I admired Chet from my time as a teenager. I have seen Chet perform in Laren, Holland, playing trumpet and singing scat vocals. I was too young to understand what drugs could do. Years later I have also been to the place in Amsterdam where he died. His singing was unique and his trumpet playing was also unique. His emotional involvement was unique.
As a huge Desmond and Baker fan, James had me hooked when he mentioned the former early in the interview--I'll likely pick up the book, thanks for this great video and cheers from California!
The first time I met Chet Baker, he was playing at a little neighborhood club called Strykers on 97th & Columbus Avenue on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He was coming back after years of an extended period of absence, having diligently devoted himself to re-learning to play trumpet with dentures, which everybody told him could not be done. But he persevered and prevailed, enduring intense pain: And this was one of his first comeback gigs. Awesome! I never heard any trumpet sound like that! I don't think it could ever be captured on a recording: So intimate tender innovative & personal...sometimes just whispering & breathing infinite silence space&timelessness into his trumpet...He just loved music & making music so deeeeeeeeeply & innately: just making the purest finest most beautiful sounds and blissful ethereal effects. Chet Baker was truly a great Maestro of the highest degree, a natural-born precocious musical genius like Mozart! During the break I came up to Chet to thank & enthusiastically congratulate him: In my over-enthusiasm I started telling Chet how much I also dug & admired & had been imitating his singing for years, and automatically went into my little imitation of him singing “I Wish I Knew” till I caught myself & felt embarrassed & silly & said,“Oh no! Here I am doing my Chet Baker imitation for Chet Baker!” He just smiled & said “You don't look old enough to remember that record.” (1955 LP called “Chet Baker Sings& Plays") He looked gaunt & emaciated, almost like a derelict. But his voice and manner were very polite mellow kind & refined, sensitive gentle very personable sweet good-natured & very likable, casual cultured & very well-bred. I asked him if he would sing during his second-set after the break. He thanked me for asking but apologized & explained why he really couldn't because he was working with just a bassist & drummer & no piano... He excused himself when his band-mates summoned him to prepare for their second set. There were just a few other people at that very small dimly-lit cellar club that night. My date was a nice girl who had the same last name as me though we were otherwise unrelated, I barely remember her, but we were both blown-away by Chet! When Chet came back from the break, he opened his set singing “Just Friends” Bless his heart! Still feels good that he honored my request & was singing just for me! His singing always kinda reminds me of Alfalfa from “Our Gang” sincerely struggling and successfully reaching the high-notes and still remaining in-tune & on-pitch!
I still listen to Chet's music almost every day now, often listening to him continually all day long, and when I try listening to something else for a change, I find myself missing his familiar soothing sound which is so much an integral part of me, I find myself unable to listen to anything else & hafta sink right back into that sweet fine&mellow transcendent celestial atmosphere he creates so effortlessly & endlessly... That night I also met Chet's drummer and best friend Artt Frank who stood by and helped Chet to recover and resume working and recording again: Buying him a new wardrobe and a flugelhorn: When everybody else had totally:abandoned Chet as a hopeless incorrigible drug-addict: Artt Frank wrote his personal memoir "Chet Baker: The Lost Years" PS: I had given Chet my business card that night: And to my surprise & amazement-first thing in the morning--he called me! But that's another story for another time now...
Love your TH-cam videos, Ken, however, I am compelled to comment on the section about Chet's stay in Houston as mentioned in "Deep in a Dream.". It was pure fiction. Pity the author didn't take the time to actually contact the people who were working and recording with Chet during his stay there. Contrary to the reference that Chet was taken advantage of yet again, Chet was actually treated with great respect and reverence. Regarding the finances for the recording produced, Chet named his price and it was agreed on. At the conclusion of the recording session, Chet was elated and offered to take the entire crew out to dinner. We were honored to share time with Diane and Chet and my memories are positive. Chet was a great artist with an uncanny set of ears. Everything he did was brilliant.
The heart and intelligence suggested by your meandering interview responses is refreshing. I'm looking forward to reading the book, but this interview was worth the price of admission.
When someone says, like Gavin says in this interview, "We can rule out foul play in Chet's death." Gavin is expressing a personal opinion since he wasn't in the hotel or in front hotel where Chet was found dead. This is in contrast to the evidence in the Amsterdam Police report that says they found Chet in front of the hotel, on the ground, with his trumpet. The windows in Chet's room wouldn't allow anyone to jump out. So, the question remains, in view of the Police evidence, how did Chet die?
Well, objectively Chet was a POS, especially if any other regular (non-star) person had done what he'd done. He abandoned his family so he could go live as a tom-cat in Europe and shoot drugs. Not too likeable.
I don’t remember how I discovered Chet Baker as it was in 1985, long before one could easily find anything online, simply because it didn’t exist as we know it now. I was very much into early Yes until about 1975. By ‘85, I had found I loved a wide variety of music. But I had to have heard Chet on a recording somewhere because I immediately went and purchased his latest recording. At the time, vinyl was still dominant, so I know I purchased an album.
I wish he'd write a book on the great jazz pianist Bill Evans. Perhaps it wouldn't have as much appeal as that of Baker's life & career but his impact on jazz was no less than Baker's.
....I read that he had to have his jaw re-set,with half a mouthful of pulled teeth.Extremely traumatic for Chet Baker...a significant set-back to his ability to play trumpet at the time and an incident that caused him PTSD depressive mood disorder for his remaining years.
@CrueLoaf maybe. He did have a major adiction and i imagine he ran across alot of bad people. My favorite player was Gene Ammons. Who had similar issues.
I think Chet simply fell out that window because he was so high, just an accident, he probably just fell asleep and as he said, nature took its course.
With all due love & respect I disagree with Brother James Gavin:: Chet was a great virtuoso genius Musician/Composer; And as great a trumpeter as any who ever lived! When Dizzy Gillespie had to quit working with Charlie Parker because Bird was too unreliable and missed too many gigs: Charlie Parker held auditions for a replacement: And every great trumpet player showed up for the audition: including Miles Davis: And Charlie Parker personally chose Chet Baker above all the other great trumpet players of the day--including Miles Davis!
I saw Chet in San Francisco in the early eighties in a small club. What I remember was his beautiful sound. It was a lot larger and full than I expected. Beautiful experience. Such a gifted musician!
I think that “small San Francisco Club” where Chet Baker played, was Keystone Corner…across from the police station in North Beach. The Manager at Keystone was having an “affair” with Stan Kenton (not to be gossipy, of course).
@@AlanSenzaki Right...at one time there were 13 jazz clubs in North Beach (if you include The Fox and The Hounds).....maybe the Anxious Asp or the Coffee Gallery. 30
Forget about the drugs or tragedy or some other mystique. Chet Baker was so lyrical in his playing and creative as one of the innovators of west coast cool. Maybe the greatest.
In the year 2980 someone will play a long forgotten Chet Baker tune that has not played for hundreds of years and years will fall and the universe will smile
I agree completely with James Gavin's opinion of scat singing. I generally can't stand it - yes, including Ella Fitzgerald. But, I love the way Chet did it. His intonation was always perfect, for one thing.
There is a reason I have struggled to get through this book written by James Gavin. Opinions. Many people try, often unsuccessfully, to get in to the mind and heart of an artist. These cats are buttering up each other with mere opinions based on general facts. Trying to be Chet's psychotherapist is not on either! The voice - his sound and musical language - is key to getting in to the subject. Listen! What makes you both think that great minds are easy to get along with? The reason I struggle with reading this book is because it is written in such a pedestrian manner and is colourless. The book was lent to me by an entrepreneur (One of NL's biggest bookers of international jazz musicians in Zeeland) who knows the bass player who Chet preferred to play with when he was living in the Netherlands. I am not spilling anything here. Apology. Chet's death is definitely iffy. The Dutch police's findings were sketchy at best. Any fool knows that the mafia types that are part of Amsterdam's red light area of drug pushing and sex working, must have had a famous jazz musician to pedal their drugs to and an advert for their business as talking point for boasting to others when selling their wares, etc. There are many reasons why powerful manipulative people use less aware people. Chet, bless him, was his own victim, overtaken by drugs and out of control of his own life. He would have easily got in to debt with his 'main man' i. e. dealer and what would ensue in the course of time is violent and tragic. Amsterdam's undercurrent is a very dark and tough place and far from the liberal and open minded and fun loving place that it is advertised as being. Chet was not an angel even though he sang like one! He lived his life as he played his music, improvising through all of its ups and downs. It takes guts and is also dare hardy. Chet explains in the fabulous Bruce Weber film how he got his front teeth smashed out of his jaw by hard heavy handed brutes. I think that Chet would have got himself in to many tricky situations throughout his life and it is fair to say that he was not good at business. His trumpet was his life line and music was his direction in life. A deep respect accorded on this level of being is needed from all of us really. Chet was not normal. Who could get a mention in Miles Davis' autobiography like Chet did? Miles liked him and says he was "Cool”. My own personal views are biased because I am a musician and love Chet's singing and trumpet playing. When I become objective and stand back from my subject then Chet can be seen as an outsider. There is an old sociological book on this subject of ‘outsiders’ and ‘dance band musicians’ written by Howard S. Becker looking at the ‘Sociology of Deviance’. This might help a person to understand about outsiders a little bit. I do feel that there is energy in Chet's music that can still be traced back to him. He has left the world with his legacy but it is a mixed bag when it comes to breaking down the creative genius and the psychologically conditioned human being. Of course he would have upset many people but luckily for him, and all of us too, his print making of musical sounds lifted people from their mundane existence to a better place. This is the function of good art. On the sleeve notes of the recording Chet Sings, Ornette Coleman puts the matter to rights when he says Chet did something to you 'emotionally'. It is this ability that Chet's music has to engage people that lifts him up as a ‘great’ singer and trumpeter. Chet's musical voice is inimitable. A precious gem. Timeless. Do we really need to dissect his character? Oh, by the way, I shall finish reading the book by James Gavin!
Nana, blessed are the meek or so they say, right? When I first heard Chet Baker's voice, it drew me further to the fire of that music that has been labelled JAZZ. After hearing Chet's voice all those songs from the classic era of song-writing came alive: Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Lerner and Loewe, Gershwin, etc. You know? Then Chet's playing of his trumpet and 'delicate' sense of musicality took hold of my soul. It helped ease me in to being open to the whole pantheon of jazz music's singers, players and composers and arrangers. Let us all water the roots of the caring and tend what grows from that: Wishing love. @@nanamagagula3914
been listening to Chet for years rainy days, love in the afternoon red wine watching the breakers roll in a table for two a candle burning low mellow as a cello on stage… chetty under the spotlight the last notes die down the crowd thins out tired now convertible top down sleepy moon over the Bay hypnotic and complete a spellbound timeless moment rolling, just rolling along the golden sunrise at the crest of the horizon us growing old together vinyl on the turntable the big windows opened wide curtains blowing and autumn leaves playing by Chet again… where did time go?
I had a copy of "Deep In A Dream" years and years ago - I wish I still had it. The documentary "Let's Get Lost" is a must-see and it's generally floating around on TH-cam here. What's funny is, I arrived in Southern California (from Hawaii) at a time where I could have crossed paths with Chet. Funnier still, I knew a guy who looked *just* like the worn-out, later, Chet although he could not play trumpet, he killed it on harmonica though.
Baker played society gigs in Staten Island in 70s and 80s. Many people dont know that SI had a good sized group of jazz artists, including Jimmy Knepper, Turk Van Lake, Bill Hughes and Chuck Wayne.
you cannot climb up and out of this hotel window as it is sectioned, he was picked up and thrown out of the window by the Dutch mob owing to drug debts.
An musician all my life, I never got to see Chet Baker perform because I was busy performing but I discovered him later in life when I had the time to really listen to and enjoy his music. Chet was advised NOT to sing, which was a mistake, he had a nice voice but the catchiness in his voice was that he would do things with his voice with the same sounds that he made on his trumpet, which was a seductive and unusual form of talent! He put a lot of feeling into his music and it transcended to heights in a haunting way that made it beautiful and made you want to hear more! Sure, he made bloopers at time, who doesn't! I heard missed notes, slightly off-pitch sounds at times, but no one is perfect in any field -- humans err! But we go on and make the best of it and there isn't a musician alive who hasn't been in that position! Whenever someone introduces certain mind-altering drugs into their body, it can affect the brain in different ways but CAN BE INJURIOUS to brain tissue. Some brain injuries are healable, some are not and if the brain is subjected again and again to certain chemicals and elements, it cannot heal nor can it continue to function properly. Depression is COMMON in CNS (central nervous system) suppressants, or depressants, and alters one's thinking over time. CNS depressants like heroin, depress the brain and CNS stimulants like cocaine and the amphetamines excite brain tissue and when you mix them like a speedball, it can hardwire the brain to act abnormally. REMEMBER that back in the 50's, 60's and early 60's, we did NOT HAVE THE MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE that we do today about the effects of many drugs on the body systems and especially the neurological system! I've never believed that Chet suicided, he loved his music too much, loved playing it, but he was at a state where he may have needed a break from the constant pressures of performing and drugs were obtainable and an easy way out, to intentionally affect his thinking. As we age, our sense of balance is not as good, our immune system is weaker and is manifested in physical degeneration in many ways. It may be as simple as trying to sit in an open window to get some fresh night air and slipping and falling, or he may have slightly dozed off a bit and fell. There are a number of explanations for his demise but none are certain, only suppositions and since Chet is no longer here to defend people's assumptions about him, it is worthless and detrimental to try to explain what preceded his death because no one knows for certain! LET HIM REST IN PEACE and lets just enjoy the beautiful, subdued but sensual sounds of his voice and trumpet in the music that he left for us to enjoy and appreciate, because it was unusual and very beautiful.
Sad that author describes Chet primarily as his mystique relates to his sec appeal and tragedy. Won’t by the author books. Author could have focused on Chet psycho biology.
![[TH] FS vs BME - VCT Ascension Pacific - Lower Bracket Final](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wnygqsR2Fig/mqdefault.jpg)
I admired Chet from my time as a teenager. I have seen Chet perform in Laren, Holland, playing trumpet and singing scat vocals. I was too young to understand what drugs could do. Years later I have also been to the place in Amsterdam where he died. His singing was unique and his trumpet playing was also unique. His emotional involvement was unique.
Lived next to Laren for many years. Was this at the Singer Museum?
@@eddyray666 Exactly. I visited Nick Vollebregt's Jazz Café too. :)
As a huge Desmond and Baker fan, James had me hooked when he mentioned the former early in the interview--I'll likely pick up the book, thanks for this great video and cheers from California!
The first time I met Chet Baker, he was playing at a little neighborhood club called Strykers on 97th & Columbus Avenue on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He was coming back after years of an extended period of absence, having diligently devoted himself to re-learning to play trumpet with dentures, which everybody told him could not be done. But he persevered and prevailed, enduring intense pain: And this was one of his first comeback gigs. Awesome! I never heard any trumpet sound like that! I don't think it could ever be captured on a recording: So intimate tender innovative & personal...sometimes just whispering & breathing infinite silence space&timelessness into his trumpet...He just loved music & making music so deeeeeeeeeply & innately: just making the purest finest most beautiful sounds and blissful ethereal effects. Chet Baker was truly a great Maestro of the highest degree, a natural-born precocious musical genius like Mozart!
During the break I came up to Chet to thank & enthusiastically congratulate him: In my over-enthusiasm I started telling Chet how much I also dug & admired & had been imitating his singing for years, and automatically went into my little imitation of him singing “I Wish I Knew” till I caught myself & felt embarrassed & silly & said,“Oh no! Here I am doing my Chet Baker imitation for Chet Baker!” He just smiled & said “You don't look old enough to remember that record.” (1955 LP called “Chet Baker Sings& Plays")
He looked gaunt & emaciated, almost like a derelict. But his voice and manner were very polite mellow kind & refined, sensitive gentle very personable sweet good-natured & very likable, casual cultured & very well-bred. I asked him if he would sing during his second-set after the break. He thanked me for asking but apologized & explained why he really couldn't because he was working with just a bassist & drummer & no piano...
He excused himself when his band-mates summoned him to prepare for their second set. There were just a few other people at that very small dimly-lit cellar club that night. My date was a nice girl who had the same last name as me though we were otherwise unrelated, I barely remember her, but we were both blown-away by Chet!
When Chet came back from the break, he opened his set singing “Just Friends” Bless his heart!
Still feels good that he honored my request & was singing just for me! His singing always kinda reminds me of Alfalfa from “Our Gang” sincerely struggling and successfully reaching the high-notes and still remaining in-tune & on-pitch!
I still listen to Chet's music almost every day now, often listening to him continually all day long, and when I try listening to something else for a change, I find myself missing his familiar soothing sound which is so much an integral part of me, I find myself unable to listen to anything else & hafta sink right back into that sweet fine&mellow transcendent celestial atmosphere he creates so effortlessly & endlessly...
That night I also met Chet's drummer and best friend Artt Frank who stood by and helped Chet to recover and resume working and recording again: Buying him a new wardrobe and a flugelhorn: When everybody else had totally:abandoned Chet as a hopeless incorrigible drug-addict: Artt Frank wrote his personal memoir "Chet Baker: The Lost Years"
PS: I had given Chet my business card that night: And to my surprise & amazement-first thing in the morning--he called me! But that's another story for another time now...
Great story. I can't believe no-one has asked for the next installment. I'd love to know what happened the next morning.
Love your TH-cam videos, Ken, however, I am compelled to comment on the section about Chet's stay in Houston as mentioned in "Deep in a Dream.". It was pure fiction. Pity the author didn't take the time to actually contact the people who were working and recording with Chet during his stay there. Contrary to the reference that Chet was taken advantage of yet again, Chet was actually treated with great respect and reverence. Regarding the finances for the recording produced, Chet named his price and it was agreed on. At the conclusion of the recording session, Chet was elated and offered to take the entire crew out to dinner. We were honored to share time with Diane and Chet and my memories are positive. Chet was a great artist with an uncanny set of ears. Everything he did was brilliant.
The heart and intelligence suggested by your meandering interview responses is refreshing. I'm looking forward to reading the book, but this interview was worth the price of admission.
Excellent interview
When someone says, like Gavin says in this interview, "We can rule out foul play in Chet's death." Gavin is expressing a personal opinion since he wasn't in the hotel or in front hotel where Chet was found dead. This is in contrast to the evidence in the Amsterdam Police report that says they found Chet in front of the hotel, on the ground, with his trumpet. The windows in Chet's room wouldn't allow anyone to jump out. So, the question remains, in view of the Police evidence, how did Chet die?
He's much more positive here about Baker than in the book. That was unexpected because you get a sense that he didn't really like Baker
Well, objectively Chet was a POS, especially if any other regular (non-star) person had done what he'd done. He abandoned his family so he could go live as a tom-cat in Europe and shoot drugs. Not too likeable.
I totally agree. I'm reading it now and wondered if he likes Baker's music.
Weird WTF
Thank you very much for this amazing interview. I enjoyed it very much.
good interview. However, I felt some of the answers needed more probing.
Excellent! Thank you for this.
I don’t remember how I discovered Chet Baker as it was in 1985, long before one could easily find anything online, simply because it didn’t exist as we know it now. I was very much into early Yes until about 1975. By ‘85, I had found I loved a wide variety of music. But I had to have heard Chet on a recording somewhere because I immediately went and purchased his latest recording. At the time, vinyl was still dominant, so I know I purchased an album.
I wish he'd write a book on the great jazz pianist Bill Evans. Perhaps it wouldn't have as much appeal as that of Baker's life & career but his impact on jazz was no less than Baker's.
Great interview
A tooth? Chet was mugged in SF and got multiple teeth knocked out
....I read that he had to have his jaw re-set,with half a mouthful of pulled teeth.Extremely traumatic for Chet Baker...a significant set-back to his ability to play trumpet at the time and an incident that caused him PTSD depressive mood disorder for his remaining years.
in the movie, yeah! not sure if that was the case in real life.
@CrueLoaf he said it took him a while to learn to play again. That was on a verve liner notes
@@brucesmith6007 I get that. But the point that that drug dealers did it on purpose is likely to be myth.
@CrueLoaf maybe. He did have a major adiction and i imagine he ran across alot of bad people.
My favorite player was Gene Ammons. Who had similar issues.
Good book! Love the movie Lets Get Lost. It's trippy and real. Never understood why some considered it homoerotic!
How in the bloody hell was "Let's Get Lost" homoerotic??? I dont' get it.
Because he's nuts.
I think Chet simply fell out that window because he was so high, just an accident, he probably just fell asleep and as he said, nature took its course.
Yes, that is the most likely explanation.
Weber film was honest the Gavin book is not.
Lani Hall, the heart and soul of Brazil 66? Really?
With all due love & respect I disagree with Brother James Gavin:: Chet was a great virtuoso genius Musician/Composer; And as great a trumpeter as any who ever lived!
When Dizzy Gillespie had to quit working with Charlie Parker because Bird was too unreliable and missed too many gigs: Charlie Parker held auditions for a replacement: And every great trumpet player showed up for the audition: including Miles Davis: And Charlie Parker personally chose Chet Baker above all the other great trumpet players of the day--including Miles Davis!
Hard to listen to. James Gavin has interesting pronunciation.
I saw Chet in San Francisco in the early eighties in a small club. What I remember was his beautiful sound. It was a lot larger and full than I expected. Beautiful experience. Such a gifted musician!
I think that “small San Francisco Club” where Chet Baker played, was Keystone Corner…across from the police station in North Beach. The Manager at Keystone was having an “affair” with Stan Kenton (not to be gossipy, of course).
@@ttooddtm I know it wasn’t the keystone as I have been there several times. This was a small almost makeshift place that came and went.
@@AlanSenzaki Right...at one time there were 13 jazz clubs in North Beach (if you include The Fox and The Hounds).....maybe the Anxious Asp or the Coffee Gallery. 30
😮😮@@AlanSenzaki
Forget about the drugs or tragedy or some other mystique. Chet Baker was so lyrical in his playing and creative as one of the innovators of west coast cool. Maybe the greatest.
In the year 2980 someone will play a long forgotten Chet Baker tune that has not played for hundreds of years and years will fall and the universe will smile
Grey december
I could've listen this for hours. Thank you.
I agree completely with James Gavin's opinion of scat singing. I generally can't stand it - yes, including Ella Fitzgerald. But, I love the way Chet did it. His intonation was always perfect, for one thing.
There is a reason I have struggled to get through this book written by James Gavin. Opinions. Many people try, often unsuccessfully, to get in to the mind and heart of an artist.
These cats are buttering up each other with mere opinions based on general facts.
Trying to be Chet's psychotherapist is not on either!
The voice - his sound and musical language - is key to getting in to the subject. Listen!
What makes you both think that great minds are easy to get along with?
The reason I struggle with reading this book is because it is written in such a pedestrian manner and is colourless. The book was lent to me by an entrepreneur (One of NL's biggest bookers of international jazz musicians in Zeeland) who knows the bass player who Chet preferred to play with when he was living in the Netherlands. I am not spilling anything here. Apology.
Chet's death is definitely iffy. The Dutch police's findings were sketchy at best. Any fool knows that the mafia types that are part of Amsterdam's red light area of drug pushing and sex working, must have had a famous jazz musician to pedal their drugs to and an advert for their business as talking point for boasting to others when selling their wares, etc. There are many reasons why powerful manipulative people use less aware people.
Chet, bless him, was his own victim, overtaken by drugs and out of control of his own life. He would have easily got in to debt with his 'main man' i. e. dealer and what would ensue in the course of time is violent and tragic. Amsterdam's undercurrent is a very dark and tough place and far from the liberal and open minded and fun loving place that it is advertised as being.
Chet was not an angel even though he sang like one! He lived his life as he played his music, improvising through all of its ups and downs. It takes guts and is also dare hardy.
Chet explains in the fabulous Bruce Weber film how he got his front teeth smashed out of his jaw by hard heavy handed brutes. I think that Chet would have got himself in to many tricky situations throughout his life and it is fair to say that he was not good at business.
His trumpet was his life line and music was his direction in life. A deep respect accorded on this level of being is needed from all of us really. Chet was not normal. Who could get a mention in Miles Davis' autobiography like Chet did? Miles liked him and says he was "Cool”.
My own personal views are biased because I am a musician and love Chet's singing and trumpet playing. When I become objective and stand back from my subject then Chet can be seen as an outsider. There is an old sociological book on this subject of ‘outsiders’ and ‘dance band musicians’ written by Howard S. Becker looking at the ‘Sociology of Deviance’. This might help a person to understand about outsiders a little bit.
I do feel that there is energy in Chet's music that can still be traced back to him. He has left the world with his legacy but it is a mixed bag when it comes to breaking down the creative genius and the psychologically conditioned human being. Of course he would have upset many people but luckily for him, and all of us too, his print making of musical sounds lifted people from their mundane existence to a better place. This is the function of good art.
On the sleeve notes of the recording Chet Sings, Ornette Coleman puts the matter to rights when he says Chet did something to you 'emotionally'. It is this ability that Chet's music has to engage people that lifts him up as a ‘great’ singer and trumpeter. Chet's musical voice is inimitable. A precious gem. Timeless. Do we really need to dissect his character? Oh, by the way, I shall finish reading the book by James Gavin!
Well thought-out reflective comment. Thanks Ty!
Your words like water to the roots of the caring🙏🏽 Thank you🙌🏿🌊
Nana, blessed are the meek or so they say, right?
When I first heard Chet Baker's voice, it drew me further to the fire of that music that has been labelled JAZZ.
After hearing Chet's voice all those songs from the classic era of song-writing came alive: Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Lerner and Loewe, Gershwin, etc. You know?
Then Chet's playing of his trumpet and 'delicate' sense of musicality took hold of my soul. It helped ease me in to being open to the whole pantheon of jazz music's singers, players and composers and arrangers.
Let us all water the roots of the caring and tend what grows from that: Wishing love. @@nanamagagula3914
been listening to Chet for years
rainy days,
love in the afternoon
red wine
watching the breakers roll in
a table for two
a candle burning low
mellow as a cello on stage…
chetty under the spotlight
the last notes die down
the crowd thins out
tired now
convertible top down
sleepy moon over the Bay
hypnotic and complete
a spellbound timeless moment
rolling, just rolling along
the golden sunrise at the crest of the horizon
us growing old together
vinyl on the turntable
the big windows opened wide
curtains blowing
and autumn leaves playing
by Chet again…
where did time go?
Gawd, he really nailed it about scat singing and how most of it is really horrible.
I had a copy of "Deep In A Dream" years and years ago - I wish I still had it. The documentary "Let's Get Lost" is a must-see and it's generally floating around on TH-cam here. What's funny is, I arrived in Southern California (from Hawaii) at a time where I could have crossed paths with Chet. Funnier still, I knew a guy who looked *just* like the worn-out, later, Chet although he could not play trumpet, he killed it on harmonica though.
He's right. Researching is like a child finding another free candy store. Writing is a nightmare-you can't eat all the candy at once.
Chet Baker.
He was brave and honest in life and music
not sure his children would agree...
kharma is kharma
art is art.
Baker played society gigs in Staten Island in 70s and 80s. Many people dont know that SI had a good sized group of jazz artists, including Jimmy Knepper, Turk Van Lake, Bill Hughes and Chuck Wayne.
you cannot climb up and out of this hotel window as it is sectioned, he was picked up and thrown out of the window by the Dutch mob owing to drug debts.
could it be that simple?
An musician all my life, I never got to see Chet Baker perform because I was busy performing but I discovered him later in life when I had the time to really listen to and enjoy his music. Chet was advised NOT to sing, which was a mistake, he had a nice voice but the catchiness in his voice was that he would do things with his voice with the same sounds that he made on his trumpet, which was a seductive and unusual form of talent! He put a lot of feeling into his music and it transcended to heights in a haunting way that made it beautiful and made you want to hear more!
Sure, he made bloopers at time, who doesn't! I heard missed notes, slightly off-pitch sounds at times, but no one is perfect in any field -- humans err! But we go on and make the best of it and there isn't a musician alive who hasn't been in that position!
Whenever someone introduces certain mind-altering drugs into their body, it can affect the brain in different ways but CAN BE INJURIOUS to brain tissue. Some brain injuries are healable, some are not and if the brain is subjected again and again to certain chemicals and elements, it cannot heal nor can it continue to function properly. Depression is COMMON in CNS (central nervous system) suppressants, or depressants, and alters one's thinking over time. CNS depressants like heroin, depress the brain and CNS stimulants like cocaine and the amphetamines excite brain tissue and when you mix them like a speedball, it can hardwire the brain to act abnormally. REMEMBER that back in the 50's, 60's and early 60's, we did NOT HAVE THE MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE that we do today about the effects of many drugs on the body systems and especially the neurological system!
I've never believed that Chet suicided, he loved his music too much, loved playing it, but he was at a state where he may have needed a break from the constant pressures of performing and drugs were obtainable and an easy way out, to intentionally affect his thinking.
As we age, our sense of balance is not as good, our immune system is weaker and is manifested in physical degeneration in many ways. It may be as simple as trying to sit in an open window to get some fresh night air and slipping and falling, or he may have slightly dozed off a bit and fell. There are a number of explanations for his demise but none are certain, only suppositions and since Chet is no longer here to defend people's assumptions about him, it is worthless and detrimental to try to explain what preceded his death because no one knows for certain!
LET HIM REST IN PEACE and lets just enjoy the beautiful, subdued but sensual sounds of his voice and trumpet in the music that he left for us to enjoy and appreciate, because it was unusual and very beautiful.
Thanks for your response!
Very nice. Glad to "tune in" on this eminently talented biographer.
Would love to hear more about Anita O’Day. She knew Chet and shared many of the same bad habits.
What sycophantastic wanderings spoken here. Ken you're a real gent, but Gavin misses the mark...badly.
"sycophantastic" - a fitting neologism
Okay I'll bite; Why? I mean who's paying attention to Chet Baker
Could we get a joe Henderson book?
Great, Thank you--yes, the truth.
I am the son of the late jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, James Gavin is a fraud, and should not be allowed to own a pencil
Sad that author describes Chet primarily as his mystique relates to his sec appeal and tragedy. Won’t by the author books. Author could have focused on Chet psycho biology.
Chett just got off his head dossed off and fell.
He sings like he is the horn itself.
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