Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker

Description

This first major biography of the most romanticized icon in jazz thrillingly recounts his wild ride. From his emergence in the 1950s--when an uncannily beautiful young man from Oklahoma appeared on the West Coast to become, 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. Here, drawing on hundreds of interviews and previously untapped sources, James Gavin gives a hair-raising account of the trumpeter's dark journey.

James Gavin is the author of Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne and Intimate Nights: The Golden Age of New York Cabaret. His journalism has appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Time Out New York, and the Huffington Post.

"A landmark in entertainment biography." -- Tony Gieske , Hollywood Reporter "Definitive ... a haunting prose poem that's every bit as affecting as one of Baker's solos." -- Entertainment Weekly - "A" rating "Superb ... unerring ... a stark, troubling portrait of both the artist and his times." -- Publisher's Weekly "Splendid, fascinatingly thorough ... a book that remains a page-turner long after it's obvious what's coming next." -- K. Leander Williams , Time Out New York "So thorough, gripping and well-written that once the pages start to turn, you're hooked ... a journalistic gem." -- Jason Koransky , Down Beat "Savagely honest ... impeccably researched, elegantly written." -- Joel Selvin , San Francisco Chronicle "Harrowing ... chilling." -- Richard Sudhalter , Baltimore Sun "Cringingly fine ... a really scary story." -- Kirkus Reviews