Chet Baker was the poster boy for the West Coast Jazz movement in the 50's, his devastatingly handsome good looks and overwhelmingly melodic smooth sound made him an easy target for such a title. In the truest sense of the word he was a musician, his skill at the ivories was only surpassed by his brass work and intimate voice, all of which one can hear on any of the over two hundred albums he produced. If you are asking why he produced so many albums, the reason is the junk. Half of Chet's life was everything one could ask for, the other half was a heroin infused hell that led him to prison sentences in Italy and being expelled from West Germany and England.
Later in life his good looks declined, giving him a cartoon-like living ghost appearance and after a savage beating at the hands of drug dealers he was left toothless which lead him to develop a new embouchure due to his dentures. The story is debated and some even say that there was no beating to begin with, his teeth simply fell out from all the heroin. Regardless, his life was in shambles while his playing and quality of music declined from otherworldly to downright poor.
In the mid seventies he staged an impressive comeback both as a vocalist and a trumpeteer. He spent most of his time in Europe playing with such greats as Jim Hall, Phil Markowitz, Jean-Louis Rassinfosse and Stan Getz the man whom he started his career and often times had a tumultuous relationship with. He would work with Elvis Costello on "Shipbuilding", Costello stating that Baker's "The Thrill is Gone" being the inspiration for his own work. For a while it appeared as if he was back and ready to regain his title.
At about 3:00 am on May 13, 1988, Baker was found dead on the street below his second-story room at the Prins Hendrik Hotel in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with serious wounds to his head. Heroin and cocaine were found in his hotel room and in his body. The death was ruled an accident and a sad finish to an absolute force in the Jazz world.
This song and this concert was one of his last and is not the best example of his work, it is a departure from my values to actually like it. The song possesses qualities I usually despise in Jazz, the biggest being STRINGS. I can't count the amount of albums these blasted things have ruined in the past. On Sinatra's albums alone the body count is far too high to speak of; and then the flutes......
But here, for this time and for this concert it works tremendously well. This song is a sad, beautiful epilogue to a war scarred life lived without apologies. Baker's voice sounds as if it is falling out of the second story window constantly, the strings and orchestra behind him provide the safety net that repeatedly keeps him from spiraling out into the abyss. At 4:24 after a piano and string interlude the trumpet reaches in and grabs your heart straight out of your body, you can forgive a man for crying to this.
"A man can be destroyed but not defeated." Few personified this line better than Chet Baker. While this final song caps an impressive, creative career it is not his best. It is not the stripped-down pure cool jazz he made in his prime and that is why it is so poignant and beautiful. When you listen to this song contemplate a wide-eyed boy from Yale, Oklahoma setting off for the West Coast with promise radiating from his pores, a meeting with Black Harry, various prisons, physical and professional ruin and yet he's still here playing with false teeth and leather skin. What is encompassed in this song is a life, for better or worse, lived, and lived without reservation nor hesitation. This song is resplendent in its sadness, I challenge one to have the courage to press play to it after a breakup. Do yourself a service and get into this man, if China White is better than this then there is no room left for heaven.
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