Patrons are requested to keep as quiet as
possible during the artistes performance


The Portobello Hotel was on a nice,
quiet street,
this was before the Notting Hill area
got so famous and busy.

The guy in the reception
looked up at me and said:
"A guy called Chet phoned for you".
There was a note for me.

The night before, my friend Lars and I had been to
Ronnie Scott´s.
Chet Baker was playing there with
his band.

We met Chet Baker before the gig and I gave him a
copy of a video that was made in Stockholm some
months before.
The record company I worked for had
made a record with Chet and this was
the video.

I don´t think he remembered me
from Stockholm.
I was the one that paid him his royalties but he
had been given many royalty checks in his time.
But he was nice and we
talked briefly and I said that we would come to the gig
the next day also.

It was a great gig, that first night, Chet and the band were
tight. Chet´s voice was strong and weak in the right
way.
Played the trumpet like no one else. Only he could
sound like that.
A great gig.

The telephone message said:
Chet phoned. "We would like to come and
have a chat with you
at the hotel.
We´ll arrive before 10 PM
tonight"

I was stunned - Chet wanted to come by to see us.

But in the afternoon I was busy working and
we heard nothing more from Chet.
Later I met up with Lars and we went to Langan´s
Brasserie for a long dinner. We met some
people there and after some bar visits we
went back to Ronnie Scott´s.

We were in a really good mood and we
met more people there at the bar.
And lots of drinks were ordered.
We had a few games of poker dice and
we were not paying full attention
to the band.

There were people telling us
to stop talking and laughing.
And someone showing us a sign saying
the audience should be
quiet
during the
performance.

Anyway, Lars and I had a great time and
we stayed for the whole set and ended up
taking a nightcap in the
downstairs bar at Portobello Hotel at about
3.30 in the morning.

Suddenly three more people stumbled
in to the otherwise quiet bar.
Chet Baker and his flute player Nicola Stilo
and their manager coming
straight from Ronnie Scott´s.

The party started over again.
We order more drinks.
Chet is slowly sipping shots of Amaretto
with ice.
We sit and talk. Chet tells about their
recent tour in Japan, where they were really
popular. Lots of people at the
concerts. Like a pop band.

Suddenly they all started discussing the
Ronnie Scott´s gig, how great it was to
play there but tonight was bad because the
audience was so loud and noisy.
They all agreed with this and Lars and I just
nodded and said, "Yeah, right" and tried to
talk more about Japan or Sweden
or the like.

I didn´t dare look at Lars because we would probably
start to laugh.
The flute player went on and on about the
noisy crowd but
in the end we went on to talk about
something else.

They were apparently not aware they were
talking to
the two loudest
troublemakers
in the
audience.

We had some more beers. Chet ordered another
Amaretto with ice.
Perhaps he was on or off drugs and needed the
sweet drink?

At six in the morning we all hugged and they left in a cab.

The guy in the bar came up.
That was Chet Baker, wasn´t it?
Yeah, right, I said.
Like it was the most natural thing in the world.

We never saw them again.
And two years later Chet was gone,
flying from the window
of that hotel
in Amsterdam.





Published in Chiron Review #66, 2001