Pitch Black was written in the summer of 1998 for the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, commisioned by the Almelo Chamber Music Society and the Dutch Fund for the Creation of Music. The ghettoblaster reproduces the voice of trumpet player Chet Baker, from one of the last interviews before his tragic death by falling out of an Amsterdam hotel room window in 1988. Baker talks about his past as a drug addict, his life in prison ('it was pitch black in there you know') his first audition with Charlie Parker ('among 40 other trumpet players - or were there 60?') and playing without drums ('more cool'). These 'spoken word melodies' form the musical themes in Pitch Black. Pitch Black is part of a sequence of ghettoblaster compositions that Jacob ter Veldhuis wrote, like May this bliss never end, Lipstick, Grab it! and Heartbreakers.