redbeansandrice
Chet Baker – Blue Room
Erscheint im April, eine Doppel-CD mit zwei Baker sessions von 1979, die eine mit Markowitz, Rassinfosse und Charlie Rice, die andere mit einer niederländischen p/b/dr-Gruppe (Frans Elsen, Victor Kaihatu, Eric Ineke), link, die erste Band ist bekanntermaßen gut, die zweite wegen Elsen zumindest interessant…
John Fordham im Guardian – „stoned-chorister vocals“ trifft’s sehr, finde ich 
– „mostly low-key“ finde ich beim späten Baker kein Problem, „everbody-solos-in-turn“ könnte aber etwas ermüdend sein:
[…] The previously unreleased Blue Room joins together two 1979 studio sessions for Dutch radio, with classy trios led by pianists Phil Markowitz and the late Frans Elsen. The Latin-swaying Beautiful Black Eyes introduces Baker’s inimitable trumpet sound, blown as if he’s barely exhaling, the phrasing a mix of drowsy musing and impulsive flurries that hardly jolt his hypnotically flatlining dynamics.
Three of Baker’s haunting stoned-chorister vocals develop as whispery wordless-scat improvisations as capricious as his horn-playing, and the uptempo bebop sprints on The Best Thing for You, Miles Davis’s Down and the ageless Old Devil Moon are shapely, long-lined improvisations that barely need a rhythm section. The mood is mostly low key, and the everybody-solos-in-turn ensemble format might be too formulaic for some, but Blue Room is a fascinating snapshot of a unique improvising artist’s muse. Illuminating, savvy liner notes from fellow players, producers and friends are a big bonus.
--
"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #159: Martial Solal (1927–2024) – 21.1., 22:00; #160: 11.2., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba