heartland of America should find himself thousands of miles from home , keeping the peace on another continent . Heartland Americans , who in an era before mass electronic communication regarded New York and California as remote and exotic , rarely showed much interest in what we would sum up as world affairs . Even in later life , Chet showed remarkably little interest in the history and culture of the European countries that sustained his later career . He tended to refer to Europe – “ Yerp ” – as if it were a single undifferentiated suburb of the United States . Despite his long association with Italy in particular , he often affected not to know which city he was in , though there were times when his drug intake was such that the confusion was probably genuine . Yet there is evidence that the younger Chet was more responsive and revelled in what must have seemed the freer and more sophisticated atmosphere of the Old World . In that sense , he was an actor in what novelist Henry James identified as the “ international theme ”, the innocent but hopeful young American , a new kind of man from a country with as yet little history , coming into contact with the deep culture but also the duplicities of a far more ancient civilisation . Though James ’ s Americans generally came from middle-class Eastern seaboard environments , he would surely have recognised something in Chet Baker .
After processing and basic orientation , Chet was assigned to the 298th Army Band , playing anthems to welcome visiting Allied generals and patriotic tunes at passing-out parades . Someone who served in a military band at the same time said that the work was regular , if repetitive . “ There always seemed to be someone visiting camp , or some kind of ceremonial . We sometimes played three , four times a day , several days running .” More important , perhaps , Chet enjoyed himself off-duty in what was for most of those boys a paredback , latter day version of the 18th century Grand Tour , an essential
9