Chet Baker: Late Night Jazz (Elemental Music 73401LP)
Recorded three months before his mysterious death in 1988, this handsomely packaged double album finds Chet Baker creating wistful almost ephemeral moods on a set of superior standards. The sleeve note is packed with photographs from the session along with informative essays by writer Brian Morton and producer Jon Larsen.
One Baker quote in the sleeve should be explained regarding Tadd Dameron’s If You Could See Me Now – “I love the melody but hate the man who stole it.” He is possibly referring to the notorious Richard Carpenter who managed Baker, Dameron, Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons and several other jazz musicians. According to James Gavin’s Chet Baker biography Deep In A Dream, his speciality was getting strung-out musicians to surrender the rights to their compositions.
Morton’s admiration for the trumpeter is reflected in his well-received book The Making Of Chet Baker Sings which was enthusiastically reviewed in Jazz Journal in 2021. Those who feel that vocalising was the least important part of Baker’s musicality will be relieved to know that How High The Moon is the only example here. He performs it as a ballad which was exactly how it was conceived when it was introduced in the 1940 production of Two For The Show. The boppers, of course, changed the tempo quite dramatically over the years. He avoids the melody on Walter Donaldson’s cute Makin’ Whoopee, preferring to improvise creatively from bar one. Love For Sale is performed the way he often did with an ostinato in the A sections.
Baker once (in)famously claimed that “It takes a pretty good drummer to be better than no drummer at all!” which is why he often worked without one, as he does here. He gets sympathetic support though from Egil Kapstad (piano), Terje Venaas (bass) and his long-time colleague Philip Catherine (guitar).
Wes Montgomery & Cannonball Adderley: The Poll Winners (20th Century Masterworks 350273)
This 1960 date was the only time that Wes Montgomery and Cannonball Adderley recorded together and for that reason it is worth putting the album into context. It took place a month after the guitarist recorded what many consider to be his finest album – The Incredible Jazz Guitar Of Wes Montgomery (Original Jazz Classics OJC036). For his part, Cannonball Adderley had just launched his new quintet with brother Nat on their hugely popular Them Dirty Blues (Avid AMSC1022). The sleeve note does not indicate why the album is titled The Poll Winners but it is worth pointing out that they had both just won the Downbeat Critic’s Award.
Montgomery used his thumb rather than a plectrum which possibly accounts for the mellow sound he gets from his equipment. His use of octaves was a noticeable element in his approach and Au Privave and Yours Is My Heart Alone are all examples of his artistry. Adderley, with that broad vibrato, was a unique voice on the alto and is particularly fine on The Chant and Lolita. That said, this meeting of two such major-league players never really takes off because it is essentially a run-of-the-mill blowing session This is the sort of date Bill Evans probably had in mind when he once said “(just) one guy blowing followed by another guy blowing”.
Charles Mingus: Reincarnations (Candid Can 33132)
Reincarnations features five titles that have been selected from three 1960 Charles Mingus recordings: – Mingus, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus and Jazz Artists Guild (aka Newport Rebels). The less said about Melody From The Drums the better. It is an extensive workout for his long-time drummer Dannie Richmond which lasts nearly nine and a half minutes. A hard-swinging Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams is a lot better. It is a delightful feature for Roy Eldridge in a harmon with Jo Jones providing some tasty brush-work. The mysteriously titled Vassarlean is one of Mingus’s loveliest ballads with Lonnie Hillyer’s lyrical trumpet up front and centre. Really better known as Weird Nightmare, it has been covered by vocalists like Judi Silvano, Susy Renzi and Trudy Kerr over the years. It is unclear why Mingus changed the name on this occasion.
There was a riot at the Newport Jazz Festival that year so Mingus and Max Roach organised an alternative festival at a local hotel which is where Body And Soul was recorded. It has more fine Eldridge displaying his glorious open tone, especially in that rich lower register. Jimmy Knepper, the elegant Tommy Flanagan and especially Eric Dolphy on alto all make notable contributions. As far as I can tell, this the only time Eldridge and Dolphy ever shared a stage together.