As Gerald Heard notes in the original liner text, it’s hard to tell whether Chet Baker was a trumpet player who sang or a singer who played trumpet. When the California trumpeter began his vocal career in 1954 at just 24, it felt like something genuinely new. His voice carried the same delicacy and clarity as his trumpet playing, with that bright, vibrato-free tone that made him stand apart from every jazz singer who came before him.

His first vocal session, recorded in February 1954 and heard here on tracks seven through 14, has an innocence that still feels striking. The first six tracks on the album, recorded in July 1956, lean even further into that tender, almost impossibly gentle mood, helped along by material like Frank Loesser’s I've Never Been in Love Before and My Buddy by Donaldson and Kahn.

The earlier session is where this record really settles into its own atmosphere. Performances of My Funny Valentine, often considered the definitive reading of this widely recorded song, and There Will Never Be Another You are especially strong. The stripped-back setting of trumpet, piano, bass and drums gives Baker exactly the space he needs, and that low-key approach is part of what makes the record endure.

Even with a few softer choices in the songbook, Chet Baker Sings remains a cornerstone of West Coast cool jazz and a record that still sounds intimate, singular and quietly captivating.