by Artt Frank
(2012) Kindle Edition & Paperback
Available at: www.amazon.com
Click here for the press kit.
Chet Baker: The Missing Years is a memoir by Chet Baker’s friend and Jazz Hall of Fame drummer Artt Frank. As reviewed by premiere jazz journalist and critic, Doug Ramsey, this memoir “…shows us sides of the great trumpeter that few people knew. In gripping detail, he [Artt] tells of the well-known drama in Baker’s life—the sudden fame, the struggle with drugs, the effects of a beating that almost ended his career. But Artt gives us new insights into Chet’s warmth, his love of family, his steely determination and the early emergence of his astonishing talent…This is a book of revelations.” The Missing Years is first in a two-part series.
Reviews
“In depicting Chet’s struggle to recovery, Artt reveals great compassion for a sensitive soul fighting for a life, and puts to rest the rumors and gossip that circulated about Chet’s ‘missing years.’”
~ Dave Brubeck, Legendary Jazz Pianist and Composer
“Chet Baker: The Missing Years takes the reader back to a time and a place where jazz musicians, movie stars and rock stars rubbed shoulders in smoke-filled clubs along Sunset Boulevard, and where a fallen angel could rise up out of the street, and with the love of his loyal friend, dust off his wings, and learn to fly again.”
~ Tim Schaffner, Publisher, Schaffner Press, and Drummer
“A must-read for everyone from the casual jazz fan to the serious student of jazz history.”
~ JB Dyas, PhD, VP, Education and Curriculum Development, Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz
“…Artt gives us new insights into Chet’s warmth, his love of family, his steely determination and the early emergence of his astonishing talent… This is a book of revelations.”
~ Doug Ramsey, Author of Jazz Matters and Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond
“…This book is more than just a series of stories. Artt writes about all the people involved with total love and respect, especially about Chet, the person, who could’ve been a character in a Dostoevsky novel or Greek tragedy, but happens to have been one of the all time great jazz artists. Anyone will be moved by this story.”
~ Dave Liebman, Saxophonist and Flautist; 2010 NEA Jazz Masters Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient