Simply because you're near me
A NYT reviewer writes the following of Let's Get Lost, the Chet Baker documentary:
Jazz history hasn’t been kind to him; his talent, though real, was thin.... When you hear Mr. Baker’s stuff, you can’t help picturing his ideal listener as one of those lupine swingers of the Playboy era, decked out in a velvet smoking jacket and loading smooth platters onto the hi-fi to get a hot chick in the mood for love.
And he says that like it's a bad thing.
posted by Elbo @ 1:36 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
the line missing in that excerpt is Chet Baker persisted ... "in playing the cool style long past the point at which it had begun to sound mannered and even a little silly."
i say, ok, maybe. but i also say, what's so old hat about languor? why are Chet's breathiness and phrasing, both vocal and instrumental, as dated as doo-wop?
if i'm doing something with Norah Jones these days (if Chet's chops can be called thin, so can hers), i'd tell her to slow it down. don't sing-song thru the melody, but breathe along with it. hold the piano key, then lift, no pedal.
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