Chet baker autumn leaves1/7/2024 ![]() Returning to Los Angeles post-tour, Baker returned to recording for Pacific Jazz. Despite this, Baker continued the tour, employing local pianists. ![]() One month into the tour, pianist Dick Twardzik died of a heroin overdose. While there, he also recorded a rare accompaniment for another vocalist: Caterina Valente playing guitar and singing " I'll Remember April" and " Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye". Some of these sessions were released in the United States as Chet Baker in Europe. ![]() In September 1955, he left for Europe for the first time, completing an eight-month tour and recording for the Barclay label that October. Over the next few years, he led his own combos, including a 1955 quintet with Francy Boland where Baker combined trumpet-playing and singing. Baker declined a studio contract, preferring life on the road as a musician. Hollywood studios saw movie star potential in Baker, and he made his acting debut in the film Hell's Horizon in the fall of 1955. Nevertheless, Baker continued to sing throughout the rest of his career.īaker, with his youthful, chiseled looks oft-photographed by William Claxton, and his cool demeanor that evoked breezy California playboy living, became somewhat of a teen idol on top of being a respected, up-and-coming jazz musician. In 1954, Pacific Jazz Records released Chet Baker Sings, an album that both increased his visibility and drew criticism. In 1954, readers named Baker the top jazz vocalist. Baker won reader's polls at Metronome and DownBeat magazines, beating trumpeters Miles Davis and Clifford Brown. In 1953, Mulligan was arrested and imprisoned on drug charges.īaker formed a quartet with a rotation that included pianist Russ Freeman, bassists Bob Whitlock, Carson Smith, Joe Mondragon, and Jimmy Bond, and drummers Larry Bunker, Bob Neel, and Shelly Manne.īaker's quartet released popular albums between 19. With the quartet, Baker was a regular performer at Los Angeles jazz clubs such as The Haig and the Tiffany Club. " My Funny Valentine," with a solo by Baker, became a hit and was associated with Baker for the rest of his career. Rather than playing identical melody lines in unison like Parker and Gillespie, Baker and Mulligan complemented each other with counterpoint and anticipating what the other would play next. In 1952, Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and attracted considerable attention. Career Baker in 1955īaker performed with Vido Musso and Stan Getz before being chosen by Charlie Parker for a series of West Coast engagements. He was discharged from the Army in 1951 and proceeded to pursue a career in music. He became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco, spending time in clubs such as Bop City and the Black Hawk. He dropped out during his second year to re-enlist. After leaving the Army in 1948, he studied music theory and harmony at El Camino College in Los Angeles. : 170 While stationed in Berlin, he became acquainted with modern jazz by listening to V-Discs of Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton. He was assigned to Berlin, Germany, where he joined the 298th Army Band. īaker received some musical education at Glendale High School, but he left school at the age of 16 in 1946 to join the United States Army. Peers called Baker a natural musician to whom playing came effortlessly. ![]() ![]() After "falling in love" with the trumpet, he improved noticeably in two weeks. His mother said that he had begun to memorize tunes on the radio before he was given an instrument. His father, a fan of Jack Teagarden, gave him a trombone, before switching to the trumpet at the age of 13 when the trombone proved to be too large for him. īaker began his musical career singing in a church choir. In 1940, when Baker was 10, his family relocated to Glendale, California. : 10 Baker said that owing to the Great Depression, his father, though talented, had to quit as a musician and take a regular job. : 169 His father, Chesney Baker Sr., was a professional Western swing guitarist, and his mother, Vera Moser, was a pianist who worked in a perfume factory. Biography Early years īaker was born December 23, 1929, in Yale, Oklahoma, and raised in a musical household. Baker was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and 1980s. His well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety and fame. Jazz historian Dave Gelly described the promise of Baker's early career as " James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one". īaker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s, particularly for albums featuring his vocals: Chet Baker Sings (1954) and It Could Happen to You (1958). He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". (Decem– May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. ![]()
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