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: /____\ : >>> Chet Baker: Columbia Jazz 1953-1974 <<<
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:..:... Supplier: SER 2003 Release Date: 10/17/2003 ...:..:
: : Ripper: SER 2003 Street Date: 00/00/2003 :..:...
...:..: Genre: Jazz Label: Columbia : :
: : Tracks: 10 Tracks Quality: 192kbps/HQ/44,1kHz ...:..:
: : Year: 2003 Channels: Joint Stereo : :
:..:... Source: CD Size: 54,9 MB :..:...
: : Language: English Rating: 70% of 100% : :
: : Grabber: EAC v0.95 Prebeta 3 Encoder: LAME v3.90.3 : :
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Chet Baker was a primary exponent of the West Coast school of cool
jazz in the early and mid-'50s. As a trumpeter, he had a generally
restrained, intimate playing style and he attracted attention beyond
jazz for his photogenic looks and singing. But his career was marred
by drug addiction.
Baker's father, Chesney Henry Baker Sr., was a guitarist who was
forced to turn to other work during the Depression; his mother, Vera
(Moser) Baker, worked in a perfumery. The family moved from Oklahoma
to Glendale, CA, in 1940. As a child, Baker sang at amateur
competitions and in a church choir. Before his adolescence, his father
brought home a trombone for him, then replaced it with a trumpet when
the larger instrument proved too much for him. He had his first formal
training in music at Glendale Junior High School, but would play
largely by ear for the rest of his life. In 1946, when he was only 16
years old, he dropped out of high school and his parents signed papers
allowing him to enlist in the army; he was sent to Berlin, Germany,
where he played in the 298th Army Band. After his discharge in 1948,
he enrolled at El Camino College in Los Angeles, where he studied
theory and harmony while playing in jazz clubs, but he quit college in
the middle of his second year. He re-enlisted in the army in 1950 and
became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San
Francisco. But he also began sitting in at clubs in the city and he
finally obtained a second discharge to become a professional jazz
musician.
Baker initially played in Vido Musso's band, then with Stan Getz. (The
first recording featuring Baker is a performance of "Out of Nowhere"
that comes from a tape of a jam session made on March 24, 1952, and
was released on the Fresh Sound Records LP Live at the Trade Winds.)
His break came quickly, when, in the spring of 1952, he was chosen at
an audition to play a series of West Coast dates with Charlie Parker,
making his debut with the famed saxophonist at the Tiffany Club in Los
Angeles on May 29, 1952. That summer, he began playing in the Gerry
Mulligan Quartet, a group featuring only trombone, trumpet, bass, and
drums -- no piano -- that attracted attention during an engagement at
the Haig nightclub and through recordings on newly formed Pacific Jazz
Records (later known as World Pacific Records), beginning with the 10"
LP Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which featured Baker's famous rendition of
"My Funny Valentine."
The Gerry Mulligan Quartet lasted for less than a year, folding when
its leader went to jail on a drug charge in June 1953. Baker went
solo, forming his own quartet, which initially featured Russ Freeman
on piano, Red Mitchell on bass, and Bobby White on drums, and making
his first recording as leader for Pacific Jazz on July 24, 1953. Baker
was hailed by fans and critics and he won a number of polls in the
next few years. In 1954, Pacific Jazz released Chet Baker Sings, an
album that increased his popularity but alienated traditional jazz
fans; he would continue to sing for the rest of his career.
Acknowledging his chiseled good looks, nearby Hollywood came calling
and he made his acting debut in the film Hell's Horizon, released in
the fall of 1955. But he declined an offer of a studio contract and
toured Europe from September 1955 to April 1956. When he returned to
the U.S., he formed a quintet that featured saxophonist Phil Urso and
pianist Bobby Timmons. Contrary to his reputation for relaxed, laid
-back playing, Baker turned to more of a bop style with this group,
which recorded the album Chet Baker & Crew for Pacific Jazz in July
1956.
Baker toured the U.S. in February 1957 with the Birdland All Stars and
took a group to Europe later that year. He returned to Europe to stay
in 1959, settling in Italy, where he acted in the film Urlatori Alla
Sbarra. Hollywood, meanwhile, had not entirely given up on him, at
least as a source of inspiration, and in 1960, a fictionalized film
biography of his life, All the Fine Young Cannibals, appeared with
Robert Wagner in the starring role of Chad Bixby.
Baker had become addicted to heroin in the 1950s and had been
incarcerated briefly on several occasions, but his drug habit only
began to interfere with his career significantly in the 1960s. He was
arrested in Italy in the summer of 1960 and spent almost a year and a
half in jail. He celebrated his release by recording Chet Is Back for
RCA in February 1962. (It has since been reissued as The Italian
Sessions and as Somewhere Over the Rainbow.) Later in the year, he was
arrested in West Germany and expelled to Switzerland, then France,
later moving to England in August 1962 to appear as himself in the
film The Stolen Hours, which was released in 1963. He was deported
from England to France because of a drug offense in March 1963. He
lived in Paris and performed there and in Spain over the next year,
but after being arrested again in West Germany, he was deported back
to the U.S. He returned to America after five years in Europe on March
3, 1964, and played primarily in New York and Los Angeles during the
mid-'60s, having switched temporarily from trumpet to flⁿgelhorn. In
the summer of 1966, he suffered a severe beating in San Francisco that
was related to his drug addiction. The incident is usually misdated
and frequently exaggerated in accounts of his life, often due to his
own unreliable testimony. It is said, for example, that all his teeth
were knocked out, which is not the case, though one tooth was broken
and the general deterioration of his teeth led to his being fitted
with dentures in the late '60s, forcing him to retrain his embouchure.
The beating was not the cause of the decline in his career during this
period, but it is emblematic of that decline. By the end of the '60s,
he was recording and performing only infrequently and he stopped
playing completely in the early '70s.
Regaining some control over his life by taking methadone to control
his heroin addiction (though he remained an addict), Baker eventually
mounted a comeback that culminated in a prominent New York club
engagement in November 1973 and a reunion concert with Gerry Mulligan
at Carnegie Hall in November 1974 that was recorded and released by
Epic Records. By the mid-'70s, Baker was able to return to Europe and
he spent the rest of his life performing there primarily, with
occasional trips to Japan and periods back in the U.S., though he had
no permanent residence. He attracted the attention of rock musicians,
with whom he occasionally performed, for example adding trumpet to
Elvis Costello's recording of his anti-Falklands War song
"Shipbuilding" in 1983. In 1987, photographer and filmmaker Bruce
Weber undertook a documentary film about Baker. The following year,
Baker died in a fall from a hotel window in Amsterdam after taking
heroin and cocaine. Weber's film, Let's Get Lost, premiered in
September 1988 to critical acclaim and earned an Academy Award
nomination. In 1997, Baker's unfinished autobiography was published
under the title As Though I Had Wings: The Lost Memoir and the book
was optioned by Miramax for a film adaptation.
Baker's drug addiction caused him to lead a disorganized and
peripatetic life, his constant need for cash requiring him to accept
many ill-advised recording offers, while his undependability prevented
him from making long-term commitments to record labels. As a result,
his discography is extensive and wildly uneven.
http://www.chetbaker.net/
Tracks:
01. Little Duet For Zoot And Chet (2:35)
02. Love Walked In (2:58)
03. You Don't Know What Love Is (3:29)
04. I'm Through With Love (2:39)
05. You Better Go Now (3:05)
06. The Wind (3:59)
07. Autumn Leaves (7:05)
08. She Was Too Good To Me (4:42)
09. Tangerine (5:29)
10. What'll I Do (3:55)
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