(01) Chet Baker - For Lovers (Jazz Images 38053, EU) (3 CD)
(02) Chet Baker - Gerry Mulligan - Original Quartet (Jazz Images 38054, EU) (2 CD)
(03) Chen Baker - Chet Baker and Crew (Jazz Images 38055, EU) (2 CD)
(04) Chet Baker - In New York (Jazz Image 38056, EU)
(05) Chet Baker - Sings. The Complete Sessions (Jazz Image 38057, EU)
(06) Chet Baker - My Funny Valentine (Jazz Image 38058, EU)
(07) Chet Baker - Chet Baker & Russ Freeman Quartet (Jazz Image 38059, EU) (2 CD)
(08) Chet Baker - Strings & Ensemble (Jazz Image 38060, EU) (2 CD)
(09) Chet Baker - Live at Ann Arbor (Jazz Image 38061, EU)
(10) Chet Baker - Sextet & Quartet (Jazz Image 38062, EU)
(11) Chet Baker - Picture Of Heath (Jazz Image 38063, EU)
(12) Chet Baker - Angel Eyes (Jazz Image 38064, EU)


Beautifully presented in a set of 12 boxes, whose spines combine to create one of William Claxton's iconic portraits of Chet Baker complete with Cadillac and trumpet, and collectively spelling out ‘C-HE-T-B-A-K-E-R’ interspersed with a trumpet logo, this is an attempt to draw together the main corpus of Chet's work across his first decade. Each CD is appropriately accompanied by more of Claxton's atmospheric photos, on the front of the packaging and in the accompanying booklet. There is some duplication of tracks across the set, as the opening box, entitled For Lovers, has vocals and instrumentals that appear elsewhere, serving as a taster for the entire collection. This is a shame, as it might have been good instead for the complete package to have included a few more unusual tracks such as the 1955 sessions with Dick Twardzik, or the 1952 sides with Charlie Parker and Sonny Criss. That said, the set is pretty broad-ranging, with few of the gaps apparent in the two Avid collections reviewed in the May Jazzwise. Hence we have the original piano-less Mulligan Quartet studio recordings in a 2CD box that combines the Pacific and Fantasy material. We have the complete Chet Baker Sings and all the Russ Freeman quartet sides that were cut in the studio, plus their celebrated Ann Arbor concert. Then we have the New York sides from 1958-59, both the ones with Bill Evans and with Al Haig, plus the West Coast Art Pepper collaborations, and the 1959 Italian sessions. The collection is rounded off with Chet with strings, his big band, and the solos with (among others) the orchestras of Ennio Morricone and Rolf Hans Müller. If the Avid sets forced a reevaluation of his trumpet playing, this bumper package makes one look at his singing and playing in an even broader context. Yes, it's uneven, as might be expected by anyone who's read Jim Gavin's warts-and-all biography, Deep In A Dream, but after listening through the decade's worth of music contained here, his lyrical artistry as a trumpeter is beyond doubt, and he often achieves that rare heady space where beauty and invention combine to create truly immortal music