Billboard : 01/21/1956
Score of 79

This was taped from a concert session at the University of Michigan in 1954, which accounts for the unusually “live” atmosphere of the proceedings. The boys were blowing for an appreciative and excited audience, a fact that brought out their best. A swinging piece of cool wax, definitely worth an ear.

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Madison Capital Times
J.B. : 01/09/1956

Every first week in May there is a music festival at the University of Michigan. Almost always emphasis is placed on classical concerts. A few friends of jazz, however, have brought in jazz greats in recent years to satisfy all tastes in music. On May 9, 1954, Chet Baker‘s quartet presented a show and Pacific Jazz Inc. waxed the performance and called it Jazz at Ann Arbor. Baker’s trumpet, Russ Freeman‘s piano, Carson Smith‘s bass and Bob Neel‘s drum generally sparkle on eight tunes on this LP. When they swing, they play beautifully, as on My Old Flame and Stella by Starlight. When they attempt progressive stylings, it’s something else again, at least for this reviewer.

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Miami Herald
Fred Sherman : 01/29/1956

A happy album is the Baker Quartet playing jazz at Ann Arbor. It is an on-stage recording of the concert played at the University of Michigan. Those who like the music won’t be bothered by the crowd noises. And those who don’t like it will be confounded by the loud applause.

Baker gets strong rhythm backing from Russ Freeman on piano, Carson Smith on bass and Bob Neel on drums. Three of the numbers were written and arranged by Freeman. Sometimes Baker’s trumpet wanders off into a foggy land of fragile sound (in the Lover Man and My Funny Valentine bands) but Freeman, Neel and Smith always pull him back to reality.

The quartet really moves in the Stella by Starlight bit. It is as good a solid jazz beat as you’ll find, east or west.

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Virginian-Pilot
Robert C. Smith : 02/26/1956

Chet Baker‘s trumpet sound is soft, warm, intensely controlled, and highly refined. In Jazz at Ann Arbor, Chet’s quartet is caught in a May 9, 1954 concert on the Michigan campus and Chet is playing well. It may be a mistake to re-record numbers like Line for Lyons, written by Mulligan and clearly missing Gerry’s booming second voice. But Russ Freeman, Carson Smith, and Bob Neel do a nice job, and Baker creates a hauntingly new Funny Valentine, and a soulful Lover Man. This is lively and highly recommended for Baker fans.

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Down Beat : 03/07/1956
Nat Hentoff : 3 stars

Jazz at Ann Arbor was recoded in May, 1954, in that University of Michigan town. Russ Freeman‘s angular piano, Carson Smith‘s well nourished bass, and Bob Neel‘s drums (which could swing more) completed the quartet. Baker sounds better in the ballads where, although his conception and execution are small in scale, he has a sustained lyricism and a tone quality that’s more consistent than elsewhere.

But on the up-tempos, he lacks (as of 1954) the ability to express deeply driving emotions; he doesn’t flow or create memorable climaxes, and his sense of dynamics is very limited. On some of the up-tempos – like Maid in Mexico, Headline, and Russ Job – there’s also a degree of closed-in cuteness in Baker’s playing as well as in the writing itself.

Worst flaw on the record is Stella, taken at a tempo and played by all with a conception that indicates no consciousness of what the song is about. Freeman, by the way, sounds better on the ballads, too, in this set, though he’s usually much more convincing on swingers than Chet.

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Liner Notes by Ollie McLaughlin

Since 1880 the month of May has traditionally been dedicated to music in Ann Arbor, the setting of the University of Michigan’s annual May Festival of classical works. Like so many other college and university towns throughout the country, Ann Arbor has customarily offered only the classics. Those interested in retaining and developing a musical perspective, or simply looking for swinging jazz off the record, have had to seek the sounds elsewhere.

Realizing that this musical bill of fare was not quite the fulfillment of popular taste, we set out to arrange some concerts of jazz – not to be confused with the occasional “jazz packages” that blow in and out of the area. The first of these was a concert by Dave Brubeck and his group, which resulted in five out of the seven tunes on Columbia’s Jazz Goes To College album.

Then Chet Baker came to town on May 9, 1954 – a concert date that is likely to become a jazz milestone. In the last three years Chet Baker has earned the reputation as one of the most important young trumpet men on the progressive scene. Starting with the release of the first Gerry Mulligan Quartet album, Chet has won acclaim throughout the jazz world. His fresh concepts have deservedly brought him many awards and an increasing number of followers. In this album, Chet Baker is no longer simply the promising artist, but a jazz great. I sincerely believe that this performance represents a high point for Chet and for the men in the quartet.

This Mother’s Day concert was one of the first appearance by Chet fronting his own group, a quartet complemented by Russ Freeman, piano; Carson Smith, bass; and Bob Neel, drums. Russ Freeman, always a fine musician, swings to an extent that has never before been recorded. Carson Smith’s beautiful perpetuation of beat and well-developed changes move the group as one. The final synthesis is accomplished by drummer Bob Neel. Altogether, this is as swinging a quartet as it has been my privilege to hear.

When you have heard these sides, I am sure that you will be as thrilled as those at the concert, so let these eight samples be your introduction to something truly exciting in jazz.

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Ollie McLaughlin, broadcasting from station WHRV in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is the first, and only, jazz disc-jockey in that area. He has maintained an interest in modern jazz since its inception, and has constantly worked to bring the great jazzmen to the fans, in person.

As far back as 1947 and 1948, Ollie was holding dances and concerts featuring names like Sarah Vaughan, Buddy Rich, Count Basie, Woody Herman, Duke Ellington, Stan Getz, Lester Young and a host of others. He was one of the nation’s few promoters to sign up the Bird and Diz group, and later brought in Diz’s big band. More recently, in a further effort to bring jazz to the people, he has featured Brubeck, Louis Armstrong, and, of course, Chet Baker.

“If people could hear jazz often enough, in person and on records, perhaps more and more of them could begin to accept and understand it.” That’s the idea Ollie works from; with a three hour record show every night, where he can play just as much jazz as he wishes, and with concerts like the one here recorded, it is inevitable that more people will learn to enjoy jazz music.