Trumpeter Chet Baker embodied understated cool in the 1950s jazz, singing like a ghostly memory and playing notes as evanescent as a light scrim of fog over San Francisco Bay. Drugs were his tragedy, and he spent the closing decades of life picking up gigs and stumbling through relative obscurity. One gig that lasted several years involved a collaboration with Wolfgang Lackerschmid, a German vibraphonist whose ethereal playing was an ideal complement for Baker.
As explained in the jacket notes for this CD reissue of a 1979 session in Stuttgart, the duo picked up different musicians as they toured Europe. They were fortunate in assembling a superb lineup for Quintet Sessions, featuring guitarist Larry Coryell, drummer Tony Williams and bassist Buster Williams. They played impeccably and in the moment, as if they’d been together for years, in a sophisticated version of ‘70s fusion with a funky lilt. Baker is integral on Coryell’s “The Latin One,” never disappearing from the other tracks but silent for much of the session. Coryell, Lackerschmid and the rhythm section are dominant, with Baker wafting in like a light, sporadic sea breeze. He even scats on Lackerschmid’s “Balzwaltz,” that fragile voice of youth having grown gruff with age. The new release includes two previously unissued tracks.
