During 1955 Chet began playing with the extremely talented pianist Richard Twardzik they went on tour to Europe together with a Quartet also featuring Jimmy Bond and Peter Littmann. After a live concert at Club Tabu in Paris where they were joined on stage by the great Swedish baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin Twardzik returned to the Hôtel de la Madeleine on the Rue de Surène , the band were due to reconvene at 4pm for a recording session at the Pathé-Magellan studio for Barclay When, after an hour, he hadn’t showed up, a search party went back to the hotel and his body was discovered. A heroin overdose had killed him. He was 24 years old.
His death affected Pete Littmann so badly that he sold his drum kit to buy a ticket home, Chet and Jimmy Bond stayed and recorded several sessions for Barclay and a mixture of musicians three records came out of those sessions.
Thanks for this @Bobthebuilder , your enthusiasm for Chet combined with I think from memory a post from @TheKevster on a Craft release led to me having an interest.
Have to say that the half dozen or so albums I now have are some of the most regularly played from a Jazz perspective.
Maybe it’s just the selection of albums that I have but he seems to be a very accessible artist from a Jazz perspective, which can be a genre that is pretty daunting.
Next up will be Chet Baker & His Quartet with Bobby Jaspar and Chet Baker Quartet featuring both Richard Twardzik, Pete Littmann and Jimmy Bond the band that left the US together before Twardzik’s tragic death.
Richard Twardzik unfortunately didn’t record very much but Trio with Russ Freeman on Pacific Jazz from 1955 is very good I have a UK pressing on Vogue which can still be found for reasonable prices and of course the Chet Baker Quartet concert recorded in Koln a few weeks before his death but although it’s worth a listen on youtube because the music is excellent both the CD and later vinyl versions don’t sound good.
One thing you have to admit regarding vinyl. The wonderful gatefold packaging with liner notes, great pictures, etc that are easily readable and such a tactile experience to hold and digest. Can’t praise the format from this perspective highly enough.
Chet Baker Quartet - Chet Baker Quartet, Barclay 84009 (1955) / Sam Records SR01/1 (2011)
This was also released in 1955 before the above Chet Baker Quartet so chronologically should have been posted first but it had somehow been put in the wrong place and it took me a while to find it.
Again it is the excellent French Sam Records reissue I own from 2011.
Tracklist
Rondette
Piece Caprice
Mid-Forte
Re-search
Pomp
Sad Walk
Just Duo
The Girl From Greenland
Brash
Richard Twardzik - Piano
Jimmy Bond - Bass
Pete Littmann - Drums
Recorded October 1955 at the Pathé-Magellan Studio, Paris.
1955 was a big year for Chet and a real turning point even before that ill fated tour of Europe because of crossover hits like Chet Baker sings and due to his cool, model good looks photographed by the likes of William Claxton Hollywood began taking an interest in Chet and though his first film a B Movie called ‘Hell’s Horizon’ about the Korean war wasn’t a success there was enough in his part ‘Jockey’ a trumpet playing Private for him to be offered a film contract but Chet turned it down to go back on the road.
In 1956 Chet returned to the studio again for Pacific Jazz firstly on a collaboration with Art Pepper called Playboys a title that was later changed because the threat of litigation by Hugh Heffner to A Picture of Heath after a track on the album and composer Jimmy Heath the band also featured the excellent Curtis Counce on bass and Carl Perkins on piano.
Although I don’t have a version of Playboys I do have a couple of versions of Picture of Heath on Pure Pleasure and Tone Poet.
As you’ll see their tracklistings do differ slightly from the Playboys original.
Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Phil Urso – Picture Of Heath, Pacific Jazz/Pure Pleasure Records PJ-18 (2006), Pacific Jazz/Tone Poet PJ-18 (2022)
Tracklist
A1. Picture Of Heath (6:43)
A2. For Miles And Miles (6:24)
A3. C.T.A. (5:09)
B1. For Minors Only (3:59)
B2. Minor-Yours (6:40)
B3. Resonant Emotions (5:41)
B4. Tynan Tyme (5:31)
Alto Saxophone – Art Pepper
Bass – Curtis Counce
Drums – Lawrence Marable
Piano – Carl Perkins
Tenor Saxophone – Phil Urso
Trumpet - Chet Baker
Producer – Richard Bock
