Chet Baker - Sextet & Quartet Vinyl LP 2018

1. Lady Bird
2. Cheryl
3. Tune Up
4. Line for Lyons
5. Pent - Up House
6. Look for the Silver Lining
7. Indian Summer
8. My Old Flame
9. My Funny Valentine

Chet Baker’s first visit to Italy took place in 1955, during his first 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. 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, which find him in a sextet and quartet format backed by local players.