Chet Baker

INCLUDES 8 BONUS TRACKS

Chet Baker had a long and complicated relationship with Italy. It was a country where he was both imprisoned and adored. His first visit there took place in 1955, during his first and highly successful European tour. It was during this tour that the quartet’s pianist, the talented Dick Twardzik, tragically died in Paris from a heroin overdose. Baker was devastated, and following Twardzik’s death – for which he felt some level of responsibility – the trumpeter submerged himself in the drug world and in a self-destructive spiral which would last for the rest of his life. His first preserved recordings in Italy date back to a concert at Conservatorio Cherubini, in Firenze (Florence), on January 24, 1956.

Baker made his way back to New York in mid-1956 and wouldn’t return to Italy until the 1959 trip that yielded the recordings included here. In the summer of 1960 the drug problem resurfaced. One night Baker was found unconscious and bleeding in the toilet of a service station, having hurt himself injecting drugs. The police arrested him. At the ensuing court case he was sentenced to sixteen months’ imprisonment, and was released on December 15, 1961. Baker left Italy on bad terms in 1962, but would return to the country many times.

PERSONNEL:

CHET BAKER, trumpet
GLAUCO MASETTI, alto sax (out on 7-8)
GIANNI BASSO, tenor sax (out on 7-8)
RENATO SELLANI, piano
FRANCO CERRI, bass
GENE VICTORY, drums

Arrangements by Giulio Libani

Milan, Italy, September 25 (1-4) & October 6 (5-8), 1959.

*Bonus tracks (9-16):
Chet Baker with Len Mercer’s Orchestra.
Milan, Italy, September 28 (tracks 9-12) & September 29 (tracks 13-16), 1959.

TRACKS:

01 LADY BIRD
02 CHERYL
03 TUNE UP
04 LINE FOR LYONS
05 PENT-UP HOUSE
06 LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING
07 INDIAN SUMMER
08 MY OLD FLAME
09 ANGEL EYES *
10 WHEN I FALL IN LOVE *
11 THE SONG IS YOU *
12 DEEP IN A DREAM*
13 GOODBYE *
14 I SHOULD CARE *
15 AUTUMN IN NEW YORK *
16 MY FUNNY VALENTINE*

Total time: 75:00