BAKER, Chesney Henry “Chet”, Jr. (1929-1988).

Concert programme for two performances by the Chet Baker Quartet presented by the Hot Club de Belgique at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, and the Cercle Royal Artistique, Antwerp, on 2 October 1955, signed and inscribed by Chet Baker. Inscribed in blue ink at his portrait to Belgian music journalist Maria Therese “Mimi” Faelens ‘Thanks Mimi – Chet Baker -55-’, additionally signed by the Quartet’s drummer Peter Littman, bassist Jimmy Bond and pianist Dick Twardzik, who would be found dead of an overdose in his hotel room in Paris only three weeks after these concerts.

This was the first European tour for Chet, whose star had risen rapidly on the strength of his 1952 recordings with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. By 1954, at just 24, he won reader's polls at Metronome and DownBeat magazines, beating trumpeters Miles Davis and Clifford Brown. The extended tour included performances in Holland, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy and Belgium. Wire-stitched in the original pictorial self-wraps. Provenance: Maria Therese “Mimi” Faelens.

[With:] – Chet Baker Quintette and The Most Important Jazz Album of 1964/65. Crown Records and Colpix Records, 1963 and 1964. Two albums signed and inscribed in black ink to Boston arts critic and photographer Paul McMahon by Chet Baker, the first inscribed on the front of the sleeve ‘Yeah Paul, Chet Baker, Boston -64-’, the second inscribed on the reverse of the sleeve ‘Many thanks Paul, Chet Baker -1964-’. Provenance: Paul McMahon (arts critic and photographer).

[And:] BAKER, Chesney Henry “Chet”, Jr. (1929-1988) and Gerry MULLIGAN (1927-1996). Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Pacific Jazz Records, double EP set, 1953. Album signed in blue ballpoint pen on the gatefold sleeve by Chet Baker ‘Thanks Neal, Chet Baker -56-’ and by saxophonist and leader of the Quartet Gerry Mulligan, additionally signed by bassist Carson Smith.