Chet Baker – ‘Blue Room"

(Jazz Detective. DDJD-007. LP review by Andrew Cartmel) 

The brainchild of Zev Feldman (see INTERVIEW link below), Jazz Detective is perhaps the best moniker for a record label ever (*). Dedicated to tracking down rare and lost tapes, Jazz Detective has brought to our ears outstanding music by the best musicians — in this case, Chet Baker who in 1979 recorded two sessions for Dutch radio which have gone essentially unheard since.

The first session took place on 10 April 1979 at VARA Studio 2, in Hilversum, North Holland, with Baker’s then current touring band, consisting of the American Phil Markowitz on piano, Belgian Jean-Louis Rassinfosse on bass, and another American, Charlie Rice, on drums (Rice had recorded with Chet Baker before, in New York in the mid-1960s).

The second session was recorded in the same studio on 9 November with a complete change of line up. This time Baker used a local pick up band formed of Dutch musicians Frans Elsen on piano, Victor Kaihatu on bass and Eric Ineke on drums.

Wayne Shorter’s Beautiful Black Eyes has a laid-back, bossa nova groove with Phil Markowitz providing rich runs on the piano then becoming sweetly selective and sparing. Baker sounds like he’s taking pleasure in his own playing here, loosening up and also speeding up as the song develops. Burke and Van Heusen’s Oh, You Crazy Moon features Chet singing which, at this late date, tends to make the listener — or at least this listener — tense up and brace for the worst. But he’s in remarkably good shape, only occasionally evidencing the years and the damage they’ve inflicted. What’s more, his scatting is engaging. In fact it borders on the enchanting — beautifully recorded and putting him in the room with the listener, alive and well (well, alive anyway) after all these years.  

Baker’s own Blue Gilles begins with him sculpting the themes out of silence with his incisive, articulate solo. Then when Markowitz’s piano comes in, underpinned by some subtle and delicately judged bass by Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, we begin to realise what a fine partnership this is. Charlie Rice imperceptibly insinuates himself into the proceedings with muted cymbals. And although this is Baker’s composition it’s a showcase of Markowitz who makes beautiful use of space in his solo. Baker plays like a man with lots of time — all the time in the world. Which sadly was not the case (nine years left at this point).

Nardis is perhaps even better, with a sort of majestic intensity and a darker tone; maybe Baker is on his mettle handling a composition by Miles Davis, a trumpeter who could outgun him (and everybody else in the world). Markowitz plays with a hypnotic, repetitive urgency here and Rassinfosse enriches the colours. It ends with a dreamy feel of loss and heartbreak.

Blue Room, a Rogers and Hart classic, is measured and lazily lyrical, extending over 16 minutes. Markowitz’s playing is notable on this — percussive, adroit and exploratory. And he draws out the best in Baker, who sounds warmly engaged. Down by Miles Davis is way too cool to openly swagger but strongly giving that feeling throughout. Candy reaches back to swing and the early Tin Pan Alley days of jazz and then goes on a long and engaging odyssey, featuring a plump and pleasing bass solo by Victor Kaihatu along the way. It does also feature Baker singing some rather collapsed vocals. But he’s back in surprisingly good voice on My Ideal and there are flashes here of the singer who knocked the girls out of their Bobby socks.

On Luscious Lou Baker’s eldritch elegant trumpet wonderfully introduces the song, spare and beautiful, and ends up engaging and intimately confiding. And Old Devil Moon is warm and breezy — a sort of California beach interpretation with Chet Baker’s high speed sign off sounding paradoxically laid back and relaxed: the work of a master.

The original recording engineers — the fantastically named Jim Rip, assisted on the second session by Jan Stellingwerff — clearly knew what they were doing here. The sound quality is first rate, clear, warm and transparent. And crucially they capture Chet Baker on fine form, making this album essential for Baker fanatics and well worth the attention of everyone else.

(*) Andrew Cartmel is the author of the Vinyl Detective series. Titan Books are about to publish Volume 7 in the series

LINKS: Interview by Morgan Enos with Zev Feldman

from https://londonjazznews.com