The Thrill is Gone - Jazz Characters

3 CD digipack + 40 page book.
Remastered from original tapes

Chet Baker (1929 - 1988)

As the incarnation of the blues, Chet Baker presents a real paradox, more so than any other jazz musician because he is, after all, white! His drug- and alcohol-ridden life seems to be a journey to the edge of the abyss, a stabbing, painful flirtation with death to which the breathy, broken notes coming out of his trumpet form the musical appendix, the counterpoint, so to speak. Chesnay H. Baker was born on 23 November 1929 in Yale, Oklahoma. He began playing trumpet in Glendale High School band, then in 1946, he played in the 298th army band in Berlin, where he discovered bebop, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. He studied music theory in Los Angeles whilst taking part in the Lighthouse jam sessions with Art Pepper, then signed on again with the army and frequented Dexter Gordon, before deserting to go and play with Stan Getz and Charlie Parker. He finally obtained his discharge, and went to play in Gerry Mulligan's quartet, where he was a huge success. From 1953 on, he recorded albums under his own name, travelling to Europe between recording sessions, some marvellous concerts and periods in prison for possession and usage of drugs. Chet Baker is an outstanding soloist; his style expresses the real pain of living, his trumpet sings a strange but magnificent blues in spite of his amazing economy of means, and every time he sings, he takes the whole spectrum of emotions associated with the blues just that little bit further…His highly imaginative style with its impeccably pure sound and no vibrato recalls that of Miles Davis; Chet always seems to go the very heart of the matter, where emotion and feeling border on pain; add to this his remarkable sense of balance in the melody, and you have a truly rare musician. On 13 May 1988, he fell out of the window of his second-floor room in an Amsterdam hotel, in circumstances that have never been properly elucidated, thus putting a final full stop to the sublime agony of his existence.