The complete studio recordings made by the great Chet Baker in Milan, Italy, in 1959. This music is compiled here on one set for the first time ever, and is presented in the order in which it was recorded. As a bonus, this disc adds music made by Chet in Italy during the same period for film soundtracks.
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 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.
