

This trumpeter was an icon of cool jazz, but he also incorporated swing styles. He switched on the hard-bop energy with cuts like “Pent Up House” but played with a silky tone and added a new brio with the phrasing of his solo. Baker employed edgier sounds when playing with drummer Philly Joe Jones on “Hotel 49”, but he never lost touch with his tender side, as trumpet-and-vocal tracks like “The Thrill Is Gone” prove.