Randy harrison u and comrad 1432111 do not know anything about jazz. You r new comers he is playing great on this number. That is the way jazz muscians played slow and also swinging. Not always slow, chet baker surprised me when he played this number like this upbeat way which is music to my ear. Allthe great jazz players back in the day played the same song slow then they would play the same song upbeat that show u their great skills.. thank u 4 listening Maria is my name..
There is no one better than Chet at the slow stuff, but this is a sad slow love song... WHY the brass gymnastics.. No likee.... No haters please i love Che,t but he made the wrong call this time........In my opinion only...
There are many excellent renditions of this song, but in my book it's Chet's that I first and foremost associate this standard with. One can never quite pinpoint where the magic comes from, but maybe it's him living the dream instead of just dreaming, the Californian sun in his face and the wind in his hair, coolin' it on the fast lane before it's all over, dream and life.
In my opinion jazz instrumentalists view and approach music differently to vocalists. For Vocalists because their role is to tell the story according to the lyrics so interpretation is often confined by the meaning and overall sentiment of a song. Instrumentalists present their idea via the musical form i.e. chords progression, song structure so if they wish they can be free from lyrical constrain. I am fine with that.
