Chet Baker

This music, originally issued in Italy as "Angel Eyes" (Celson LPQ-25005) and in the United States as "Chet Baker with Fifty Italian Strings" (Jazzland JLP-21), was recorded by the great Chet Baker in Milan, Italy, in 1959. It was his second European tour (the first one had taken place in 1955), and would lead to Baker’s imprisonment in Italy for drug charges. Baker is backed by a big band conducted by Len Mercer (the artistic name of the Milanese conductor Ezio Leoni) in a repertoire of well-known standards, among them a new reading of the classic “My Funny Valentine”. Tracks made by Chet in Italy during the same period for film soundtracks conducted by Piero Umiliani have been added as a bonus.

PERSONNEL:

CHET BAKER, trumpet & vocals
On all tracks, plus:

LEN MERCER'S ORCHESTRA, including:
Mario Pezzotta (tb), Gianni Basso (ts), Fausto Papetti (bar)
Giulio Libani (p, cello, arr), Franco Cerry (b),
Gene Victory (d). Len Mercer [aka Ezio Leoni] (arr, cond).

Milan, Italy, September-October, 1959.

(*) BONUS TRACKS (12-19):
Italian movie soundtracks by Chet Baker (tp, vcl)
with the Piero Umiliani Orchestra.
[12-16]: Soundtrack to the film Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti. Rome, 1960.
[17-19]: Soundtrack to the film Smog. Rome, Italy, 1962.

TRACKS:

01 ANGEL EYES
02 WHEN I FALL IN LOVE
03 THE SONG IS YOU
04 DEEP IN A DREAM
05 GOODBYE
06 I SHOULD CARE
07 AUTUMN IN NEW YORK
08 MY FUNNY VALENTINE
09 STREET OF DREAMS
10 VIOLETS FOR YOUR FURS
11 FORGETFUL
12 TENSIONE (*)
13 ALONE IN A CROWD (*)
14 RELAXIN’ WITH CHET (*)
15 I SOLITI IGNOTI (*)
16 TEMA D’AMORE (*)
17 SMOG (*)
18 TWILIGHT IN LOS ANGELES (*)
19 THINKING BLUES (*)

TOTAL TIME: 77:55 Min.