Gérard Gustin

Gérard Gustin, born in Nice in 1930, initially trained in violin but soon found his true passion in the piano, particularly in the realm of jazz. His musical journey was shaped by encounters with notable musicians along the way. By 1955, Gustin’s talent caught the attention of Parisian audiences, and his trio performances solidified his reputation as one of the finest French pianists of his generation.

During this pivotal period, Gustin crossed paths with Chet Baker, leading to a memorable collaboration on the trumpeter’s second album for the Barclay label. This partnership showcased Gustin’s exceptional piano skills, revealing a distinctive musical language influenced by jazz luminaries like Horace Silver and George Wallington, yet marked by his own unique flair and creativity.

In January 1956, Barclay took a significant step in recognizing Gustin’s talent by recording him for a debut 10-inch album. Leading a trio with guitarist Sacha Distel and bassist Gilbert Gassin, Gustin’s compositions and performances highlighted his innate abilities as both a pianist and a composer.

As Gustin shifted towards popular music and embraced theworld of show business, his jazz legacy began to fade into the background. Despite his undeniable talent, he didn’t attain the same level of recognition in jazz circles as some of his peers. Nevertheless, Gérard Gustin stayed committed to his musical craft until his passing in 1994, leaving behind a rich and varied musical legacy that resonated across multiple generations. *Jordi Pujol*

Gérard Gustin Trio

And 

The Chet Baker Quartet with Gérard Gustin

Gérard Gustin isn't very well known by American jazz fans. The French jazz pianist is best known for accompanying Chet Baker on the second Chet Baker Quartet album for the French Barclay album while Baker was in Paris in October of 1955. Now Fresh Sound records has combined that album with Trio Gérard Gustin for Barclay in 1956, on a remastered release.

Gustin wasn't as well known as many other French 1950s jazz pianists such as Martial Solal, René Urtreger, Antoine Hervé, Eddy Louiss and Henri Renaud, but that was largely due to his brief jazz career.

A student at the Nice Conservatory after World War II, Gustin fell in love with jazz after hearing records by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell. By 1949 and '50, he was gigging on the French Riviera. He went into the French Army in the early 1950s.

Stationed in Marseilles for 18 months, he performed in clubs nightly and became friendly with many French jazz musicians in the city. Throughout the early 1950s Gustin went where there was work in France. In March 1955, he settled in Paris, where he worked and met Chet Baker, who asked him to record with him on his second 12-inch Barclay LP.

The following year, Eddy Barclay decided to record Gustin with his trio on a 10-inch LP. The group featured Sacha Distel on guitar and Gilbert Gassin on bass. Nearly two years passed before the album was released, in the fall of 1957. By then, jazz was no longer a career path for Gustin. Instead, he leaned into French pop by playing piano for three years in Aimé Barelli's orchestra, which accompanied many marquee U.S. pop singers on tour in Paris.

From 1963 to 1971, Gustin collaborated with Sacha Distel, who by then had put down his guitar for a successful singing and hosting career. Gustin accompanied Distel on tours and was the musical director of Distel's weekly television program, Le Sacha Show. He also composed upward of 450 French songs.

Gustin had an interesting way of opening many songs on his trio album with a classical baroque approach before springing into swing. He also had a nice touch with Baker.

Gérard Gustin died in May 1994. *Marc Myers*

1 - Y'a Qu'ça De Vraie

(Gerard Gustin)

2 - Autumn In New York

(Vernon Duke)

3 - Equation

(Gérard Gustin)

4 - Lover Man

(Davis, Ramirez, Sherman)

5 - For You, For Me, For Evermore

(George Gershwin)

6 - There's A Small Hotel

(Rodgers, Hart)

7 - "Greek" Gone Crazy

(Gérard Gustin)

8 - These Foolish Things

(Strachey, Link, Marvell)

9 - Lookin' For A Boy

(George Gershwin)

10 - I'll Remember April

(Raye, de Paul, Johnston)

11 - Romano's Dilemma

(Gérard Gustin)

12 - Summertime

(Gershwin, Heyward)

13 - Autumn Nocturne

(Joseph Myrow)

14 - You Go To My Head

(Coots, Gillespie)

15 - Somebody Loves Me

(George Gershwin)

16 - Tenderly

(Gross, Lawrence)

Trio Gérard Gustin

#1, #3, #5, #7, #9, #11, #13, # 15, from the album Trio Gérard Gustin (Barclay 84.041)

Gérard Gustin (piano), Sacha Distel (guitar), Gilbert Gassin (bass).

Recorded at Pathé-Magellan Studio, Paris, January 1956.

Gérard Gustin with The Chet Baker Quartet

 #2, #4, #6, #8, #10, #12, #14, #16, from the album Chet Baker Quartet (Barclay 84.017)

Chet Baker (trumpet), Gérard Gustin (piano),

Jimmy Bond (bass), Nils-Bertil "Bert" Dahlander (drums).

Recorded at Pathé-Magellan Studio, Paris, October 24, 1955.

Chet Baker - Big Band

It would be pleasant to be able to write that Rickard Bock, the chief panjandrum of  Pacific Jazz Enterprizes, 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 felicitiously 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.

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.  During this tour, the longest yet made by an American jazzman, Chet made some radio appearances with Kurt Edelhagan'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 nontet.

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.

Adding everything up, there’s only one answer: a most listenable album. *Russ Wilson (liner notes)*

These tracks — essentially by two different sized groups, one of nine and one of 11 musicians — presented Chet to an American record-buying public in an unfamiliar setting, given that hitherto his producer Richard Bock had unstintingly promoted Baker's small group persona. But Chet's lengthy 1955-56 stint in Europe had teamed him up with Kurt Edelhagen's orchestra and more tellingly with a Parisian octet for Barclay Records. Hearing these discs, and realising he had missed a trick, Bock celebrated the trumpeter's return to the West Coast with this pair of sessions, that put his uncharacteristically aggressive trumpet at the head of these larger ensembles. Some of the charts are by Baker's regular small group colleague Phil Urso, some by Jimmy Heath, and some —the least conventional— by the French bassist Pierre Michelot, who had played on the Barclay sessions.

Not surprisingly, Michelot's composition "Chet" makes much of Bond's skilled bass playing, but there are also fine moments crafted to show off Bob Burgess's trombone in this and Michelot's other piece, "Mythe". *Alyn Shipton*

Releasing an entire album under the moniker Chet Baker Big Band is a bit of a misnomer, as only the first four sides actually incorporate an 11-person configuration. The remaining tracks from the long-player feature a slightly smaller nonet configuration. Among the luminaries joining Baker (trumpet) and participating in the big-band arrangements are Art Pepper (alto sax), Bud Shank (alto sax), Phil Urso (tenor sax), and Bobby Timmons (piano). The critical argument proposing that Baker's style is more akin to bop —and the residual post-bop— than the West Coast cool that he is often connected with gets tremendous validation throughout not only the four big-band tracks, but also the remainder of the album. The band bops with tremendous verve behind Baker's unmistakable leads. Jimmy Heath's ultrahip arrangements —especially of "Tenderly" and "A Foggy Day"— allow the soloists to improvise fluidly from within the context of the larger unit. The Pierre Michelot composition "Mythe" is notable for some outstanding soloing from Baker and Timmons. It is a shame that poor master tape editing —a motif that haunts many Dick Bock productions— mars the overall aesthetic. Of the nonet sides, the band really jumps and responds best to the original compositions such as Phil Urso's "Phil's Blues" and "V-Line". The horn blend on these recordings is likewise striking. *Lindsay Planer*

Side 1

1 - A Foggy Day

(George and  Ira Gershwin)

2 - Mythe

(C. H. Chevallier)

3 - Worrying The Life Out Of Me

(Mole, Signorelli, Russell)

4 - Chet

(Pierre Michelot)

5 - Not Too Slow

(C. H. Chevallier)

Side 2

6 - Phil's Blues

(Phil Urso)

7 - Darn That Dream

(DeLange, Van Heusen)

8 - Dinah

(Lewis, Young, Akst)

9 - V-Line

(C. H. Chevallier)

10 - Tenderly

(Gross, Lawrence)

#2, #4, #5, #6, #8, #9:

Chet Baker (trumpet), Bob Burgess (trombone), Phil Urso (alto and tenor saxes), Bob Graf (tenor sax), Fred Waters (alto sax), Bill Hood (baritone sax), Bobby Timmons (piano), Jimmy Bond (bass), Peter Littman (drums).

Recorded in Los Angeles, California, October 18, 1956.

#3:

Chet Baker (trumpet), Bob Burgess (trombone), Phil Urso (alto and tenor saxes), Bob Graf (tenor sax), Fred Waters (alto sax), Bill Hood (baritone sax), Bobby Timmons (piano), Jimmy Bond (bass), James McKean (drums).

Recorded in Los Angeles, California, October 19, 1956.

#1, #7, #10:

Chet Baker, Conte Candoli, Norman Faye (trumpets); Frank Rosolino (trombone); Art Pepper, Bud Shank (alto saxes); Bill Perkins, Phil Urso (tenor saxes); Bobby Timmons (piano); Jimmy Bond (bass); Lawrence Marable (drums).

Recorded in Los Angeles, California, October 26, 1956.