The 2023 two-disc collection
Blue Room: The 1979 Vara Studio Sessions in Holland spotlights the unexpected magic trumpeter/vocalist
Chet Baker could conjure during the last decade of his life. Having achieved stardom on the West Coast in the '50s,
Baker spent much of his career, from the '60s until his death in 1989, living and performing in Europe where his drug addiction and itinerant lifestyle were never as much of a barrier to getting work. Recorded in the Netherlands on two separate dates in 1979, the
Blue Room sessions find
Baker digging into some of his favorite standards, as well as a few unexpected song choices. The first session features one of his touring lineups of the period with pianist
Phil Markowitz, bassist
Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, and drummer
Charles Rice. This is the more cohesive of the sessions, as
Baker offers warm takes of some of favorite standards, including "Oh, You Crazy Moon" and "The Best Thing for You," both of which he had just recorded on his classic 1977 comeback album
You Can't Go Home Again. There are also inspired renditions of
Wayne Shorter's "Beautiful Black Eyes" and the
Miles Davis blues number "Down," the latter of which was another staple of his final years. The second session, recorded several months later, was a more ad hoc affair with producer
Edwin Rutten putting
Baker in with a trio of European players, including pianist
Frans Elsen, bassist
Victor Kaihatu, and drummer
Eric Ineke. Along with the sly blues number "Luscious Lou," a song composed by
Baker's '50s bandmate, saxophonist
Phil Urso, they settle into a bittersweet rendition of "My Ideal." That latter song
Baker first recorded in the '50s, and its lovelorn lyrics took on ever more nuanced meaning the further he got from that early golden boy period of his career. Even so, his performance, as with pretty much all of
Blue Room, is entrancing. ~ Matt Collar
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