Chet Baker - Stairway to the Stars (1996)

During a three-day period in 1965, trumpeter Chet Baker (who during the era was exclusively playing flugelhorn) recorded five albums for Prestige that were soon forgotten, despite their quality. In 1997, the entire program was reissued on three CDs (which also include Lonely Star and On a Misty Night), showing that Baker was in excellent form at the time. Chet is teamed with tenor saxophonist George Coleman, pianist Kirk Lightsey (in top form), bassist Herman Wright and drummer Roy Brooks; the one-time gathering group on the whole sometimes recalls the Miles Davis Quintet of 1956. There are some occasional missteps (Baker gets a bit lost during the rapid rendition of "Cherokee" that opens this CD), but overall, the music (some light swingers and a few more heated tracks) is quite rewarding. Producer Richard Carpenter (Baker's manager at the time and best known for writing "Walkin'") contributed three songs to this set (and 13 others to the other two CDs), which also includes three jazz standards, a few obscurities, and three Tadd Dameron originals. Enjoyable straight-ahead music.