Things are never what they seem. Chet Baker was indeed the Prince Of Cool when it came to these sides recorded in the Fifties for the Pacific Jazz Label, but his own personal story also involved drug abuse, incarceration, dissipation, and ultimately death after falling from the window of an Amsterdam hotel room window in 1988. By the end of his life his Hollywood good looks had faded, replaced by the grim visage captured in Bruce Weber’s documentary film Let’s Get Lost. Chet Baker’s continuing fame rests as much on his tragic story as it does on his recorded work.
His story is the classic improbable American success story. He was born Henry Chesney Baker Jr. in 1929 in Oklahoma and would have likely spent his life in rural obscurity but his family moved to California in 1940 searching for opportunity. His father bought him a trombone, but when this turned out to be too large for Chet it was swapped for a trumpet. Soon Chet was mastering the instrument with his own style. It was never a problem for him to learn difficult charts without even being able to read music. After a stint in the Army he began playing the clubs along the West Coast. Soon the great Charlie Parker was asking Chet to join him when he played a series of high profile shows in California.
Baker really began to get noticed when he joined a musical partnership with Gerry Mulligan moving away from the bop style toward cool West Coast sound that Mulligan’s group epitomized. Soon Baker became a band leader in his own right. He would also record numerous sessions for the Pacific Jazz label with Stan Getz and Art Pepper that are among some of his best work, but his forays with Getz and Pepper were always tempestuous behind the scenes.
Today Baker is probably better known for his vocal recordings. Producer Richard Bock was the one who first encouraged Baker to sing and the results were stunning in their simple beauty. Chet was possessed of an almost feminine tenor that he used in much the same way that he did in playing the trumpet. The Prince Of Cool collection gathers the best of his Pacific Jazz era recordings including his vocal sessions, band leader turns, and his playing in groups for a CD apiece.
Article comments
1 - godoggo
I once overheard bassist Putter Smith discussing that Chet Baker movie. I busted up when he said "Chet Baker was a pain in the ass. Him and his buddy Art Pepper."
2 - wally bangs
Of course, I never knew Pepper or Baker personally, but I have known other drug abusers in my time and they are almost always a pain in the ass. I'd hate to imagine what a talented star drug abuser would be like.
3 - Temple Stark
Wally,
I posted your review to Advance.net which collectively is read by hundreds of thousands per week. The link there is just to the Cleveland site.
- Thank you. Temple Stark
4 - Eric Olsen
very nice job Wally, thanks. Part of the fascination with these guys is the disconnect between artistic greatness and personal assholatry. Re Baker, a "cool" thing about him is that, like Louis Armstrong, his p;aying and singing styles were extensions of each other
5 - FRED PIERSON
I first heard Chet Baker about the time I became a teenager. I heard Baker & Mulligan playing
"Line for Lyons" nightly on a "blues & rhythm"
radio show hosted by Bob Summerise. Bob was forced to play it nightly or people would call-in
and complain they couldn't sleep without hearing it. The Mulligan disc became the first Jazz album
I purchased.
I ran across Baker's autobiography a couple of
years ago, read it and was disappointed; just one
drugging caper after another. Not much to reccomend.
Art Pepper's autobiography however has much to
reccomend. It held your interest throughout.
THEIR MUSIC WAS MUCH MORE COMPELLING THAN THEIR LIVES
A CD that truly showcases "West Coast Jazz" is
the Contemporary OJCCD-406-2 lIGHTHOUSE AT LAGUNA
Everybody loves it!
6 - FRED PIERSON
I first heard Chet Baker about the time I became a teenager. I heard Baker & Mulligan playing
"Line for Lyons" nightly on a "blues & rhythm"
radio show hosted by Bob Summerise. Bob was forced to play it nightly or people would call-in
and complain they couldn't sleep without hearing it. The Mulligan disc became the first Jazz album
I purchased.
I ran across Baker's autobiography a couple of
years ago, read it and was disappointed; just one
drugging caper after another. Not much to reccomend.
Art Pepper's autobiography however has much to
reccomend. It held your interest throughout.
THEIR MUSIC WAS MUCH MORE COMPELLING THAN THEIR LIVES
A CD that truly showcases "West Coast Jazz" is
the Contemporary OJCCD-406-2 lIGHTHOUSE AT LAGUNA
Everybody loves it!