Artist: Chet Baker
Album: Late Night Jazz
Genre: Cool Jazz
Label: Hot Club Records
Released: 1988/2024
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- Skylark (5:30)
- If You Could See Me Now (4:42)
- The Bird from Kapingamarangi (3:25)
- How High the Moon (2:34)
- Makin' Whoopee (2:31)
- The Ballad of Buttersmile (3:50)
- Body and Soul (4:11)
- Alice in Wonderland (6:45)
- Blamann, Blamann (3:45)
- Children's Waltz (3:02)
- Love for Sale (4:31)
- My Foolish Heart (5:20)
- I Want a Little Girl (4:16)
- Body and Soul (alternate take) (5:27)
- If You Could See Me Now (alternate take) (5:57)
- Makin' Whoopee (alternate take) (2:26)
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- Personnel:
- Chet Baker - trumpet
- Philip Catherine - guitar
- Egil Kapstead - piano
- Terje Venaas - bass
This album was recorded barely three months before Chet Baker’s death (he died in mysterious circumstances, falling from his Amsterdam hotel room in May 1988, aged just 58) and was long thought to be his final recording session. In fact, Baker would record two more studio albums the following month. Even so, it documents one of his final recordings and provides a tantalising glimpse of unfulfilled future plans.
For the last decade of his life, Baker worked almost exclusively in Europe and his work rate was prodigious – for example, between 1979 and 1980, he recorded more than twenty albums. Most of the albums Baker made in his later years were on small or obscure record labels, and were often hard to find, especially in the pre-internet days. Fortunately, over the years, many of Baker’s albums from the 1980s have been reissued or re-released. This album is one of them. It was originally released on the Norwegian record label, Hot Club Records, founded by Jon Larsen, who also produced this album, then aged just twenty-nine.
Elemental Music has now reissued the album as a limited edition LP and CD, adding three alternate takes from the sessions and including a 28-page booklet with the CD version. In this age of streaming, it’s great to see record companies offering superb packaging for physical product like this. The CD comes in a double-fold out digipak, with track information, song credits, production credits and photos taken at the sessions. The booklet has lots of session photos, plus informative essays by Jon Larsen, who describes how the project came about and what happened in the studio, and jazz historian Brian Morton, who talks about the life and music of Chet Baker.
The driving force behind the album was Norwegian poet Jan Erik Vold, who asked Baker to collaborate on a jazz-poetry project (Vold had worked with a number of Norwegian jazz musicians – including Jan Garbarek – on similar works). Baker agreed, stating that he had two free days for recording in Paris in mid-February. Larsen had just ten days to book a studio and get everything prepared.
Two Norwegian musicians were lined up for the project, pianist Egil Kapstad and bassist Terje Venaas. According to Larsen, they were two of Chet’s favourite musicians. Venaas had worked with Baker before, in a quartet that can be heard on the 1984 album release, The Improviser. Venaas has also played with Dexter Gordon, Toots Thielemans and Michel Petrucciani. Kapstad worked with Vold on a set-list for the album that included jazz standards, three original compositions by the pianist, and a Norwegian folk song. There are sixteen tunes on the album, including the trio of alternate takes. Everyone involved in the sessions, apart from Baker and Kapstad (who died in 2017, aged 76), are still alive today (October 2024).
According to Larsen, when they met Chet in his Paris hotel before the recording, he brought along two guitarists, the Italian Nicola Stilo (who was also a flautist in Baker’s band) and Belgian Philip Catherine. Larsen knew Catherine well and invited him along to the sessions. Catherine was born in London, but raised in Belgium. He had worked extensively with Baker before – they had made two albums together in 1983 and in 1985, the guitarist accompanied Baker on a European-wide tour. Catherine has recorded numerous records as a leader, and also played with Dexter Gordon, Kenny Drew, Stephane Grappelli, Charles Mingus, Michael Gibbs, Jean-Luc Ponty and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. Stilo also attended the first day’s session, although he didn’t play on any of the songs. However, he made his presence known on the recording sessions, as we will read below.
The recording studio was set-up like an intimate club gig. Photographs taken from the sessions by jazz journalist Randi Hultin (who also filmed some of it), reveal that the studio was a small room, with barely enough space to accommodate a quartet comfortably. Baker sat on a small wooden chair at one end, facing Kapstad’s piano. Guitarist and bassist were to the left of him. By now, Baker had long dispatched drummers from his band line-ups. Jan Erik Vold read his poetry in a vocal booth. According to the poet, Baker played most of the time with his legs crossed and eyes closed.
Larsen records in his essay that the musicians soon gelled and the first number was quickly nailed. After recording several tunes, the band took a break. Hultin suddenly noticed that Stilo had left the studio with Chet’s mouthpiece! A studio employee chased Stilo down the street and retrieved it. The motive for Stilo’s actions were never discovered, but he didn’t turn up for the second day’s session. The album was originally released in 1988 as Blåmann! Blåmann!, featuring both music and poetry, spoken in Norwegian. Most of the songs had alternate titles, for example, ‘Body and Soul’ was renamed ‘Wigman,’ and ‘Love For Sale,’ ‘Six Frantics.’ In 2010, an English-language version, Telemark Blue was released. This new release only features music from the sessions.
Whenever talking about Chet Baker, it’s easy to fall into the trap of recounting all the arrests, addictions and adversities that plagued his life, but Brian Morton forcefully makes the point in his essay that it’s time to step away from the constant mythologisation of Chet Baker, and romanticisation of the tortured artist, and simply listen to the music.
Like Miles Davis, Baker was renowned for his ‘cool’ style of playing. His sound was delicate; lyrical and deeply affecting. His playing conveyed a beautiful sadness, as heard on the opening number, Hoagy Carmichael’s haunting ballad, ‘Skylark.’ It’s a fine duet between piano and trumpet, which has Kapstad’s graceful playing complementing Baker’s fragile sound.
Indeed, when listening to the album, you appreciate how much the musicians were in tune (pun intended) with Baker’s style of playing. There’s a sparseness and a lightness of touch to everyone’s playing. There’s plenty of space. Nothing is rushed; there’s no clutter and no one overplays. The comping is immaculate, and so are the solo spots.
Kapstead’s three compositions include ‘The Bird From Kapingamarnagi (it’s a Pacific atoll which borders Papa New Guinea – I had to look that up). Driven by a jaunty piano vamp, Baker plays the simple but appealing theme. ‘The Ballad Of Buttersmile’ is a midtempo swinging number with a Monk-like piano intro, but ‘Children’s Waltz’ is a dirge-like ballad saved by Catherine’s fine soloing.
The Norwegian folk song ‘Blåmann Blåmann’ is a mournful ballad – the plaintive sound of Baker’s trumpet, combining with Catherine’s delicate picking and Kapstad’s tender voicings convey both sorrow and beauty. As might be expected, the band tackles the various jazz standards with aplomb. On the swinging cover of ‘Love For Sale, guitar, bass and piano blend beautifully. ‘My Foolish Heart’ is a splendid trumpet/piano duet. Baker clearly kept his chops right up to the end. There’s no mute and no electronics are used – it’s just a pure open horn sound and it’s divine.
A brisk version of ‘How High The Moon’ is the only song to feature Baker’s singing; his soft, wordless vocals drifting over the music. A large portion of the four-minute ‘Body And Soul’ is taken up by Catherine’s delicate solo. The cover of ‘Makin’ Whoopi’ injects a playful quality to the sound, while Baker’s expressive playing is all over ‘If You Could See Me Now.’
There’s not a great difference between the original album tracks and the three outtakes of ‘Body and Soul,’ ‘If You Could See Me Now,’ and ‘Makin’ Whoopi.’ Of the three, ‘Body And Soul’ stands out by being almost two minutes longer then the selected take. The intro is longer and the outro played differently, and the rougher edges of Baker’s playing are absent from the official take. The outtakes are nice to hear but not essential.
Baker had plans to play with this band again, but alas, his premature death put paid to them. It’s one of jazz’s many ‘what ifs.’ Still, we can be grateful that these recordings were made and are now more widely available.