Each Day Is Valentine's Day

by Chet Baker

Product Description:

Personnel include: Chet Baker (vocals); Bud Shank (alto saxophone); Pepper Adams (baritone saxophone); Mel Lewis (drums).

Recording information: 1953 - 1957.

Released a month before Valentine's Day, 2006, EACH DAY IS VALENTINE'S DAY is a tidy Chet Baker compilation that smacks of an opportunistic record label cash-in. The 12 tracks here include some of Baker's finest (and most unabashedly romantic) vocal performances, including, among others, his sweet, breathy "Embraceable You," a moody, instant-heartbreak reading of "You Don't Know What Love Is," and his definitive version of "My Funny Valentine."

So it's a gimmicky package, but who's complaining? Baker's style, with its combination of cool detachment and lilting lyrical phrasing, is as gorgeous and heart-melting as it's marketed to be. Although CHET BAKER SINGS still reigns as the ultimate single-disc Baker anthology, this concise heart-shaped set still represents the legendary trumpeter/singer's talents in all their glory, so that the whole package makes good on its sweet nothings.