Chet Baker

Around the same time Frank Sinatra was bending standards and half-forgotten masterpieces to his own devices, West Coast "cool school" jazz trumpet maestro and vocalist Chet Baker was doing something similar. His "My Funny Valentine" (a hit three years before the Chairman of the Board's 1955 version) tugged on many a heartstring, becoming a classic in its own right — even inspiring a version by acolyte Elvis Costello, who would later recruit Baker for that classic trumpet solo on 1983's "Shipbuilding". Here we ease into the icon's work with tracks like "Let's Get Lost" which would lend its title to Bruce Weber's excellent 1988 documentary about Baker's life and career.

Be amazed by Baker from the very first time he sings in the studio, in Next Steps.

Even as he crooned, Baker hardly neglected the horn and found many tasty instrumental settings for that wistful trumpet of his — experience the sweet, croonless swoon of "You Go to My Head". However, as many fans have pointed out, it's sometimes tough to decide whether he was primarily a trumpet player who could really sing, or rather a singer with a golden trumpet. Fact is, he could do both brilliantly, and here we return to that time in February 1954 when he cut his first vocal session: check out the low-key masterpiece "I Get Along Without You Very Well", a perfect example of his revolutionary light touch.

Baker shows a funky side, and gets the chance to really stretch his wings, in Deep Cuts.

Baker's delicate touch with a wide array of pop and jazz tunes made almost everything he sang or played worth listening to — again and again. But while his signature sound is relaxed and romantic, the man had a wide repertoire taking in all sorts of styles and moods . . . perhaps a result of the crippling heroin habit which left him permanently in need of cash, and open to any recording offer that would satisfy an immediate need to get high. Here, alongside the mellow loveliness of "These Foolish Things" we've included the incredibly funky "Vehicle" and a brilliant, vibrant, pacey seven-minute version of "Autumn Leaves" recorded in the mid-'70s.

He was a headmaster of the cool school of '50s jazz, but Chet Baker's music also gave voice to complex emotions that his pin-up status couldn't hide, and was set in the context of a serious heroin habit. In May 1952 his ascent to fame kicked in when he was hand-picked to play with sax legend Charlie Parker at the Tiffany Club in Los Angeles (one hell of an honour for a then-unknown white kid): that run of high-profile gigs led to him joining the excellent Gerry Mulligan Quartet, prior to a stellar if meandering solo career. With these Chet Baker Essentials, we've touched on every facet of the man's legend, and highlighted the twin realms in which he excelled: the wounded romanticism of his singing and the Miles Davis-like whisper of his trumpet playing. Just don't ask us to choose — we love them both. Odds are, you will too.