Wolfgang Lakershmid/Chet Baker: Quintet Sessions 1979
Author: Simon Spillett
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Musicians: |
Larry Coryell |
Label: |
Dot Time |
Magazine Review Date: |
February/2021 |
Media Format: |
CD |
Catalogue Number: |
DT 8018 |
RecordDate: |
1979 |
Death and taxes, we're assured, are the only certainties in life. I'd add another: that the discography of trumpeter Chet Baker will forever continue to expand, much like the known universe, despite the fact that the trumpeter himself checked out in 1988. This issue isn't strictly speaking a new discovery as it's been available before, but much the same rules apply. German vibraphonist Lackerschmid was a member of Baker's touring group at this point and was delighted to find his leader returning the favour. The results are pleasant but distinctly low key given a line-up that features Tony Williams. Lackerschmid mines the same sort of territory as Bobby Hutcherson and Baker is Baker on a so-so day, which means that while everything is pretty, nothing much lodges itself in the ear.
Perhaps the biggest impediment to this being not merely a good record but a great one comes in the shape of Buster Williams, who suffers twice, the first from that appalling bass sound that marred many a 1970s jazz album, and secondly from intonation problems that make his solos a particularly startling irritant. Not anyone's finest hour then, and even when padded out with some previously unissued bonuses it's difficult to see why this has been resurrected. Completists only, I fear.
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