Chet Baker
Silent Night. A Christmas Jazz Album

LA RECENSIONE

When you want something new, or rather something special, strange, or better yet, little known, head towards the family's CD corner. It's almost no longer winter, spring and good weather are just around the corner... But with the cold that hit this year (at least in my area), staying indoors on those dark afternoons was a real pleasure. The only lights on: those of the Christmas decorations, a crackling fire in the fireplace, incense burning, a comfortable armchair, a double glass of Jack with ice in hand... and Chat Baker in the background.

Suddenly, we're no longer in our living room but in one of those Underground pubs in New York from the golden years of jazz. In short, here's how the magical atmosphere that this special album can create is described. A great in Jazz, a legendary trumpet in a mythical Christmas performance, a burst of elegant and refined sounds, "Silent Night" is a class CD, a treasure, a relic, interesting from every point of view, especially because it contains "not very important" performances by the great Baker, pieces between the "unreleased" and the "never heard". The exception is made for the first song with which the album opens and closes: what we commonly call White Christmas, or "Silent Night," which in Baker's version is not to be missed. Accompanying the great Baker, on second voice, there is Christopher Mason, the saxophonist with great initiatives or rather great solo inventions. Very bold and mystical are Mike Pellera's fingers on the piano.

It's a shame it only lasts half an hour. I've never delved into the genre, but with this CD sweetened just right, it's easy to get carried away by the melodies of gospel, the most original jazz there is. Surely I don't need to recommend it to fans of the genre, but for the others what can I say: ...if you want to try, it's pleasant.

N.B= I don't exaggerate with the rating because this is the only jazz "work" I've come across and I don't have a parameter to base it on.