SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: VARIOUS ARTISTS – CHET BAKER RE:IMAGINED

VARIOUS ARTISTS
CHET BAKER RE:IMAGINED
DECCA RECORDS/BLUENOTE RECORDS

Chet Baker remains among the most revered American jazz artists of his time. Despite passing in 1988, Baker’s voice and the emotion he could conjure through the trumpet remain timeless. In testament to this, Decca Records and Blue Note Records have released Chet Baker Re:Imagined, a collection of 15 Baker originals, all performed by different artists, including dodie, Matilda Mann, Matt Maltese, among others.

Joel Culpepper’s rendition of “Look For The Silver Lining” opens the album with a bouncy piano and an incredibly adventurous melody that wastes no time in pulling the listener in. Culpepper’s cover is charming and a touch whimsical, as he dances around the jazz roots of Baker’s work with a neo-soul touch in both the performance and instrumentation. On the flip side, Eloise follows this with an intimate cover of “That Old Feeling”, starring her longing vocals and a crisp but sparse acoustic guitar, backed by just a light synth and using a chorus of backing vocals to develop the song through its progression. The contrast between these opening tracks is stunning, speaking as much to the scope of Chet Baker Re:Imagined as it does to Baker himself.

Chet Baker Re:Imagined shines equally for such striking departures as it does for its use of more traditional elements of jazz, something that is done implicitly and explicitly in equal measure. For the melancholic lullaby of “I Get Along Without You”, performed by Hohnen Ford, to the jazz orchestra led by Poppy Daniels on “I’ve Never Been In Love Before”, there is much to love across this album, despite not all covers being cut quite from the same cloth. Two tracks that stand out exceptionally are dodie’s cover of “Old Devil Moon” and Ife Ogunjobi’s rendition of “Speak Low”. The former soars for dodie’s spectacularly vintage vocal timbre and an arrangement that seamlessly transitions from jazz to Latin between the verse and choruses. The latter stands as a gem among the few instrumental tracks as Ogunjobi leads an ensemble with a powerful trumpet through an afrobeat arrangement of Baker’s original set over massive fills, displaced beats that groove phenomenally, rhythmic bass, and dazzling synths.

Chet Baker Re:Imagined does more than pay tribute to its namesake through a series of covers. Instead, the album curates a range of musical styles and moods, speaking far more to the artistry that was at the centre of Baker’s work. Truly, through such a vast range of adaptations, the kaleidoscope of Baker’s artistry is exceptionally celebrated through a stellar cast of musicians making Chet Baker Re:Imagined a breathtaking tribute to the enduring legacy and creative spirit of Chet Baker.

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