Deep In A Dream
James Gavin
  • Published: 1 August 2003
  • ISBN: 9780099590514
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $32.99
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Deep In A Dream

The Long Night of Chet Baker

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'The definitive biography' Mail on Sunday

From his emergence in the 1950s - when an uncannily beautiful young man from Oklahoma appeared in the West Coast and became, seemingly overnight, the prince of 'cool' jazz - until his violent, drug-related death in Amsterdam in 1988, Chet Baker lived a life that has become an American myth. At once sexy and forbidding, the so-called 'James Dean of Jazz' struck a note of menace in the staid fifties.

In this first major biography, the story of Baker's demise is finally revealed. So is the truth behind his tormented childhood. Behind Baker's icy façade lay something ominous, unspoken. The mystery drove both sexes crazy. But his only real romance, apart from music, was with drugs. Gavin brilliantly recreates the life of a man whose journey from golden promise to eventual destruction mirrored America's fall from post-war innocence - but whose music has never lost the power to enchant and seduce us.
  • Published: 1 August 2003
  • ISBN: 9780099590514
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $32.99
Categories:

About the author

James Gavin

James Gavin is the author of Intimate Nights: The Golden Age of New York Cabaret and Deep in a Dream. He is also a frequent contributor to the New York Times and other publications.

Praise for Deep In A Dream

Much of Baker's work was unique and remains haunting. All the more haunting after reading this book

Sunday Independent

Detailed and perceptive

Economist

It reads like true life... Gavin is very good

Time Out

Detailed... Critically assured and never allows the cool of the icon to occlude the venality of the individual

Scotland on Sunday

Baker's impact lives on even now - sexy, angelic, needy, icy and enigmatic... Gavin's book captures Baker's journey from the golden promise of his youth to his seedy end in Amsterdam in mesmerising detail

Irish Independent

Deep in a Dream is a black comedy of bad behaviour, outstanding even by the standards of artists in general and jazz musicians in particular

Sunday Herald
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