“Jazz Latitude highlights the fantastic recent release of the album Swimming by Moonlight, which brings together unreleased material recorded by Chet Baker between 1986 and 1987. These are, notably, live recordings from concerts held in France during the final year of the singer and trumpeter’s life. Chet Baker is the ultimate exponent of Cool Jazz, the predominant musical style of the U.S. West Coast, and the primary influence on the emergence of Bossa Nova in Brazil.
The new album features a very rare interpretation of ‘Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars’, the English version of Tom Jobim’s classic ‘Corcovado’. Until now, there were no known recordings of Chet Baker both singing and playing his trumpet on this song.
The album Swimming by Moonlight was released in the United States by the Los Angeles-based label Slow Down Sounds in November 2025. It compiles recordings made during Chet Baker’s performances while traveling through France with documentarian Bruce Weber for the filming of his biopic, Let’s Get Lost, released in 1988.
Chet Baker had lived in France in the early 1980s. During that period, he met Brazilian musicians performing at the Petit Opportun club, playing a fusion of jazz and Brazilian music. They eventually recorded a historic album together: Chet Baker and The Boto Brazilian Quartet, released in 1981 by the French label Dreyfus.”