Hear Amos Lee’s Gorgeous ‘My Funny Valentine’ From New Chet Baker Tribute Album ‘My Ideal’

Amos Lee reimagines late jazz musician Chet Baker’s 1954 album Chet Baker Sings for My Ideal, a full-album tribute set to arrive digitally on November 18 and in physical formats on December 9 through Dualtone Records. Lee previewed the 16-track set by releasing his take on “My Funny Valentine” subtitled “For Oskar and Eli” from the upcoming LP.

Chet Baker Sings was a daily listen for Amos Lee during the bleakest period of the pandemic. The jazz vocal classic helped him deal with the grief of losing friends and mentors Bill Withers and John Prine. “I was drawn to the aching and the tenderness, to the way it expressed sadness with levity, to the way it explored sorrow without becoming beleaguered by the depths of it,” Lee explained.

Amos Lee recruited fellow Philadelphia-based musicians David Streim (piano/trumpet), Madison Rast (bass) and Anwar Marshall to back him on My Ideal. The forthcoming album marks a return to Lee’s jazz roots as his first five albums came out on venerable jazz label Blue Note Records. Amos explained the inspiration he took from the original album, stating:

“When you listen to Chet Baker, it sounds like he took a drag on a cigarette and the smoke just came out as a song, but it’s so much more than that. The breath work, the pitch control, the poignancy, the gaiety; the deeper I got inside the music, the more I fell in love with everything about it…it was a revelatory experience. It didn’t just change the way I thought about these songs; it changed the way I thought about myself as a singer and as a songwriter. It changed everything.”

“My Funny Valentine” is regarded by many as Chet Baker’s signature song. Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart penned the show tune for the 1937 musical Babes In Arms. One of Amos Lee’s favorite films is the 2008 Swedish flick Let The Right One In featuring lead characters Oskar and Eli, which led the musician to dub his rendition “My Funny Valentine (For Oskar and Eli).” Listen to Amos Lee show off his powerful pipes on “My Funny Valentine (For Oskar and Eli)” below:

My Ideal Tracklist

1. That Old Feeling
2. It’s Always You
3. Like Someone In Love
4. My Ideal
5. I’ve Never Been In Love Before
6. My Buddy
7. But Not For Me
8. Time After Time
9. I Get Along Without You Very Well
10. My Funny Valentine (For Oskar and Eli)
11. There Will Never Be Another You
12. The Thrill Is Gone
13. I Fall In Love Too Easily
14. Look For The Silver Lining
15. Everything Happens To Me
16. I’m Old Fashioned