Jazz from Italy: Chet Baker Trio - Live from the Moonlight

domenica 16 maggio 2010

Chet Baker Trio - Live from the Moonlight - 1985

People have often accused Chet of playing old-fashioned music but I'm inclined to believe that it was rather such listeners whose thinking was outmoded. Chet could only start playing when he felt that an atmosphere of receptiveness had been established, a certain quality of attention.

In Japan, where the audience is much more disciplined, this process rarely took longer than five minutes but in France or in the USA he waited sometimes for more than half an hour until the noise died down and external tensions diminished. At club gigs, for example, it happened quite often that people were chatting and not much interested in what went on the stage.
Chet could not endure this. He used to tell me: "The louder people get the quieter you have to play."
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If he thought the audience was not attentive enough he paused and waited for the racket to stop.

Of his musicians he expected something similar, a kind of tonal asceticism.

It is easy for a pianist to shine - the instrument has a large range, and with a good technique you can play faster than on most other instruments. Sometimes I could be overwhelmed by my pianistic fervour.

I remember that once, during a concert, I played a rather virtuosic interlude. Chet took the microphone and said, in front of the audience: "Hey Michel, what do you want to prove by that?"

That's the kind of lesson you'll never forget!

Michel Graillier from "Jazz Magazine", July / August 1990