Chet Baker at Fasching

Chet Baker came to Stockholm to play the Fasching Jazz Club. He called and I went to see him at his hotel. We had spent some time together in London the year before and he was one of my jazz heroes. At the Salvation Army hotel I was shown to his room but Chet hardly wanted to open the door, he just took the recordings I brought him and we chatted briefly. He had a friend in there, a Swedish jazz musician and the hotel room was filled with sweet and heavy smoke. I left and we said we would talk more at the jazz club that night. In between sets at Fasching I tried to get in contact with Chet but his friend was really nervous and the same sweet smoke came out of Chet's dressing room. I said hi to Chet & his band but soon the Swedish friend closed the door. I was the financial director of Chet's record company in Sweden; I was a bean counter but not a police officer. Chet knew this, we had been drunk together in London, but his friend from Sweden maybe thought I was with the drug enforcement agency. I left them and went back to my friends at the bar and got drunk on beer and Jaegermeister. Chet's playing that night at Fasching was absolutely beautiful, the tone of his trumpet and voice was so very soft and he sounded better than ever. Or maybe it was just because we were high, Chet and I? Published in Nerve Cowboy, 2002

 

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