042: The Route, by Art Pepper and Chet Baker

Art Pepper and Chet Baker (USA)
The Route (1989)
11 tracks, 53 minutes
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Chet Baker isn’t too well-regarded in the world of jazz, as far as my experiences tell me. Even when he is recognised, it’s often his earnest and naïve vocal style that receives the lion’s share of people’s attention, but I think it’s a shame to forget his chops as a trumpeter, which can clearly be heard on this album. Maybe he couldn’t compete with Miles or Lee Morgan, but there’s no doubt that he holds his own alongside the wonderful altoist Art Pepper on this record.

It’s quite an easy listen – it doesn’t contain the technical intensity of the slightly later hard-bop and so doesn’t require that same intensity of listening. It’s still a progression from classic bebop but without pushing towards free jazz or ultra-modality, and also without too many ballads which tend to bog me down. That doesn’t take anything away from it, though, you don’t want to have a furrowed brow every single time you listen to jazz. Instead, it’s mostly quite jolly and light-hearted without lacking any of the cool. Just think of it as listening on easy mode.

This album is technically a compilation, although it holds a stronger claim to albumhood than most. All eleven tracks were recorded in one session but never released as a whole album, instead scattered throughout various compilations around the time, or else never being released at all. So from being recorded in one day in July 1956, it actually took until 1989 to actually be released as an album, perhaps as a cash-in on Baker’s death a year earlier (and Art’s wasn’t that long ago, either). Whether this release really was so cynical or whether that’s just me, it’s good that it exists; a record of a hot one-day session and a meeting between two greats still in the beginnings of their careers.