Description

These recordings were made during Chet Baker's first European tour in 1955.

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 would stay in Europe for a number of months after Twardzik's death, playing with different local musicians. Baker signed a contract in Paris with Nicole Barclay to make seven albums, but in the end he would record only three.