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Chet Baker

Chet Baker:The Chet Baker Monument in Amsterdam
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The Chet Baker Monument in Amsterdam

Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 in Yale, Oklahoma – May 13, 1988 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands) was an American jazz musician.


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Early days

Raised in a musical household in Oklahoma (his father was a guitar player), Baker began his musical career singing in a church choir. His father introduced him to brass instruments with a trombone, which was replaced with a trumpet when the trombone proved too large for him. He received some musical education at Glendale Junior High School, but left school at age 16 to join the army. He was posted to Berlin where he joined the 298th Army band. Leaving the army in 1948, he studied theory and harmony at El Camino College in Los Angeles. However he dropped out in his second year, and re-enlisted in the army in 1950. Baker became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco, but was soon spending time in San Francisco jazz clubs such as Bop City and the Black Hawk. Baker again obtained a discharge from the army to pursue a career as a professional musician.

Career breakthrough

Baker's first gigs were with Vido Musso's band, and also with Stan Getz. However he soon found success as a trumpet player in 1951 when he was chosen by Charlie Parker to play with him for a series of West Coast engagements. In 1952, Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which was an instant phenomenon. Baker became famous on the strength of his solo on their recording of "My Funny Valentine", a piece he was later said to "own". The Quartet, however, lasted less than a year because of Mulligan's arrest on drug charges. In 1954, Baker won the Downbeat Jazz Poll, beating Miles Davis among others. Over the next few years, Baker fronted his own combo, playing trumpet and singing. He became an icon of the west coast "cool school" of jazz, helped by his good looks and singing talent. By the early 1960s, Baker had begun playing the fluegelhorn, as well.

Drug addiction

Drug addiction eventually caught up with Baker, and his promising musical career declined as a result. Heroin addiction created myriad legal problems for him as well; he served more than a year in prison in Italy, and was later expelled from both West Germany and England for drug-related offenses. Baker was eventually deported from West Germany to the United States after running afoul of the law there a second time. He settled in Milpitas in northern California where he was active in San Jose and San Francisco between short jail terms served for writing his own prescriptions.

In 1966, Baker allegedly was severely beaten while attempting to buy drugs after a gig in San Francisco, sustaining severe cuts on the lips and broken front teeth, thus ruining his embouchure. Accounts of the incident vary, largely because of his lack of reliable testimony on the matter. It has also been suggested that the story is a fabrication altogether, and that Baker's teeth had just rotted due to heavy substance abuse. From that time he had to learn to play with dentures, a difficult process for a brass player. Between 1966 and 1974, Baker mostly played flugelhorn, with its wider mouthpiece, and recorded what must be considered slick mood music. He eventually moved to New York City and began recording again in earnest with other well known jazz musicians such as Jim Hall. Later in the seventies, Baker returned to Europe where he was assisted by his friend Diane Vavra who took care of his personal needs and otherwise helped him during his recording and performance dates.

Baker recorded extensively throughout his career, mainly because of his overwhelming need for money to buy drugs. As a result, his discography is considered widely uneven. However, some of Baker's European recordings, made near the end of his career, reveal a more mature and, at times, brilliant talent with simplicity and depth beyond his previous work.

Later life

Near the end of Baker's life, he resided and played almost exclusively in Europe, returning to the USA about once a year for a few performance dates. On May 13, 1988, he fell (or was pushed) from his second-story hotel window in Amsterdam and died from a head injury. A good reason for doubting murder is that the hotel manager claimed that Baker's room was locked from the inside. There was speculation that he was under the influence of drugs at the time; however, his autopsy revealed that he was sober. There were also rumors that a suicide note was found but is held in private hands. Another explanation is that Baker was careless and leaned too far out of his window. A plaquette outside the Prins Hendrik Hotel memorializes him. Baker's body was brought home for interment in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

Book and film biographies

Jeroen de Valk wrote a biography of Chet Baker, "Chet Baker: His Life and Music".

The iconic side of Chet Baker was captured by the photographer William Claxton in his book Young Chet: The Young Chet Baker. A 1988 documentary about Baker, Let's Get Lost, portrays him as a cultural icon of the 1950s, but juxtaposes this with his later image as a drug abuser. The film, directed by fashion photographer Bruce Weber, was shot in black-and-white and includes a series of interviews with friends, family, associates and lovers, interspersed with film from Baker's earlier life, and with interviews with Baker from his last years.

Chet Baker was reportedly the inspiration for the character Chad Bixby, played by Robert Wagner in the 1960 film All the Fine Young Cannibals. Another film, titled Prince of Cool, which is claimed to be a new take on the life of Chet Baker "the legendary trumpeter whose heroin addiction contributed to his (reported) suicide in 1988", is being planned. It will star Josh Hartnett.

Honours

In 2005 Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and the Oklahoma House of Representatives proclaimed July 2, 2005 as “Chet Baker Day”.

Partial discography

Categories


1929 births | 1988 deaths | American jazz singers | Jazz trumpeters | Oklahoma musicians

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