account
basket
Challenge Records Int. logo
Two Portraits of Chet Baker

Fay Claassen

Two Portraits of Chet Baker

Format: CD
Label: Jazz 'N Pulz
UPC: 0742451549720
Catnr: BMCD 497
Release date: 25 April 2008
Notify when available
2 CD
Notify when available
 
Label
Jazz 'N Pulz
UPC
0742451549720
Catalogue number
BMCD 497
Release date
25 April 2008

""With her slightly husky, vibrato-free sound, excellent timing and phrasing, she greatly succeeds"  "

Destentor, 14-10-2013
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
Press
EN

About the album

Downbeat: A mega-production without equal. The hard grind for this exceptional double album has in every respect extremely fresh interpretations and solo contributions. Jazz Times: This is an astonishing two disc album. Fay Claassen dominates both Cds. Claassen replaces Baker's trumpet revealing her amazing skill at phrasing.

Artist(s)

Fay Claassen (vocals)

Fay Claassen (vocals) Fay recorded her own albums together with many international musicians such as Mike Stern, Kenny Werner, Toots Thielemands, and she was invited as soloist for many CD recordings by the WDR Big Band, Bob Brookmeyers New Art Orchestra, the Millennium Jazz Orchestra and the Danish Radio Big Band. She cooperated with well known conducters and arrangers such as Jim Mc Neely, Vince Mendoza and Michael Abene. Fay was rewarded with The Golden Record for her double album Two Portraits of Chet Baker. Jazz Times USA wrote about this cd: ’An Astonishing Album’, Down Beat: ‘A mega-production with extremely solo contributions’. In the Winners Poll of All About Jazz USA the album was proclaimed as ‘Best Vocal Album of the...
more
Fay Claassen (vocals) Fay recorded her own albums together with many international musicians such as Mike Stern, Kenny Werner, Toots Thielemands, and she was invited as soloist for many CD recordings by the WDR Big Band, Bob Brookmeyers New Art Orchestra, the Millennium Jazz Orchestra and the Danish Radio Big Band.
She cooperated with well known conducters and arrangers such as Jim Mc Neely, Vince Mendoza and Michael Abene. Fay was rewarded with The Golden Record for her double album Two Portraits of Chet Baker. Jazz Times USA wrote about this cd: ’An Astonishing Album’, Down Beat: ‘A mega-production with extremely solo contributions’.
In the Winners Poll of All About Jazz USA the album was proclaimed as ‘Best Vocal Album of the Year’. Moreover, for other albums Fay received a Grammy longlistnomination and an Edison Award. In 2011 her succesfully cd SING! with the WDR Big Band and the WDR Rundfunk Orchester conducted and arranged by Michael Abene was presented. As guest soloist Fay was often invited by the Metropole Orkest and Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw. Her effortless skill of improvisation not only brought her on stages in Europe, but also in Japan, China and the U.S.A.
less

Hein Van de Geyn (double bass)

HEIN VAN DE GEYN (1956) studied classical violin for 15 years, playing pop and blues on guitar, and changed to bass-guitar in. his late teens. Soon Hein played in dixieland-bands, but with his self formed bebop group he got awarded 'best soloist' on the 1977 Laren Jazz festival. This made him pick up the double bass, and start a career as jazz musician. In 1980 Hein moved to the USA, played and recorded with many great musicians and in 1983 returned to Europe to become one of the most sought after bass players. In 1990 Hein made the first album under his own name, a duo with Lee Konitz. Hein toured and recorded with Philip Catherine, Chet Baker and many...
more
HEIN VAN DE GEYN (1956) studied classical violin for 15 years, playing pop and blues on guitar, and changed to bass-guitar in. his late teens. Soon Hein played in dixieland-bands, but with his self formed bebop group he got awarded "best soloist" on the 1977 Laren Jazz festival. This made him pick up the double bass, and start a career as jazz musician. In 1980 Hein moved to the USA, played and recorded with many great musicians and in 1983 returned to Europe to become one of the most sought after bass players. In 1990 Hein made the first album under his own name, a duo with Lee Konitz. Hein toured and recorded with Philip Catherine, Chet Baker and many years with Dee Dee Bridgewater until he decided in 1996 to pursue his own career as a leader and a bass-teacher. On some 80 records his name can be found as composer, arranger or solo bass player. In 1994 he created his group BASELINE with John Abercrombie and Joe LaBarbara and co-founded with Anne de Jong and Joost Leijen the Jazz label CHALLENGE JAZZ , for which he is still producing a growing number of successful recordings. He received the Bird Award and the prestigious Prins Bernhard Fonds Music Prize (for the stimulation of young musicians and his merit for European Jazz in general) and was elected as "Best European Acoustic Bass Player".

less

Karel Boehlee (piano)

Karel Boehlee is perhaps Holland's best-kept secret. I remember hearing him play in the early eighties, when I just returned from the United States. He was the first pianist of this kind of modern class I had ever heard in Holland. And on what level! Over the years Karel has improved and improved. The lines became more thoughtful, the harmony more precise; the rhythm was always very strong, but became larger, more in the pocket. Yet underneath all these ingredients there was always something more powerful: the sound! Karel's sound is unique; his touch just seems to reach you right in the centre of where music enters the soul. With impeccable taste Karel will always come up with something fresh,...
more
Karel Boehlee is perhaps Holland's best-kept secret. I remember hearing him play in the early eighties, when I just returned from the United States. He was the first pianist of this kind of modern class I had ever heard in Holland. And on what level! Over the years Karel has improved and improved. The lines became more thoughtful, the harmony more precise; the rhythm was always very strong, but became larger, more in the pocket. Yet underneath all these ingredients there was always something more powerful: the sound! Karel's sound is unique; his touch just seems to reach you right in the centre of where music enters the soul. With impeccable taste Karel will always come up with something fresh, something his own and makes it sound so good.
So why is he a well kept secret? Well, Karel is a real player; he simply loves to go out and play. He will play with his old pals in little cafés, he will play with young and upcoming musicians, he will play with the best pop singers. Karel is a musician at heart. And the business doesn't know how to deal with this. The business wants exclusivity, wants to put a label on someone, wants an image. And somehow Karel is not playing that game. He is not chasing record deals; he is not showing his face at the right spots at the right time, he doesn't search for journalists to do interviews with him. He is busy doing what a musician should do: play music! It takes people with a broader outlook to recognise Karel's sublimity. He has recorded seven CD's for a Japanese label; they keep coming back. Karel is the favourite pianist of the legendary Toots Thielemans. Karel is loved by wonderful Dutch pop singer Trijntje Oosterhuis, who will seek him out whenever there is a chance. Real people know that behind this humble appearance a great pianist is residing.
less

John Engels (drums)

Jan Menu (bariton saxophone)

Jan Wessels (trumpet)

Composer(s)

Chet Baker

Chet Baker was born Chesney Henry Baker Jr. on December 23, 1929 in Yale, Oklahoma. His father, Chesney Sr. was a guitarist who played in local country and western bands. When Chet was 10, the family moved to Southern California. Chesney Sr., encouraging his son to pursue music, bought Chet a trombone. The 12 year old found it difficult to handle, so he eventually switched to trumpet. He played trumpet through junior high school, and on through college. In 1946 he was drafted into the Army, and played in the Army band in Berlin. After returning home, Baker continued his music education at El Camino College. In 1952 he won an audition with Charlie Parker, then went on to join Gerry...
more

Chet Baker was born Chesney Henry Baker Jr. on December 23, 1929 in Yale, Oklahoma. His father, Chesney Sr. was a guitarist who played in local country and western bands. When Chet was 10, the family moved to Southern California. Chesney Sr., encouraging his son to pursue music, bought Chet a trombone. The 12 year old found it difficult to handle, so he eventually switched to trumpet. He played trumpet through junior high school, and on through college.
In 1946 he was drafted into the Army, and played in the Army band in Berlin. After returning home, Baker continued his music education at El Camino College. In 1952 he won an audition with Charlie Parker, then went on to join Gerry Mulligan's pianoless quartet. The group performed regularly at The Haig in Hollywood. In 1953, Baker formed his own band featuring Russ Freeman on piano. The Chet Baker Quartet toured and recorded with great success. As the decade came to a close, Chet was addicted to heroin and his life was filled with arrests and scandals.
Chet Baker spent most of the sixties in Europe, recording infrequently and getting in to trouble frequently. He made some very notable recordings in the early part of the decade (such as the Prestige recordings from 1965), sometimes switching to flugelhorn. But the late sixties found him recording some dreadful music, and eventually he had given up playing after losing most of his upper teeth. Years of drug use had taken their toll on Chet's teeth, and in July of 1966 he was attacked, and his teeth were damaged further.
In the early 1970's, Chet Baker began to learn how to play with dentures. Beginning in 1974, Chet recorded and toured regularly, mostly in Europe. Despite the effects of age, drugs and false teeth, he actually improved in those later years. Chet's performances in the eighties were unpredictable. Sometimes he would show up and perform the best gig of his career. Sometimes he would show up and perform poorly. Sometimes he wouldn't even show up.
Chet Baker's turbulent life came to a bizarre and tragic end on May 13, 1988 in Amsterdam. Chet fell from the open window of his hotel room, hitting the concrete two stories below.
It can be argued that Chet was at his musical peak when he died in 1988. Indeed some of his best recordings came from 1986 and 1987.


less

Press

"With her slightly husky, vibrato-free sound, excellent timing and phrasing, she greatly succeeds"  
Destentor, 14-10-2013

Play album Play album

Often bought together with..

Hector Berlioz
La Damnation de Faust
Bernard Haitink & Radio Filharmonisch Orkest & Groot Omroepkoor
Sing!
Fay Claassen
In Exile of Dreams
Ivan Paduart Quartet

You might also like..

Symphonic Stories
Fay Claassen | Residentie Orkest the Hague
Fay Live (2LP | 8CD sleeve)
Fay Claassen
Rise and Shine
Ruud Breuls / Simon Rigter Quintet
Dutch Songbook
Fay Claassen
Luck Child
Fay Claassen
Dear John (vinyl)
Jan Van Duikeren’s JVD4
Dear John
Jan Van Duikeren’s JVD4