Chet Baker and Jimmy Bond, Amsterdam 1955 (thank you Joe Elkins)Chet Baker (1929-1988) died in Amsterdam when he fell out of his hotel window, probably drunk and/or stoned. And then I found this 630MB. movie. It's a performance at
Ronnie Scott's Club from 1986 featuring
Elvis Costello and
Van Morrison. This is a pretty impressive movie, when you're into this kinda stuff.
All credits go to Nico for providing the links;
"In the early 1950s, trumpeter-vocalist Chet Baker was the "James Dean of Jazz." Blessed with good looks and a lyrical and lean trumpet style, Baker arrived on the scene in California at the age of 22, when the great alto saxophonist Charlie Parker invited him to work in his band. Decades later, Baker got involved in drugs, had run-ins with the law, and became a poster boy for the image of the doped-out jazz fiend.
This 1986 film, shot two years before Baker fell to his death from a hotel in Amsterdam, captures the painful pathos and poetry of his art in an intimate set at Ronnie Scott's famed jazz club in London. With a breathy, walking-on-eggshells trumpet tone similar to the sound of Miles Davis, and an achy, whisper-toned vocal style, the weathered and weary Baker delivers piercing takes on a number of standards and jazz classics, including "Just Friends," "My Ideal," and "Shifting Down."
Punk rock icon Elvis Costello joins Baker on blue-embered renditions of "The Very Thought of You" and "You Don't Know What Love Is." Not to be outdone, Van Morrison of "Moondance" fame duets with Baker on an intimate reading of "Send in the Clowns." In addition to the music, Costello interviews Baker about various and sundry aspects of his life: his boyhood in Oklahoma, his evolution as a jazz artist, and his nightmarish decent into drugs. Along with a detailed discography, career tree, and trivia track, this DVD gives us the best of this talented but tortured genius.
Chet Baker's performance here is both fragile and passionate. Baker is joined by Van Morrison and reunited with Elvis Costello, with whom he recorded Shipbuilding at Ronnie Scott's intimate English club. Chet recalls winning a spot with Charlie Parker's band at the tender age of 22, but humbles himself by confessing to a lifelong addiction to drugs."
The .avi movie comes in about 7x90MB. files;
Chet Baker - live at Ronnie Scott's - 1986 - part1.rarChet Baker - live at Ronnie Scott's - 1986 - part2.rarChet Baker - live at Ronnie Scott's - 1986 - part3.rarChet Baker - live at Ronnie Scott's - 1986 - part4.rarChet Baker - live at Ronnie Scott's - 1986 - part5.rarChet Baker - live at Ronnie Scott's - 1986 - part6.rarChet Baker - live at Ronnie Scott's - 1986 - part7.rarEnjoy
