Chet Baker & Art Pepper - The real birth of "Playboys"

Chet Baker & Art Pepper

The Route

Dick Bock, owner and producer of Pacific Jazz Records, had some strange habits. Among them were switching takes when a tune went from 10" lp to 12" lp. Often he would gather together anthologies of unreleased material from various artists and various sessions. On the occasion of this Baker-Pepper sextet date, which actually has its players working in a variety of combinations, an album was never realized. Instead, various tracks would emerge on various anthologies in the late fifties. Releasing these performances in such scattered form over time gave the session a status of almost non-existence. To make matters worse, some tunes kept reappearing on new anthologies in shorter and shorter forms through editing.

Just three months after this session, Bock brought Baker and Pepper together again in a sextet format. The rest of the personnel was different. The repertoire consisted of re-recordings of Pepper's "Tynan Time" and "Minor Yours" and four compositions written and arranged by Jimmy Heath. That date, released in its entirety as PLAYBOYS, was carefully planned and structured to be an album. Baker and Pepper were at the top of their creative powers and the results were superb. The session at hand is no less brilliant, but when you look at the totality of the work, there is no unifying thread, just fabulous music.

Perhaps at the time, the varied contents of this session dictated its fate of scattered release. But it is not a fate that it deserved. Having that day reconstructed on one disc is not only a tribute to the brilliance and range of its participants, but also to jazz itself. *Michael Cuscuna (liner notes)*

This 1989 CD issue compiles all known sides cut during a July 26, 1956, session led by Chet Baker (trumpet) and Art Pepper (alto sax). Keen-eyed enthusiasts will note that this particular date occurred during a remarkable week -- July 23 through July 31 -- of sessions held at the behest of Pacific Jazz label owner and session producer Dick Bock at the Forum Theater in Los Angeles. The recordings made during this week not only inform The Route, but three other long-players as well: Lets Get Lost (The Best of Chet Baker Sings), Chet Baker and Crew, and Chet Baker Quintet at the Forum Theatre. Likewise, these were the first sides cut by Baker since returning from his triumphant and extended stay in Europe. The Route compiles all 11 tracks by the sextet featuring Richie Kamuca (tenor sax), Pete Jolly (piano), Leroy Vinnegar (bass), and Stan Levey (drums) in support of Baker and Pepper. Bock had no immediate plans to use these recordings for any one album; that is to say he incorporated the tracks throughout various compilations released on Pacific Jazz. Three months later, however, Baker and Pepper did record with completely different personnel for the expressed purpose of issuing what would become known as Playboys and alternately Picture of Heath. Perhaps encouraged by the swinging interaction on Pepper's "Tynan Time" and "Minor Yours", both tracks were featured at this session as well as during the Picture of Heath collaboration. There are a few unexpected moments of sheer brilliance spread throughout, such as the Baker-penned title track, which contains supple and nicely contrasting solos from Kamuca and Vinnegar -- whose solid pendulum accuracy swings all through this collection. The Route is recommended for completists as well as curious consumers wishing to expand their knowledge of the light and airy rhythms that typify the cool West Coast jazz scene of the mid-'50s. *Lindsay Planer*

1 - Tynan Time

(Pepper)

2 - The Route

(Baker)

3 - Sonny Boy

(Jolson, De Sylva, Brown, Henderson)

4 - Minor Yours

(Pepper)

5 - Little Girl

(Henry, Hyde)

6 - Ol' Croix

(Pepper)

7 - I Can't Give You Anything But Love

(McHugh, Fields)

8 - The Great Lie

(Gibbon, Calloway)

9 - Sweet Lorraine

(Burwell, Parrish)

10 - If I Should Love You

(Robin, Rainger)

11 - Younger Than Springtime

(Rodgers, Hammerstein)

Chet Baker (trumpet), Art Pepper (alto sax), Richie Kamuca (tenor sax), Pete Jolly (piano), Leroy Vinnegar (bass), Stan Levey (drums).

Recorded at Forum Theatre, Los Angeles, California, July 26, 1956.