Chet Baker & Enrico Pieranunzi
The Heart Of The Ballad

THE REVIEW

Is it a useless album? Absolutely not: the protagonists play splendidly, as always. Is it a bad album? Not at all: as I said, it's played divinely, the track list is excellent, and the idea is even better. Is it a historically useless album? You decide: it is the final studio recording of one of the greats (one of the greatest) in the history of jazz. So why the hell is it so hard to find this album? And I say this for your sake…: back then, as a devout fanatic of the most orthodox chetbakerism, I hunted it down more than any girl, finding it and glorifying it for years. Please note: it's probably somewhere, but given its quality and level, let's say that for every copy of the very popular (and beautiful, of course) Verve's “Chet For Lovers”, there should be ten of this one. Anyway…: end of rant, let's get to the album which, as I was saying, is valuable, and not just a little.

Evidently, February 29, 1988, was a positive day, as in the Malleus studio in Recanati, one of the best Italian pianists, Enrico Pieranunzi, and a living legend of jazz, with a chilling voice and trumpet, Chet Baker, met. Shortly after, Chet would decide, or someone would decide for him, that it was time to fly down from a hotel balcony, trumpet in hand. And his splendid and desperate story would end there. Just a simple fact of life? Useless gossip? Obviously not. Those who love jazz know well that the life of a jazz musician is an integral part of their music, even in the emission of a single note, the whisper of a single word. Everything is important in jazz. And this is what makes the figure of the child prodigy impossible in the jazz field. To play, one must live and especially have lived. And Chet, like a fine Barolo – not just any Bonarda from Oltrepò… - was always better than his previous self, always greater, always more experienced.

In this album, in fact, we have the same Chet from the unparalleled and slightly earlier “Let’s Get Lost”, an incredible album and film. We are, as I said, in the studio and in duo. The only subsequent traces of His Life and Music will be marvelous live appearances, all meticulously documented or almost. And everything, naturally, is gold. Here the state of grace of the two is nothing short of supreme. Pieranunzi confirms himself as a great improviser with sublime phrasing and technique, but also a very respectful and punctual accompanist, aware that, for one day, he is at the service of a genius, who is also in good shape.

Chet is Chet, old (much more than what the records said), with his perfect thread of voice and the most beautiful trumpet sound in jazz history after Miles' during his golden period. His phrasing lives from the sudden sharpness of ancient technique, but above all, it is made of thoughtfully considered, lived notes, gently laid on the harmonic carpet of the piano with great and utmost skill. The repertoire is naturally the classic ballads that Baker loved, and loved to revisit. Thus, “But Beautiful” (with three beautiful alternative takes), “My Old Flame”, “The Thrill Is Gone”, and so on, for a full hour of absolute perfection. Philology, which owns this master (in every sense), should think about enhancing it more, because people, even if it sometimes doesn't seem so, are less foolish than they appear. And they would reward it. Perhaps.