LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Recorded in Dallas, January 13/14, 1985, just three years before Chet Baker’s tragically premature death, Misty is one of the great trumpet player’s very last American recordings. Baker-once the shining star of fifties West Coast jazz (winning every possible jazz award, and becoming one of the most respected and highest paid trumpet players in the country), not to mention poster boy for the beat generation and embodiment of California cool (à la James Dean)-spent the last two decades of his life mostly fighting heroin addiction and living and playing in Europe. Despite having to have all of his teeth extracted, Baker relearned the trumpet and never lost his crystal clear trademark sound.