Ife Ogunjobi Salutes Chet Baker With New Take on "Speak Low" For 'Chet Baker Re:Imagined'

Ezra Collective trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi is the latest artist to pay homage to jazz legend Chet Baker as part of the forthcoming Chet Baker Re:Imagined tribute album, as his version of “Speak Low” recently released. Initially composed by Kurt Weill — a composer who was mostly known for his stage works, which include “Mack the Knife” — in 1943 for a Broadway musical titled One Touch of Venus, “Speak Low” became a jazz standard in the following years. It’s been covered by vocal artists like Billie Holiday and Tony Bennett to genre-bending creatives like Eumir Deodato and jazz icons like the trio of Sonny Clark, Donald Byrd and John Coltrane. However, Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan performed one of its most famous iterations, and it’s that iteration that Ogunjobi is putting his spin on for Chet Baker Re:Imagined.

Clocking in at just under four and a half minutes, Ogunjobi’s iteration of “Speak Low” infuses the track with several of his own influences, from the percussive Afrobeat rhythms that can be found in his work with Ezra Collective, his unique, soulful yet triumphant tone on the trumpet and the lessons he learned from listening to Baker’s music when he began playing jazz.

“I came across Chet Baker in my early years when I was learning the trumpet and jazz music, and his music spoke to me,” Ogunjobi says. “I thought it was really soulful, really honest. Everything from his trumpet playing to his singing was relatable, and I think that’s something I took from his music and his playing — to be who you are and to say it plainly when you sing or play.”

Stream Ife Ogunjobi’s take on “Speak Low” now, and expect Chet Baker Re:Imagined, featuring fifteen tribute tracks from everyone from Ogunjobi to Benny Sings and Poppy Daniels to touch down on April 11.