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The tracks featured on "Chet Baker & Crew" are part of recordings made during the last week of July 1956 in a fruitfully nervous rush - fresh after an extended trip to Europe. The crew on these sides includes Phil Urso (tenor sax), Bobby Timmons (piano), Jimmy Bond (bass), Peter Littman (drums) and, of course, Baker (trumpet, vocals). Joining the combo on both the original recording and the alternate takes of "To Mickey's Memory" and "Pawnee Junction" is Bill Loughbrough (chromatic tympani). His distinctive drum accents and tuned drum solos give these West Coast bop tunes unique Polynesian elements.
The band members take full advantage of their individual roles and skills as soloists to make tracks like "Slightly Above Moderate" and "Halema," whose composition we owe to Urso and which is named after Baker's wife, extended excursions. We hear this chemistry of coolness flowing between Urso and Baker perhaps most beautifully in the rampant exchanges in "Worryin' The Live Out Of Me." Bobby Timmons boasts notable contributions throughout the LP, his playful, debauched style shaping the blues-tinged "Lucius Lu" as well as "Line Vor Lions," among others. The latter is also notable for being Baker's only vocal number on this disc.
This reissue of "Chet Baker & Crew" supplements the original eight-track Pacific LP, so that it now includes all 14 tracks recorded at the three sessions held in late July at the Forum Theater, Los Angeles.
Chet Baker (tp, voc); Phil Urso (ts); Bobby Timmons (p); Jimmy Bond (b); Peter Littman (dr); Bill Loughbrough (timpani)
Side 1
1. To Mickey's Memory
2. Slightly Above Moderate
3. Halema
4. Revelation
Side 2
1. Something For Liza
2. Lucius Lu
3. Worrying The Life Out Of Me
4. Medium Rock
Side 3
1. To Mickey's Memory (Alternate Take)
2. Jumpin' Off a Clef
3. Chippyin'
Side 4
1. Pawnee Junction
2. Music To Dance By
3. Line For Lyons