In Memory Of: First and Last Meeting in Frankfurt and Paris 1988

by Scott Yanow This is one of the odder releases of the 1980s. For the first and only times, trumpeter Chet Baker and tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp teamed up for a pair of concerts in a quintet which also included pianist Horace Parlan, bassist Herman Wright and drummer Clifford Jarvis. The fact that Shepp is an emotional avant-gardist and Baker a cool-toned lyrical trumpeter and that both have radically different singing styles (they take a vocal apiece) results in the obvious: these two individualists do not blend together very well. Other than Shepp's "Dedication to Bessie Smith's Blues," the repertoire is all standards. Baker plays pretty, while Shepp sounds sloppy and heavy. This CD is definitely a historical curiosity, but does not need to be listened to more than once.