There has been no shortage of live recordings pulled from the archives of legendary trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker in recent years; some of which I’ve covered elsewhere — but studio material from the late artist, who died in 1988, remains far more elusive and far more prized. Fortunately, director and producer Bruce Weber preserved a cache of outtakes from his Academy Award nominated documentary Let’s Get Lost. Those previously unheard studio performances have now surfaced as a companion album to the original soundtrack, titled Swimming by Moonlight, issued by the independent Slow Down Sounds label.
Online sources point to the deeper significance of these recordings: they may represent the final cache of previously unheard Chet Baker material ever to see an official release. The tapes have reportedly remained in the producer’s archive for nearly four decades — an extraordinary stretch of time for music of this importance to sit unheard.
Insights from the official press release offer further insights into the making of this project: “Recorded on analog tape and meticulously transferred and edited by bassist-producer John Leftwich—a member of Baker’s late-‘80s band and an original Let’s Get Lost collaborator—Swimming by Moonlight offers an audiophile-grade experience that preserves the fragility, warmth, and emotional depth of Baker’s late-career sound. […] The album’s deluxe 2LP edition was mastered was mastered by Levi Seitz at Black Belt Mastering, pressed at Record Technology, Inc. on Neotech 180g vinyl and packaged in a Stoughton Printing Company double gatefold tip-on jacket.”
Over the years I have come to appreciate increasingly Baker’s late career renaissance in the 1980s and beyond, a period — dare I say — I like perhaps even more than his revered 1950s heyday.
These recordings find Baker in several studio settings during the making of the Lets Get Lost documentary including Hollywood-based Sage & Sound and Paris’ Studio Davout. A special bonus performance recorded during Baker’s 1987 Cannes appearance round out the collection which includes a sweet cross-section of classic standards by Irving Berlin, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Alec Wilder. Additionally we get a lovely moody version of Elvis Costello’s modern day standard “Almost Blue” (a tune in which Baker first delivered a haunting trumpet solo on Costello’s acclaimed 1982 masterwork Imperial Bedroom).
I’ve listened to Swimming by Moonlight several times already and have very much enjoyed it, especially on the moments where Baker is just playing his trumpet. As I mentioned earlier, for me there is something haunting and magical in his late period tone that was missing for me on his early recordings. I discuss this in Chet Baker’s Late Night Jazz review, which was an earlier archival release from lost 1988 radio broadcast master tapes.
Together these recordings give listeners a great snapshot of where this fine artist was at musically toward the end of his life journey, delivering remarkably strong performances which rank among his best.
Where to buy: $49.98 $37.79 at Amazon (2LP) or $20.98 $17.59 (CD)
Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.
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