Photo: Pär Rittsel, 1985

Chet and Lars on record
The only published concert so far is available on Dragon: Lars Gullin 1955/56, vol 1. (DRCD 224)
  Lars Gullin and Catherina Valente join the Chet Baker Quartet with Dick Twardzik, Jimmy Bond and Peter Littman on stage in Stuttgart, October 15, 1955.
  But at least one more concert is preserved on tape and it might just appear on disc some day!

Lee did a Gullin record
Back in 1979 I met Lee Konitz when he appeared with his marvellous Nonet down at the Vilage Vanguard in New York. I suggested a record with the Nonet playing Lars Gullin tunes, but it would take another four years until Dragon Records recorded him with a Swedish group in Stockholm. The album was titled Dedicated to Lee, referring to the tune that Lars wrote for their first session in 1953. It's a nice album but I really would have loved to hear that nonet with Ronnie Cuber and Jimmy Knepper romp through the Gullin tunes!

Chet and Lars did meet again
Lars spent most of the year 1959 in Italy. He was invited to the San Remo Jazz Festival but stayed ten months, touring and playing jam sessions and local gigs as well as recording sessions and TV-shows with Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Romano Mussolini and Gerry Mulligan.
 Lars played regularly with the Basso-Valdambrini band and an LP has just been reissued on CD.
 Chet was in a bad shape, according to Lars' wife Berit even taking a helicopter to Germany to buy drugs, and he was arrested by the Italian police.
 Hid did some memorable records with Italian musicians however, but contractual reasons prevented Lars and Chet from recording together.

Lars Gullin in Germany
Those years, around 1955 and 1956, were important to Germans. Ten years after the war, the country was definitely accepted as a democratic nation. The Documenta Art Fair in Kassel opened and local jazz musicians as Hans Koller appeared with guests like Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims, Arne Domnérus and Lars Gullin.
 Listen to the two CDs on Anagram Records: Lars Gullin in Germany, and the Lee Konitz CD on Moon Records.


 

Chet Baker Talks:

– Did you know about Lars, had you heard his music before you met him in 1955?

No, if I said that I'd be lying. I really didn't get to know Lars or no other until I'd get to Europe. I was in Germany, I think, at the time and he came down.
What was the name of this chick that was so famous in Germany that made many records?

– Catherina Valente.

Yes. That was the first time I met him and Hans Koller and we played a few jobs together, a few concerts and things.
I was very impressed by him. He had a very melodic, liquid, yes a liquid way of moving through the changes, you know.
The only baritone player that I was aware of was Gerry Mulligan. When I heard Lars, I thought, Jesus, there is another way of playing the baritone!
Lars played with a lot more fire and a lot more authority in some ways than Gerry did. Gerry was more of an arranger on his horn than a soloist, although he did play some nice solos from time to time, but I thought Lars was really strong, a talented man.

– Did you play any of his tunes at the time?

As I remember, it's so long ago, we didn't play any of his original material. I think it was some years later that heard any of his writing. And then of course, it wasn't long ago after that he passed away.

– No he didn't die until 1976.

You're kidding. I thought Lars had been dead 10 or 15 years.

– No but he was away from the scene in periods.

Was he ill?

– Drugs and abuse was the main reasons, but he was a strong guy. But he lost his teeth and couldn't blow for a period He made a comeback on the baritone in 1974 after a yearlong break.

Yes, he was a big guy, tall. And then the teeth, that's one of the things I've heard.
I heard a tune, it was so beautiful. I remember this particular tune that I heard him playing on.
He must have had some chops or teeth problems, he would miss a note but it didn't really matter, cause it was the concept, the ideas ... if he didn't get it out you still knew what it was supposed to be.
I don't know, what can you say about a man like that, I'm willing to give up ... even under all these problems... I can really identify with him because I've been through everything that he has, including loosing my teeth and the whole thing and not playing for three years from 70 to 73.

– That's about the same time as he was away from the scene. I guess that some of the Americans he admired and met could have introduced him to drugs.

Well of course, it was the same thing with me. All the people that I admired and looked up to had all done that – Charlie Parker and of course Miles and Sonny Rollins and Coltrane and all of them, you know
But in 1956 I wasn't using anything, I was absolutely clean. I didn't start using it 'till after Dick Twardzik died in 1957. He died in Paris.
We made one album in Paris and we were supposed to do another album. This day we were all in the studio waiting and he didn't come, he didn't come, he didn't come. Peter went back to his hotel and they broke his door down and they found him in there. Nobody knows whether it was an accident or what, but Dick Twardzik was some kind of talent.
You can tell from the record with all those Bob Zieff tunes. That album was way ahead of its time, it didn't go anywhere. He wrote one tune on that album, I think it was The Girl from Greenland; it's such a nice tune (hums).

– I think that he and Lars influenced each other. They met briefly but they must have exchanged ideas and I think Lars learned from that. "He was unbelievable, I had never heard such things before", Lars said about him.

They can have influenced each other; anybody with any musical sense at all would have been influenced by either one of them.
Those Bob Zieff tunes were a real challenge to me, because they were so different from what I'd been doing up till that time. I was always sad because that album never received the recognition it should have.
Bob Zieff was, is, because he's still alive and lives in Hollywood, a wonderful composer. All those tunes were completely different from one other. They had a different mood and a different feel to them, and so original. Sad Walk, Rondette, Mid-Forte, Piece Caprice – a really wonderful album and I enjoyed it so much.

– What kind of guy was Lars in those years?

He was about my age, I'm 53 now and he probably was a couple years older. He didn't really assert himself as much as I think he could have during that time. He was a little bit intimidated by us, and I didn't really get to hear the full scope of his ability until some time later.
You know 1956 is so long time ago, it's really hard to remember, that's really hard. I tried to write a book myself and tried to remember incidents and conversations, but everything is just kind of a blur in there.
Once in while I can grab hold of something. It's hard when the years go by, events kind of dim. I wish I could be more definite, more specific about Lars.
What is there really to say about him anyway, we have his music, and I guess we should be thankful for that. The music is there and it will be there.

– I've talked to Lee to get him to play some of Lars' music. The two of you could do something!

Well, I don't know. Lee, when he left Lennie Tristano and that group broke up with Warne Marsh, he changed his style. I think that was such a beautiful direction they were going in at that time.
I really lost interest although I know he's a really marvelous saxophone player. I was really enthralled by Lennie Tristano, Warne Marsh and Lee.
And the Birth of the Cool album; when Lee Konitz played his solos on those tunes: his sound, his conception, the lines and his harmonic sense.
And then he just changed and maybe he wanted to play more like Bird or something. I think he made a mistake myself; I've really been disappointed in Lee since then.

© Pär Rittsel, text and photograph 1985–2004.