Chet Baker's Unknown First Audio Interview 1954! + Bonuses for Paying Subscribers

(Note: Paying subscribers, as usual you will find your bonuses at the very bottom—this time it’s three recordings of Chet Baker playing “Bockhanal”!)

We have already heard three interviews conducted by the late Claes Dahlgren exclusively for Swedish radio—Miles Davis in 1951, Miles in 1955, and Cecil Taylor in 1959. Here is another amazing gem from this collection—the earliest known audio interview with Chet Baker, from June 1954, just when he was becoming a star.

Baker was on tour at the time of this interview. He had just performed in Boston and Toronto, and was currently at the original Birdland in Manhattan. (His next stop would be Chicago, where he would begin on July 1.)

Baker discusses how he got started in music, remembers playing in an army band in Berlin, and tells how he met Gerry Mulligan, with whom his career took off. At 2:23 (6:30 in the longer version), he says that the sound of strings is nice for singing, but not so good for jazz.

There is a funny moment at 4:20 (8:30 in the longer version) when Claes asks Chet the meaning of the title “Bockhanal,” a blues riff by saxophonist Jack Montrose that appeared on Chet’s latest album. Claes asks because that is not the usual spelling of “bacchanale,” and when Chet says he doesn’t know, Claes suggests that it might be a reference to the album’s producer, Richard “Dick” Bock. At that point Chet suddenly says, “Oh, I understand—’Bock and all.’”

(Paying subscribers, at the bottom you will find three recordings of Chet playing “Bockhanal”! Enjoy!)

We are able to hear this recording thanks to the generosity of The Claes Dahlgren Collection at The Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research (Svenskt visarkiv). I want to personally thank Wictor Johansson, head of the audiovisual collections, and Jörgen Adolfsson, research archivist and musician, for their kind assistance.

Please Note that permission was given Only for the audio to appear in this newsletter—no other copying or publishing of this recording is allowed without prior approval. Let us all please honor this, in which case more interviews will be coming your way. (I promise you that I have some additional amazing ones lined up!) In short, do not post the audio of this interview anywhere else—but please do share the link to this page with everyone you know!

The program begins with Claes speaking in Swedish for about 4 minutes. Since my readers are international, I have made two versions of this program, one with the Swedish speaking and one without it. Both contain All of Chet’s interview, never fear! This first one includes all of Dahlgren’s Swedish announcements, followed by the complete interview. Claes speaks in Swedish again at 11:15 and Chet comes back again briefly at 13:21:

And here is the complete interview, with Swedish announcements removed:

All the best,

Lewis