In July 1959 he headed back to Europe and returned to Baden-Baden as well. In these intimate duets, Chet Baker plays trumpet as only he knows how: delicate, melodic, supple. The idea of recording singer Caterina Valente in duet with Chet Baker was also ahead of its time: Ill Remember April and Every Time We Say Goodbye.Ī meeting of ultimate refinement and ultimate simplicity, wrote Joachim-Ernst Berendt. He was also a welcome guest of Joachim-Ernst Berendt, who would invite Baker on two further occasions to Baden-Baden to record with the Kurt Edelhagen Orchestra. No one was prepared for this Chet Baker Quartet, featuring pianist Dick Twardzik, bassist Jimmy Bond and drummer Peter Littman.īockhanal is the earliest number on Early Chet and a particularly valuable rarity: just four weeks after this concert, the quartet no longer existed.Īged just 24, the pianist Dick Twardzik died a drug overdose in Paris on 21 October 1955.Ĭhet Baker continued his European tour with a variety of accompanying musicians. So it came as something of a surprise for European audiences to hear the Chet Baker they discovered at his live concerts: a trumpeter with a decisive attacca style and lively boppy lines, accompanied by a pianist who combined innovative harmonies with bizarre rhythms and a drummer who propelled the band with a hard, driving beat. He gained fame seemingly overnight and in 1954 was voted best trumpeter by readers of the leading US jazz magazines ahead of Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. As trumpeter in the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Chet Baker had first played his way into the hearts of fans in 1952 with lyrical ballads and a soothing tone.
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