The album features possibly Baker’s best group up to that point pianist Kenny Drew (from a jazz point of view the star of the show) and the driving, flexible rhythm section of George Morrow (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums) - but there’s relatively little trumpet. In short, he was famous in a way that transcended jazz and occasionally earned the derision of some of his peers – most notably his hero Miles Davis, who accepted the younger player’s talent but also noted his marketable whiteness and his willingness to take his music into more commercial directions, just when jazz was caught in a pincer movement between the popularity of singers like Frank Sinatra on the one hand and the emergence of rock ‘n’ roll on the other.īaker’s tenure with Riverside began both brilliantly and slightly frustratingly in October 1958 with (Chet Baker Sings) It Could Happen to You, which reinforces to some extent the modern idea of Baker as Vanilla Ice to Miles’ Public Enemy. By the time Chet Baker signed to the Riverside label in 1958, the 29-year-old trumpeter/singer was one of the brightest stars in the jazz firmament, having played on a mind-boggling number of records as both sideman and leader since his debut with Gerry Mulligan in 1952, as well as taking his own band around the world and even appearing in a Hollywood movie.

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