Chet Baker : Blue Room - The 1979 Vara Studio Sessions in Holland

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“In February of 2O21, while I was working on another Chet Baker production with my partners Jordi Soley and Carlos Agustin at Elemental Music, I asked my colleague, Frank Jochemsen of the Nederlands Jazz Archief, if he could find any previously unissued Chet Baker recordings. Since Jordi, Carlos and I were already working with the Chet Baker Estate doing our best to contribute to Chet’s legacy with the Live in Paris release on Elemental, we've all been passionate about the prospect of finding other unissued Baker recordings.

My inquiry with Frank bore fruit, as he was able to find two previously unissued studio sessions in pristine condition from the KRO-NCRV archives recorded at VARA Studio 2 in Hilversum, the Netherlands on April 10 and November 9,1979 respectively. It was thrilling to find these two sessions where we can hear Chet in fantastic form with a great cast of supporting musicians. It represents a welcome addition to Chet’s discography, as he spent much of his time in Europe; a delightful find that we all felt strongly deserved a chance to see the light of day. I want to thank my dear friends, Jordi and Carlos, for being behind this production from the start and making it possible. Messrs. Soley and Agustin have championed the legacy of Chet Baker and they are passionate about supporting Chet’s music by continuing to seek out and issue these kinds of important unissued recordings. I'm very proud of this release and the way that we told the story of this important music.

I'd like to acknowledge and thank the acclaimed Dutch recording engineer Marc Broer for his meticulous attention to detail working from the original tapes.”

- Zev Feldman, Producer, Chet Baker: Blue Room - The 1979 Vara Studio Sessions in Holland [Deep Digs Music Group]

“I worked with Chet from '76 to '85 in different settings. I was young, so it was a formative experience to be with such an artist. He was a very quiet person, not an extrovert, so every word he said was as if God were speaking.

Chet was such a master of melody. When he was improvising, I tried my best to learn from him. I remember when we'd drive to a gig, we'd sing songs, bass lines. He'd sing bass lines to me. I'd improvise. We liked to sing. I could scat, so for hours we'd share tunes that way. He was one of the best teachers I ever had.”

-Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, bassist

If you ever wondered what made Chet Baker, a trumpet player of very limited technical ability who rarely ventured out of the middle range of the instrument, such a perennial favorite among Jazz fans, the following explanations by his bandmates during the heady days of the original Gerry Mulligan Quartet [1952-53] identify many of the ingredients that make up  Chettie’s “secret sauce.”

Bassist Bob Whitlock:

“Chet was one of those rare birds who learned to read music but never had any real training in harmony. Most of us play by ear, assisted by some knowledge of harmony and counterpoint, but since he didn't have the benefit of those tools, he was forced to do it all by ear, and therein lies his genius. Naturally, there is a price to pay with this approach. It requires the bravado to run through minefields and the courage of Hannibal, because the perils are endless. The reward comes in the form of refreshing vitality, breathtaking melodic invention, freedom from exasperating clichés, extraordinary sensitivity to shading and color, and a lyricism second to none. Not a bad trade-off if you are willing to take the risks, and Chet greeted the challenge like a gladiator.”

This description from drummer Larry Bunker provides some remarkable keys that also unlock some major characteristics of Chet’s playing.

“Sometimes he would come into work with his mouth all cut from having been in a fistfight during the day, but that was Chet. The paradox was that he could be incredibly sensitive in his playing. He was a more linear player than Gerry, probably because of his lack of technical knowledge about what he was doing; so much of it was a magical, intuitive thing. Even without piano harmony to guide him he could sail across the changes when they were merely implied. Some people thought he couldn't read music, but he certainly could, though not very proficiently. He had been in an army band, so he would have had to read marches, and in the few situations I was with him when he had to read, he did O.K. He couldn't read chord changes, though, and he didn't know what they were, except for that amazing ability he had that enabled him to hear where they went. Gerry was right on the money when he said, "Chet knew everything about chords; he just didn't know their names."

When other musicians realized that Chet didn't have any theoretical knowledge, they would sometimes try to get him at jam sessions by calling tunes in ridiculous keys that nobody was familiar with, hoping to trap him. They would try "Body and Soul" in G-flat, for instance, but it didn't matter at all, because they could have said Q-flat and Chet would still have been able to play it. After a while that all stopped, because the guys couldn't transpose that fast from their accustomed keys, so they were trapping themselves, but not Chet. They backed themselves into corners that they couldn't get out of, but he would just sail through all of it because he didn't have those kinds of constraints. His mental apparatus worked in a different way, and that was what was so amazing about him, the fact that he could do what he did with such limited theoretical knowledge.”

Taken together, you can literally spend a lifetime dissecting and applying elements from Bob’s and Larry’s elucidations to Baker’s vast discography. 

Especially if you do so with Chet’s better recordings. 

On some occasions, Chet did tour with set groups which, for example, featured pianists Richie Beirach,  Enrico Pierannuzi and Philip Markowitz, or guitarist Phillipe Catherine or bassist Ricardo Del Fra or drummer John Engels.

But like alto saxophonist Sonny Stitt, Chet was primarily a peripatetic musician during the last two decades or so of his career, often picking up local rhythm sections and recording with them to generate  his income. So although his recorded legacy is vast, because of issues with the level of ability of some of his accompanists, many of his recordings lack quality.

Every so often, select recordings capture Chet in his best form and when these come along, applying Bob’s and Larry’s insights into Chet’s playing can serve as a source to reveal Baker’s ear for nuance, melodic originality and constant surprises in his improvisations.

Such is the case with Chet Baker: Blue Room - The 1979 Vara Studio Sessions in Holland [Deep Digs Music Group] which is due out as a Limited Two LP set on Record Store Day, April 22, 2023 followed by a CG release on April 28, 2023 [ DDJD-008]. A major shout out goes to Zev Feldman, the “Jazz Detective” for making this music happen in a commercial format.

My comments are based on the double CD offering, a copy of which was received from Ann Braithwaite of Braithwaite & Katz Communications. Her always informative media release closes this feature.

This music on these recordings comes from three, separate dates featuring two different groups: [1] Chet with Phil Markowitz [p], Jean-Louis Rassinfosse [b] and Charles Rice [d] play on seven of the thirteen tracks; [2] Chet with Frans Elsen [p], Victor Kaihatu [b] and Eric Ineke [drums] perform on the other cuts [LP speak for “tracks”].

What immediately jumps out at you when you listen to these recordings is - “refreshing vitality, breathtaking melodic invention, freedom from exasperating clichés, extraordinary sensitivity to shading and color, and a lyricism second to none.” [from Bob Whitlock’s description of the virtues in Chet’ playing; emphasis mine].

Chet’s improvisations are like nothing you’ve heard before: he doesn’t play pat licks; there are no resting places; nothing is wasted - no throw-aways. Each interpretation is like a story in itself; each a fresh invention; each an ephemeral expression of beauty and precision. His playing is never cloying, or brittle or overly exaggerated. And, it inspires all the other musicians to bring their best playing to match Chet’s energy and enthusiasm.

In this regard, while I’ve been a fan of pianist Phil Markowitz for some time, I find his work here with Chet to be more introspective, impulsive and intriguing. He takes his playing in some new directions, no doubt spurred on, in part, due to Chet’s influence.

And what can one say about the big, bold tone of Jean-Louis Rassinforte - Le maître, en effet?! He centers the time so beautifully and because of all the space Chet leaves, his sound rings out and envelops the music in rich overtones. His playing is so resonant that it seems like the time is being carried forward on a cushion.

While not as familiar with the work of pianist Frans Elsen and bassist Victor Kaihatu, their playing on the four tracks laid down later in 1979 certainly reflect their quality as both accompanists and soloists. Drummer Eric Ineke’s solid time anchors the music within a pulsating groove which keeps the music rhythmically bright and exciting. 

Throughout these 1979 recordings, time and again, there are examples of what Larry Bunker noted as Chet’s “magical, intuitive” playing. “Even without piano harmony to guide him he could sail across the changes when they were merely implied.”

What’s more, many of the comments from the interviews with musicians who are featured on these recordings as contained in the marvelous booklet notes that accompany the set reaffirm the observations made by Bob Whitlock and Larry Bunker about Chet and his music.

For example: 

“As an accompanist, I really learned how to comp properly for someone who was in the very precise harmonic zone that Chet was in. He came from players like Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown. I'm not saying his sound was like Clifford's but his harmonic sense in terms of playing inside of a very strict set of changes was non-chromatic. Basically, if you played a wrong chord behind him, it was death and it was embarrassing for you. But also, it was death for him because it made him sound bad. So you really had to listen.” - Phil Markowitz

“Chet was a master of melody. …. Chet taught me to be strict with rhythm. For me the most important quality in Chefs playing was rhythmic placement. The soloist has to swing, not only the rhythm section. Chet’s placement of phrases was impeccable.” - Jean-Louis Rassinfosse

“With Victor's steady beat next to me, I felt very comfortable and, when Chet started singing, I felt he was telling me a story personally because I was playing with headphones on. An unforgettable moment.” - Eric Ineke

And other musicians interviewed in the booklet who are not on these recordings but played with or were influenced by Chet offered comments similar to Bob and Larry’s assessment of Chet’s playing.

Randy Brecker [trumpet]:

“He wasn't a powerhouse trumpet player, but boy, he got to the heart of the instrument like nobody else. You hear him and you want to take everything from his playing, his whole conception, his sound, his melodic content. He was really an improviser. He played off the melody and he played what he heard. To this day, I try to use all those elements. I try to keep him and five or six other trumpet players in the back of my mind when I play. I especially try to concentrate on playing less, rather than more. I am constantly using his example to try to get to the core of the matter, get to the essence.”

Enrico Rava [trumpet]:

“What made him special for me was the feeling that for him, every note was the last one; the feeling that he was really speaking directly from his soul, directly from his brain. There was no phrasing, no routine. It was always something different. It was pure beauty, all of his phrases. Beautiful, beautiful phrases all the time. And it was moving. It spoke directly to my soul. It was like Miles except Miles had a more dramatic sense. He built up a story, while Chet didn't. Chet just built little episodes of beauty.”

Enrico Pieranunzi [piano]:

“When I met Chet, everything turned upside down. I saw I had to cut to the essentials because Chet’s phrasing was so essential, so amazingly lyrical, musical, smart, logical. I began to feel that something was wrong with my playing. I had to change everything. I had to really go toward what was truly essential.”

The recording quality deserves special mention as it is simply outstanding. You feel like the musicians are in your living room playing just for you. As Frank Jochemsen, a producer for the Dutch National Jazz Archives and the researcher who located these recordings by Chet at the request of Zev Feldman who produced them for this release:

“As if this weren't enough: the music was recorded in the fantastic VARA Studio 2 [in Hilversum, The Netherlands] by the brilliant technician Jim Rip and, moreover, all this music is of high artistic quality and has never been released before!”

Chet’s recorded legacy is vast, but very uneven due to a variety of factors including the poor shape of his playing on some due to his drug addiction, the substandard rhythm sections on the horn-for-hire albums, and the inferior recording quality which plagues many of them.

Given this fact, if you are a fan of Chet’s in particular or a fan of good Jazz in general, you are not going to want to miss Chet Baker: Blue Room - The 1979 Vara Studio Sessions in Holland [Deep Digs Music Group] with Chet in great form backed by two quality rhythm sections recorded to the highest audio standards and complimented by a 23 page booklet that contains a great collection of photographs and is replete with interviews by those involved with making the music on these superb recordings.

Here’s more about these recordings from Ann Braithwaite’s media release.

"ARCHIVAL LABEL JAZZ DETECTIVE TO ISSUE BLUE ROOM, AN

UNRELEASED TREASURE BY TRUMPETER CHET BAKER, AS A

LIMITED TWO-LP SET ON RECORD STORE DAY, APRIL 22

Collection Produced in Partnership with Elemental Music and Dutch Jazz Archive KRO-NCRV, Also Available on CD and Digital Download April 28,

Presents Two Superlative Sessions Recorded for Dutch Radio in 1979,

Drawn from Tapes Unheard Since Their First Airing Extensive, Newly Commissioned Notes Include an Overview by Journalist and Chet Baker

Biographer Jeroen de Valk, Interviews with the Dates' Producers and Sidemen, and Tributes from Trumpeters Randy Brecker and Enrico Rava

Jazz Detective, the label founded in 2022 by GRAMMY-nominated archival producer Zev Feldman, will release Blue Room: The 1979 VARA Studio Sessions in Holland, a superlative, previously unreleased set of studio performances recorded in Holland by legendary trumpeter Chet Baker, as a limited two-LP set on Record Store Day April 22. The package will be issued as a two-CD set and digital download on April 28.

The collection — co-produced by Feldman and Frank Jochemsen and released in partnership with Elemental Music — comprises a pair of brilliantly played dates cut for Dutch radio KRO-NCRV in Hilversum, the Netherlands, by producers Edwin Rutten and the late Lex Lammen in 1979: an April 10 session with pianist Phil Markowitz, bassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, and drummer Charles Rice, and a November 9 session with pianist Frans Elsen, bassist Victor Kaihatu, and drummer Eric Ineke. Both occasions found Baker playing (and, on three tracks, singing) in exceptional form.

Blue Room's extensive booklet includes an overview by Dutch journalist Jeroen de Valk; essays by Feldman. Jochemsen and Rutten; interviews with sidemen Markowitz, Rassinfosse, and Ineke; and tributes from trumpeters Randy Brecker and Enrico Rava and pianist Enrico Pieranunzi. The collection is illustrated with photos by Veryl Oakland, Jean-Pierre Leloir, Christian Rose and others. The package was mastered for vinyl by the great engineer Bernie Grundman and Dutch engineer Marc Broer.

The album succeeds Jazz Detective's inaugural offerings, two volumes of widely-praised live performances by pianist Ahmad Jamal, issued as Emerald City Nights on Record Store Day's Black Friday last year. Feldman -who produced the Chet Baker Trio's Live in Paris for Elemental Music last year for label partners/executive producers Jordi Soley and Carlos Agustin Calembert --previously joined with Jochemsen to explore the Dutch archives for Bill Evans' Behind the Dikes (Elemental Music, 2021) and Another Time: The Hilversum Concert (Resonance Records. 2017) and Sonny Rollins' Rollins in Holland (Resonance Records, 2020).

Feldman says of the present package, "It was thrilling to find these two sessions where we can hear Chet in fantastic form with a great cast of supporting musicians. It represents a welcome addition to Chet's discography, as he spent much of his time in Europe; a delightful find that we all felt strongly deserved a chance to see the light of day."

Jochemsen — who unearthed the '79 sessions on a tip from radio producer Lex Lammen, who supplied the researcher with detailed notes before his death in 2018 — says, "These two sessions by Chet Baker were both recorded in 1979 in brilliant stereo for the radio program 'Nine O'clock Jazz.' As if this wasn't enough, the music was recorded in the fantastic VARA studio 2 by the brilliant technician Jim Rip and, moreover, all of this music is of high artistic quality and has never been released before!"

Rutten, who offers a track-by-track look at both '79 recording sessions, recalls fondly, "The beauty of being a jazz producer is that you can give yourself birthday presents even when it's not your birthday. Gifts in the form of the best jazz from the Netherlands and from way beyond....The first tones [of Baker's version of "Nardis"] started unwrapping my birthday present."

Baker's sidemen Markowitz, Rassinfosse, and Ineke reflect on the sometimes challenging task of supporting the notoriously eccentric Baker, but all walked away from the experience impressed by the high level of his performances.

"It was an incredible honor to play with him," says Markowitz, who supplied masterful support and solos. "I'm grateful for the lessons I learned with him back then...This recording is really great. Chet Baker's fans are going to be absolutely thrilled because he sounds unbelievable on this recording."

His session partner Rassinfosse. who worked behind Baker from 1976 to 1985, adds, "Chet's playing is amazing on these tapes. He was in very good shape. He had good chops on these recordings....Being able to record with Chet Baker was an honor. I learned half of what I know in music through Chet Baker."

Both Brecker and Rava offer thoughts on the deep influence Baker's playing had on their own styles with his acute melodic sense and economy of expression.

Brecker, who studied Baker's recording of "My Funny Valentine" when he was learning to play, says, "Boy, he got to the heart of the instrument like nobody else. You hear him and you want to take everything from his playing, his whole conception, his sound, his melodic content. He was really an improviser. He played off the melody and he played what he heard. To this day, I try to use all those elements. I try to keep him and five or six other trumpet players in the back of my mind when I play. I especially try to concentrate on playing less, rather than more. 1 am constantly using his example to try to get to the core of the matter, get to the essence."

Rava says the trumpeter's recordings with Gerry Mulligan were "my introduction to modern jazz. It was so beautiful, but also easy to understand. For a European, it had the logic of a Bach fugue with the soul of jazz....Chet created pure beauty. Doing what he did, everyone loved him. There was no way you could escape it. He was totally committed. He played music as if it was his last night in this world. Every note he played was essential. He taught everybody not to play too many notes; to play only the necessary notes."

Rava's countryman Pieranunzi. who backed the musician on his Italian dates of 1979, says, "When I met Chet, everything turned upside down. I saw I had to cut to the essentials because Chet's phrasing was so essential, so amazingly lyrical, musical, smart, logical. I began to feel that something was wrong with my playing. I had to change everything. I had to really go toward what was truly essential."

Summing up Baker's impact in his overview, writer de Valk says, "Almost 35 years after his passing, Chet Baker continues to reach our hearts and our heads. He touches our hearts with his mellow sound and melodic approach and enters our heads with his adventurous improvisations."”

For more information please contact:

Ann Braithwaite / Braithwaite & Katz Communications/ann@bkmusicpr.com