audio Magazine
Charles A Robertson : September, 1957

During his recent eight-month sojourn in Europe, Chet Baker developed a more positive voice on the trumpet and displayed it to advantage as a guest with Kurt Edelhagen’s Orchestra. He also brought back some originals by the French jazz musicians Pierre Michelot and Christian-Chevallier. This combination of events prompted a session placing him in a larger context than his usual quintet. But the Baker horn is still not that of a roof-raising extrovert, so the arrangements for the two groups retain the flux and solo space of a small band with the added tonal texture of big band sound.

Chevallier’s Mythe, V-Line, and Not Too Slow are played by a nonet which features Bob Burgess, trombone, and Bob Graf, tenor sax. Michelot contributes the descriptive Chet and an arrangement of Dinah. Phil Urso, tenor and alto; Bobby Timmons, piano; and James Bond, bass; regular members of the quintet, play with both units. The delightful Phil’s Blues is by Urso.

Percy Heath’s younger brother, Jimmy, arranged the ballads for the eleven-piece group. A Foggy Day, Darn That Dream, and Tenderly are made for the Baker trumpet style. With new firmness and feeling, he tops anything he has done previously. Trombonist Frank Rosolino and altoist Art Pepper offer limber solos.

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Metronome
Jack Maher : October, 1957

Chet Baker comes this month in the large economy size. The big band is the creation of Dick Bock of Pacific and features some of the top men of the West Coast (Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Bill Perkins etc.) but these have very little to play on the date. Another big band which occupies most of the space has Phil Urso, Bob Burgess, Bob Graf and Bill Hood among others. This band plays 8 of the 11 tracks and has what’s more like a large small group sound.

There are two stand out things about this album: Chet’s playing and then the slightly vague yet poignant writing of Chris Chevallier (Mythe, Not Too Slow and V-Line).

All things considered though, this is not an exceptional album, Chet does himself proud but the band is insipid in spots.

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Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA)
Russ Wilson : 07/21/1957

Chet Baker Big Band (Pacific Jazz PJ-1229; 41m). Appearing with a 9 and an 11-piece band, Trumpeter Baker demonstrates that he can blow a lusty, aggressive horn. The arrangements, several by European writers, catch the big band sound and at the same time leave room for blowing solos by trombonists Frank Rosolino and Bob Burgess, saxophonists Art Pepper, Phil Urso, Bill Hood, and Bob Graf, bassist Jim Bond, and pianist Bobby Timmons. I thought it an interesting album (but I did the notes).

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Toronto Star (Toronto, ON, Canada)
Roger Feather : 07/27/1957
Two stars

Pacific Jazz Records also has another new LP titled The Chet Baker Big Band. The “Big Band” is neither very big nor very good. Chet leads two different groups, an 11-piece and a nine-piece, through 10 rather dull and unimaginative arrangements of five standard and five originals. The one saving grace is Baker’s trumpet playing and even this is not up to his usual standard. Chet is a good trumpet player but not a great one nor a really important one. I think he has been over-praised by many but even with this in mind I feel sorry for him on this LP.

At times the band sounds like a second-rate group which is trying hard but just can’t make it. The rhythm section rarely gets out of its heavy ponderous rut and the brass and reed sections almost never bite. There are some excellent musicians involved but for some reason this session just didn’t get off the ground. Chet, who does most of the solo work, is not as biting or lyrical as usual and his ideas and intonations are rather shaky at times.

The tunes include A Foggy Day, Tenderly and Darn That Dream all done by the bigger unit. Dinah and various originals are played by the nine-piece group. C. H. Chevalier wrote and arranged three mildly interesting tunes but the rest are rather mediocre. Other soloists include Phil Urso, on tenor, Bobby Timmons on piano and in one all-too-brief appearance, Art Pepper.

Also in the band are Bill Perkins, Bud Shank and Conte Condoli. Unless you are a real Baker fan, I would shy away from this LP.

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Venice Evening Vanguard (Venice, CA)
C.M. Weisenberg : 07/10/1957

This is really an album of Chet Baker’s “bands” since he recorded with two groups; one was an 11-piece band and the other was a 9-piece band. Both groups fall short of what I would call a big band, but at the same time they are somewhat larger than the small groups where Baker achieved his original reputation.

While Baker plays a good jazz trumpet his style does not seem to have changed much with the big organization; he lacks the drive and power that is necessary in a big band. However, his solos on tunes like A Foggy Day and Not Too Slow display a great deal of taste and ability. Along with solos by men like Art Pepper, Conte Candoli and Bill Hood the band as a unit provides some very well arranged patterns in sound to support Baker and his soloists.

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Down Beat : 08/08/1957
Don Gold : 3.5 stars

A glance at the LP jacket indicates the presence of such well-known Californians as Candoli, Rosolino, Pepper, Shank, and Perkins, but the sounds contained therein do not indicate that their abilities were utilized effectively.

Essentially, this is Baker’s quintet augmented to nontet and an 11-piece group. Baker solos on each track, but the five musicians cited above appear briefly on merely three tracks. To make matters even more frustrating, except for one adjectival paragraph, there is no solo identification in the liner notes, although the notes do manage to include mention of the fact that Baker flunked the only course in theory and harmony he ever took.

Nevertheless, there are rewarding moments here, primarily in the arrangements contributed. French pianist Christian-Chevallier contributed three attractively inventive ones, Mythe, Slow, and V-Line. Another French jazzman, Pierre Michelot, wrote Chet and the arrangement for Dinah. Jimmy Heath, Percy’s brother, arranged the three standards for the larger group. Urso charted Worrying and Blues. Surrounded by the other arrangements, Urso’s are not as provocative. Heath’s for the most part, are warm and relaxed. The five charts by the Frenchmen are well conceived and marked, for me, the most interesting aspect of the LP.

The execution is on a professional level, despite the lack of extended solos. Baker plays in good taste and with relatively linear conception. He indicates a restricted sense of dynamics but succeeds in indicating some degree of emotional involvement.

It would be worthwhile to record the 11-piece group in arrangements by Chevallier and Michelot, providing solo opportunities for such able musicians as those mentioned above, particularly Pepper and Perkins. Such an LP, with four tunes to a side, could eliminate some of the flaws inherent in this collection.

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Liner Notes by Russ Wilson

It would be pleasant to be able to write that Richard Bock, the chief panjandrum of Pacific Jazz Enterprises, heard Chet Baker playing with a big band years ago and thereupon resolved to some day record him in this context—as he has done so felicitously in the present album. The fact is, however, that when Chet was part of the big band scene not a single recording company was setting up mikes and tape machines to impound his blowing for posterity. This is understandable when you consider that the groups with which the young hornman was associated were such as a junior high school orchestra and U.S. Army military bands.

Chet, who got his start in Yale (Oklahoma, that is) on December 23, 1929, became a Californian in 1940 when his family moved to the Los Angeles area. He began playing in junior high and within only a few years came to national attention of sorts. That was when the draft board pulled his number from the barrel. This stroke of good fortune eventually landed Baker in Berlin with the 298th Army Band. He is reputed to have been better than adequate as a member of the brass ensemble on Stars and Stripes Forever and When the Caissons Go Rolling Along. And his solo work on that rousing selection, Reveille, was so respected by those who heard it that literally hundreds rose to their feet.

All good things must, of course, come to an end, and in 1948 Chet was discharged. He enrolled at El Camino College in Los Angeles and among the courses for which he registered was one in theory and harmony. This was the first, and last, formal musical training which Baker had. Incidentally, he flunked the course!

Still determined to continue in music, Baker enlisted in the Army in 1950 in order that he might play with the Sixth Army Band at the San Francisco Presidio. During this two-year hitch Chet really started to dig jazz. He began sitting in nights at such San Francisco clubs as the Blackhawk and Bop City and also would make the Musicians Union hall on Saturdays to jam with whomever might be available. One among these was altoist Paul Desmond, who since has become a celebrity in his own right as a member of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Paul recalls that in those earlier days Chet was playing the flugelhorn, and playing it very well. It was during this same period, too, that Chet was a member of the pickup group which Charlie Parker fronted for several weekends in San Francisco.

After parting company with the Army in 1952, Chet returned to Los Angeles and was hired by Bock to join the off-night sessions he was staging at The Haig, with Gerry Mulligan as leader. This seedbed sprouted the Mulligan Quartet, a framework in which Chet grew within one year from a practically unknown jazz trumpeter to winner of both the Down Beat and Metronome polls as best on his instrument. With Mulligan’s temporary retirement from music in 1953 came establishment of the Chet Baker Quartet.

In September, 1955 Chet began a European tour which was scheduled for four months but which was stretched to eight, so responsive was Baker’s reception. (The highlights of this triumphal sojourn in the NATO countries are on Pacific Jazz LP 1218.) During this tour, the longest yet made by an American jazzman, Chet made some radio appearances with Kurt Edelhagen’s Orchestra. Several air checks of these performances subsequently came to the attention of Bock and Woody Woodward, general manager of Pacific Jazz Enterprises. Both immediately noted that Chet was playing in a much more aggressive manner than they ever had heard him employ. Out of this came the idea of recording Chet with groups which, while relatively small, still would produce a big band sound and provide a suitable showcase for Baker’s lustier blowing.

Herewith you have the result, and I believe you will find it one of the most intriguing albums Chet yet has made. Three of the tracks are done by an eleven-piece group. On the five other sides Chet leads a nonet.

Arrangements for the larger group were done by Jimmy “Little Bird” Heath, younger brother of the noted bassist, Percy Heath. Phil Urso, a regular member of Chet’s current quintet, provided the arrangements for Phil’s Blues and Worrying the Life Out of Me. One of the most active French jazzmen, Pierre Michelot, composed the title track Chet and arranged Dinah. The three other selections, V-Line, Not Too Slow, and Mythe, come from another European musician, Christian-Chevallier.

The arrangements not only capture the big band sound which was sought but, even more importantly, provide a variety of tonal textures, rhythmic patterns and tempos, along with ample solo space, which the top jazz artists who made this date exploit to the fullest.

In addition to Chet’s full-bodied sound, this album offers such tidbits as trombonist Burgess’ solos on Mythe and Chet; bassist Bond’s deft walking on Chet and V-Line; pianist Timmons’ delightful solo entrance on Phil’s Blues; and the manner in which A Foggy Day, Darn That Dream, and Tenderly build. There also are the solos of tenor-altoist Urso, baritonist Hood, and altoist Pepper (the latter on the Latin-tempoed Tenderly). Others who share the solo space are Graf, Waters, and Rosolino. And underneath it all is the support of a swinging rhythm section.

Adding everything up, there’s only one answer: a most listenable album.