This is a very solid recording from Chet. If it had been released at the time he was winning Downbeat polls as the top trumpet player it would have probably been a best seller. But the fact that it surfaced almost 40 years later makes it all the more poignant. It's almost like he came back from the dead as the Chet Baker of the 1950s!

Chet was close to the top of his game when this recording was made. But the stripped down nature of this ensemble also has him playing and singing with the understated quality he assumed after years of being beat down by heroin, but here he had his full chops. These recordings are also of great quality -- the sounds is about as good as you can get (great sound quality with little tape noise).

My nephew, Henry, aged 13, gave me EMBRACEABLE YOU for my 64th birthday, assuming that since Chet and I were kinda the same generation I would be tickled to get these previously unreleased numbers. Henry didn't realize that I had no Baker in my music library. I'd vaguely enjoyed him in the 1950s but hadn't collected him. I was stunned and ecstatic and tremendously grateful to Henry. The world must be catching up with Chet because (Henry is a musician) many of the very young afficianados have discovered him big time. My only complaint is that the disc is fragile and already marred- I wish this were available on tape also. Does anyone know if it might be?

Woaa! That's great music! Bapsi, I am right with you, hope, we can sing these songs together