Chet Baker, La Voce

My favorite tracks of Chet Baker singing aren't in English. They're in Italian, and they were recorded in Rome in 1962 with the Ennio Morricone Orchestra.

Yes, that Ennio Morricone, the composer of music for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Untouchables and more than 400 movies since 1959. But before Morricone expanded into metallic guitars, mournful harmonicas and tonal textures, he was a cinematic traditionalist, writing rich, decadent scores that made full use of string sections, brass instruments and the piano. The meeting of Ennio and Chet in 1962 was a sublime encounter and couldn't have come at a better time for both artists.

Today, many jazz fans aren't even aware these four Italian sides exist. For one, the records weren't released in the U.S. until recently. For another, when most listeners reach for Baker, they usually grab his work with Gerry Mulligan or his singing sessions with Russ Freeman. For me, these four tracks are in the same league.

In August 1960, Baker, already addicted to heroin, was arrested in Lucca, Italy, for forging Palfium prescriptions and for smuggling huge quantities of Jetrium into Italy from Germany. Both drugs were and are pain killers. Baker was convicted of drug smuggling and forgery, and sentenced to a year, seven months and ten days in a Lucca prison.

When Baker was released early, in December 1961, RCA Italiana put him together with  Ennio Morricone. In 1962, they recorded four of Chet's own composition that he wrote during his jail term. These tracks then were released in Italy on two extended play, 7-inch, 45 rpm records. RCA's goal was to capitalize on Baker's American movie-star looks and his new bad-boy, ribelle senza una causa reputation.

James Gavin, in his 2002 book, Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, touches on this unique recording date:

"[Chet] didn't get everything he wanted. By now, Dino De Laurentiis had lost interest in making a film out of Baker's life. Despite the money he had earned from the producer, the trumpeter was furious and went on to call the incident, 'The Great Movie Hoax.' But he cashed in on his prison compositions when RCA Italiana paid him ten thousand dollars for a one-year record contract. The label hoped to capitalize on his notoriety by making him a pop star; to that end, he was asked to cut four vocal sides in Italian with an orchestra conducted by Ennio Morricone, the famed composer [who would go on to record numerous] 'spaghetti western' soundtracks. The songs came from Baker's red-leather songbook, with words added by Pino Maffei, founder of Musica Jazz magazine.

Swaddled in a blanket of strings and voices, Baker crooned of the sweetness of love and of endless nights without his beloved. He sounded more childlike than ever, his soft choirboy's high notes seeming to float from the purest heart."

Given Morricone's renown in Italy at the time and Baker's tragic  persona, you would think these sessions were originally recorded for  a movie soundtrack. So I checked to see what films  Morricone scored in 1962. Five films popped up—La Cuccagna, Diciottenni Al Sole, I Motorizzati, Before the Revolution and La Voglia Matta. What these titles mean in English doesn't matter, because virtually all of them are a variation on the same theme popular then—young love, fate and the downside of upward mobility. Baker's recordings with Morricone could have worked for any or all of them.

Film score or no film score, these four ballads by Baker are so impossibly pretty and decadent. They're like four Italian pastries with crunch and cream. But their beauty is a collaboration of three forces—Baker's wide open trumpet playing, his tourist's Italian vocals and Morricone's satiny Hollywood-ola scores.

Chetty's Lullaby, which Chet wrote for his son, opens with a rich bed of French horns and trombones, inhaling and exhaling as Baker's trumpet soars over strings. Then Baker sings in Italian—in the most fragile, delicate plaintive voice. He almost sounds as if he's consulting a map while asking for directions. And Morricone's orchestration is quivering and innocent.

On the flip side of Chetty's Lullaby was So Che Ti Perdero, which opens with shimmering strings, followed by piano, guitar, trombones and more strings. There's even a vocal choir singing in Italian behind Baker.

Motivo Su Raggio Di Luna has a minor feel—again with vocal choir, strings, French horns and trombones Baker is almost talking in Italian here, sotto voce. Halfway through the tune, the pace quickens and Baker sounds a lot like Miles on the Gil Evans dates.

Il Mio Domani is my favorite of the four tracks. It opens with a gaggle of horns performing a call and response with a celeste and drum brushes on cymbals (pure Morricone!). Then Baker's trumpet wanders over the top of violins. A piano enters, brass are added, followed by the celeste, cellos and violas. A vocal choir drifts in and the song builds to a crescendo with the brass, only to fall back suddenly, exposing the celeste yet again. Half-way through, the tempo doubles as Baker sings with the Italian choir and a piano slips into the background.

While these tracks may not be the greatest jazz performances ever recorded—or even Baker's best jazz moments—they are among the most beautiful and exotic works by Baker. If you're a Chet Baker fan, then you're a romantic. And if you're a romantic, then what more could you ask for than for Baker at his seductive best singing ballads in Italian. Not to mention playing an open trumpet on top of  Italian cinematic scores. I only wish Baker and Morricone had recorded an entire album.

Wax tracks: For years these four Chet Baker recordings  released on two 45 rpm records in Italy were highly prized until a 2003 reissue of Chet Is Back included them as bonus tracks. "Chet is back," of course, was a reference to his return to the jazz scene (after spending time in an Italian prison).

Much of Chet Is Back has been available for years as Chet Baker: The Italian Sessions. And not all Chet Is Back re-issue CDs carry the Morricone bonus tracks. Only the Bluebird release from 2003 includes them.

You can buy that CD here used (it's out of print already). Or you can just spend about $4 at iTunes downloading the four tracks from Chet Is Back. Personally, I never cared much for the rest of the album's tracks, so I would just grab the four discussed above.

I think you'll agree that they are the prettiest Chet Baker tracks ever recorded. All that's missing is a 1962 Ferrari 400 Superamerica Pininfarina Coupe and a wide open autostrada.

Wax video clips: If you want a visual and audio taste of Chet Baker's romantic Italian period, go here and dig him singing Arrivederci. It's from an Italian film Baker was in called Urlatori alla sbarra (1960), which was part of a genre known as musicarello—Italian musical comedies that included current stars singing their hits. Sort of the early 1960s equivalent of today's music videos.

Clearly this is the sound RCA had hoped to achieve and recreate with Ennio Morricone. But by 1962, Chet's 1950s good looks were giving way to age, and a new, younger sound was emerging from England's working class neighborhoods. Within a year, this sound would snap the rug out from under jazz's youthful popularity in Europe and, ultimately, in the U.S.

In 1962, Chet would have about a year before his laconic romanticism was shoved aside by a hard driving beat and much longer hair. But in 1960 Rome, Arrivederci still touched the heart with its autumnal pace and nostalgic pleading.

Comments

[Ian Carey]

Best $3.96 I spent this week--thanks for the tip!