Chet Baker

Live In London

Rare recording of the trumpet legend live in the UK 34 years ago.

With his timeravaged face resembling Dorian Gray’s attic portrait, perhaps, Chet Baker looked considerably older than his 53 years when he ventured to London in the early spring of 1983 for a weeklong series of concerts at a small Covent Garden venue called The Canteen. But as this 2-CD set reveals (painstakingly restored from a private cassette recording), musically, the Oklahoma trumpeter was far from a spent force. He was in scintillating form in the company of British musicians John Horler, Jim Richardson and Tony Mann, who provide sympathetic and, at times, inspired accompaniment on a set of jazz standards. Mostly, Baker is featured on horn but he also sings on a few songs; his fragile, world-weary voice revealing a vulnerability that’s heartbreaking in its poignancy.