Live in '64 and '79

Chet Baker

(Reelin' in the Years Productions)

In the '60s, Chet Baker was the quintessential jazzbo hipster — the lifelong junkie was known for his detached cool and square-jawed good looks. Yet there was a deep sense of pain and vulnerability in his gorgeously unhurried trumpet work and laconic, androgynous singing. All those aspects and more are depicted in this hour-and-10-minute DVD that documents two sets, filmed 15 years apart in Europe. The disc features one vocal performance, a moving turn at Cahn and Styne's "Time After Time" (during the '64 show) and a few surprises — Miles' "So What," Sonny Rollins' "Airegin" — amid laid-back standards such as "Isn't It Romantic" and "Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise." 3.5 stars

This article appears in Aug 1-7, 2007.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...