Chet Baker

Chet Baker

Chet Baker Sings & Plays - Chet Baker
Chet Baker Sings & Plays B...
Chet Baker
Vinile
 
Chet Baker Sings & Plays Blue Note Tone Poet Series
Chet Baker
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Tensione - Piero Umiliani, Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Tensione From "Audace colp...
Piero Umiliani, Chet Baker
eSingle Audio/Single Track
 
Tensione From "Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti" / Remastered 2022
Piero Umiliani, Chet Baker
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Chet In Paris: Everything Happens To Me - The Complete Barclay Recording Vol. 2 - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Chet In Paris: Everything...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Chet In Paris: Everything Happens To Me - The Complete Barclay Recording Vol. 2 V2
Chet Baker
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Chet Baker Sings: It Could Happen To You - Chet Baker
Chet Baker Sings: It Coul...
Chet Baker
Vinile
 
Chet Baker Sings: It Could Happen To You
Chet Baker
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Chet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner And Loewe - Chet Baker
Chet Baker Plays The Best...
Chet Baker
Vinile
 
Chet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner And Loewe
Chet Baker
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Pretty/Groovy - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Pretty/Groovy Expanded Edi...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Pretty/Groovy Expanded Edition
Chet Baker
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Jazz At Ann Arbor - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Jazz At Ann Arbor Live
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Jazz At Ann Arbor Live
Chet Baker
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Baby Breeze - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Baby Breeze Expanded Editi...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Baby Breeze Expanded Edition
Chet Baker
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Chet In Paris Vol 1 - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Chet In Paris Vol 1
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Chet In Paris Vol 1
Chet Baker
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The Pacific Jazz Years - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
The Pacific Jazz Years
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
The Pacific Jazz Years
Chet Baker
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Chet Baker Sings - Chet Baker
Chet Baker Sings Blue Note...
Chet Baker
Vinile
 
Chet Baker Sings Blue Note Tone Poet Series
Chet Baker
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Jazz Masters 32 - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Jazz Masters 32
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Jazz Masters 32
Chet Baker
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You're Driving Me Crazy - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
You're Driving Me Crazy
Chet Baker
eSingle Audio/Single Track
 
You're Driving Me Crazy
Chet Baker
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Grey December - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Grey December
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Grey December
Chet Baker
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Chet Baker Quartet Featuring Russ Freeman - Chet Baker, Russ Freeman
DIGITAL
Chet Baker Quartet Featur...
Chet Baker, Russ Freeman
eAlbum Audio
 
Chet Baker Quartet Featuring Russ Freeman
Chet Baker, Russ Freeman
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Chet For Lovers - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Chet For Lovers Reissue
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Chet For Lovers Reissue
Chet Baker
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Compact Jazz - Chet Baker - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Compact Jazz - Chet Baker...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Compact Jazz - Chet Baker Reissue
Chet Baker
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Baker's Holiday - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Baker's Holiday Reissue
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Baker's Holiday Reissue
Chet Baker
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Jazz 'Round Midnight - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Jazz 'Round Midnight Reiss...
Chet Baker
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Jazz 'Round Midnight Reissue
Chet Baker
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In Paris - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
In Paris Voucher Only
Chet Baker
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In Paris Voucher Only
Chet Baker
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Chet Baker Sings - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Chet Baker Sings MFiT
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio HD
 
Chet Baker Sings MFiT
Chet Baker
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Let's Get Lost: The Best Of Chet Baker Sings - Chet Baker
Let's Get Lost: The Best...
Chet Baker
CD
 
Let's Get Lost: The Best Of Chet Baker Sings
Chet Baker
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Tenderly (Jazz Club) - Chet Baker
Tenderly (Jazz Club)
Chet Baker
CD
 
Tenderly (Jazz Club)
Chet Baker
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The Mellow Sound Of Chet Baker - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
The Mellow Sound Of Chet...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
The Mellow Sound Of Chet Baker
Chet Baker
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Plays Standards - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Plays Standards
Chet Baker
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Plays Standards
Chet Baker
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Witch Doctor - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Witch Doctor
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Witch Doctor
Chet Baker
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Chet Baker With Fifty Italian Strings - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Chet Baker With Fifty Ita...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Chet Baker With Fifty Italian Strings
Chet Baker
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Out Of Nowhere - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Out Of Nowhere
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Out Of Nowhere
Chet Baker
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The Collection - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
The Collection
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
The Collection
Chet Baker
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Chet Baker Love Songs - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Chet Baker Love Songs
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Chet Baker Love Songs
Chet Baker
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Each Day Is Valentine's Day - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Each Day Is Valentine's D...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Each Day Is Valentine's Day
Chet Baker
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Chet Baker Sextet - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Chet Baker Sextet
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Chet Baker Sextet
Chet Baker
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Chet Baker Big Band - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Chet Baker Big Band 2004 R...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Chet Baker Big Band 2004 Reissue
Chet Baker
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Chet Baker Ensemble - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Chet Baker Ensemble 2004 R...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Chet Baker Ensemble 2004 Remastered
Chet Baker
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Chet Baker Sings And Plays - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Chet Baker Sings And Play...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Chet Baker Sings And Plays 2004 Remastered/Reissue
Chet Baker
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My Old Flame: Chet Baker Quartet Live, Volume 3 - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
My Old Flame: Chet Baker...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
My Old Flame: Chet Baker Quartet Live, Volume 3
Chet Baker
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Out Of Nowhere: Chet Baker Quartet Live - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Out Of Nowhere: Chet Bake...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Out Of Nowhere: Chet Baker Quartet Live Live/Vol. 2
Chet Baker
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You Can't Go Home Again - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
You Can't Go Home Again
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
You Can't Go Home Again
Chet Baker
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This Time The Dream's On Me: Chet Baker Quartet Live - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
This Time The Dream's On...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
This Time The Dream's On Me: Chet Baker Quartet Live Live/Vol. 1
Chet Baker
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The James Dean Story: Music From The Motion Picture - Bud Shank, Chet Baker
DIGITAL
The James Dean Story: Mus...
Bud Shank, Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
The James Dean Story: Music From The Motion Picture
Bud Shank, Chet Baker
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The Chet Baker Quartet With Russ Freeman - Chet Baker, Russ Freeman
DIGITAL
The Chet Baker Quartet Wi...
Chet Baker, Russ Freeman
eAlbum Audio
 
The Chet Baker Quartet With Russ Freeman
Chet Baker, Russ Freeman
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Songs For Lovers - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Songs For Lovers
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Songs For Lovers
Chet Baker
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Jazz Profile: Chet Baker - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Jazz Profile: Chet Baker
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Jazz Profile: Chet Baker
Chet Baker
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Jazz Masters - Chet Baker - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Jazz Masters - Chet Baker...
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Jazz Masters - Chet Baker
Chet Baker
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Embraceable You - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
Embraceable You
Chet Baker
eAlbum Audio
 
Embraceable You
Chet Baker
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My Funny Valentine - Chet Baker
DIGITAL
My Funny Valentine
Chet Baker
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My Funny Valentine
Chet Baker
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BIOGRAFIA
Chet Baker was a primary exponent of the West Coast school of cool jazz in the early and mid-'50s. As a trumpeter, he had a generally restrained, intimate playing style and he attracted attention beyond jazz for his photogenic looks and singing. But his career was marred by drug addiction.

Baker's father, Chesney Henry Baker,Sr., was a guitarist who was forced to turn to other work during the Depression; his mother, Vera (Moser) Baker, worked in a perfumery. The family moved from Oklahoma to Glendale, CA, in 1940. As a child, Baker sang at amateur competitions and in a church choir. Before his adolescence, his father brought home a trombone for him, then replaced it with a trumpet when the larger instrument proved too much for him. He had his first formal training in music at Glendale Junior High School, but would play largely by ear for the rest of his life. In 1946, when he was only 16 years old, he dropped out of high school and his parents signed papers allowing him to enlist in the army; he was sent to Berlin, Germany, where he played in the 298th Army Band. After his discharge in 1948, he enrolled at El Camino College in Los Angeles, where he studied theory and harmony while playing in jazz clubs, but he quit college in the middle of his second year. He re-enlisted in the army in 1950 and became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco. But he also began sitting in at clubs in the city and he finally obtained a second discharge to become a professional jazz musician.

Baker initially played in Vido Musso's band, then with Stan Getz. (The first recording featuring Baker is a performance of "Out of Nowhere" that comes from a tape of a jam session made on March 24, 1952, and was released on the Fresh Sound Records LP Live at the Trade Winds.) His break came quickly, when, in the spring of 1952, he was chosen at an audition to play a series of West Coast dates with Charlie Parker, making his debut with the famed saxophonist at the Tiffany Club in Los Angeles on May 29, 1952. That summer, he began playing in the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, a group featuring only baritone sax, trumpet, bass, and drums — no piano — that attracted attention during an engagement at the Haig nightclub and through recordings on the newly formed Pacific Jazz Records (later known as World Pacific Records), beginning with the 10" LP Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which featured Baker's famous rendition of "My Funny Valentine."

The Gerry Mulligan Quartet lasted for less than a year, folding when its leader went to jail on a drug charge in June 1953. Baker went solo, forming his own quartet, which initially featured Russ Freeman on piano, Red Mitchell on bass, and Bobby White on drums, and making his first recording as leader for Pacific Jazz on July 24, 1953. Baker was hailed by fans and critics and he won a number of polls in the next few years. In 1954, Pacific Jazz released Chet Baker Sings, an album that increased his popularity but alienated traditional jazz fans; he would continue to sing for the rest of his career. Acknowledging his chiseled good looks, nearby Hollywood came calling and he made his acting debut in the film Hell's Horizon, released in the fall of 1955. But he declined an offer of a studio contract and toured Europe from September 1955 to April 1956. When he returned to the U.S., he formed a quintet that featured saxophonist Phil Urso and pianist Bobby Timmons. Contrary to his reputation for relaxed, laid-back playing, Baker turned to more of a bop style with this group, which recorded the album Chet Baker & Crew for Pacific Jazz in July 1956.

Baker toured the U.S. in February 1957 with the Birdland All-Stars and took a group to Europe later that year. He returned to Europe to stay in 1959, settling in Italy, where he acted in the film Urlatori Alla Sbarra. Hollywood, meanwhile, had not entirely given up on him, at least as a source of inspiration, and in 1960, a fictionalized film biography of his life, All the Fine Young Cannibals, appeared with Robert Wagner in the starring role of Chad Bixby.

Baker had become addicted to heroin in the 1950s and had been incarcerated briefly on several occasions, but his drug habit only began to interfere with his career significantly in the 1960s. He was arrested in Italy in the summer of 1960 and spent almost a year and a half in jail. He celebrated his release by recording Chet Is Back! for RCA in February 1962. (It has since been reissued as The Italian Sessions and as Somewhere Over the Rainbow.) Later in the year, he was arrested in West Germany and expelled to Switzerland, then France, later moving to England in August 1962 to appear as himself in the film The Stolen Hours, which was released in 1963. He was deported from England to France because of a drug offense in March 1963. He lived in Paris and performed there and in Spain over the next year, but after being arrested again in West Germany, he was deported back to the U.S. He returned to America after five years in Europe on March 3, 1964, and played primarily in New York and Los Angeles during the mid-'60s, having switched temporarily from trumpet to flügelhorn. In the summer of 1966, he suffered a severe beating in San Francisco that was related to his drug addiction. The incident is usually misdated and frequently exaggerated in accounts of his life, often due to his own unreliable testimony. It is said, for example, that all his teeth were knocked out, which is not the case, though one tooth was broken and the general deterioration of his teeth led to his being fitted with dentures in the late '60s, forcing him to retrain his embouchure. The beating was not the cause of the decline in his career during this period, but it is emblematic of that decline. By the end of the '60s, he was recording and performing only infrequently and he stopped playing completely in the early '70s.

Regaining some control over his life by taking methadone to control his heroin addiction (though he remained an addict), Baker eventually mounted a comeback that culminated in a prominent New York club engagement in November 1973 and a reunion concert with Gerry Mulligan at Carnegie Hall in November 1974 that was recorded and released by Epic Records. By the mid-'70s, Baker was able to return to Europe and he spent the rest of his life performing there primarily, with occasional trips to Japan and periods back in the U.S., though he had no permanent residence. He attracted the attention of rock musicians, with whom he occasionally performed, for example adding trumpet to Elvis Costello's recording of his anti-Falklands War song "Shipbuilding" in 1983. In 1987, photographer and filmmaker Bruce Weber undertook a documentary film about Baker. The following year, Baker died in a fall from a hotel window in Amsterdam after taking heroin and cocaine. Weber's film, Let's Get Lost, premiered in September 1988 to critical acclaim and earned an Academy Award nomination. In 1997, Baker's unfinished autobiography was published under the title As Though I Had Wings: The Lost Memoir and the book was optioned by Miramax for a film adaptation.

Baker's drug addiction caused him to lead a disorganized and peripatetic life, his constant need for cash requiring him to accept many ill-advised recording offers, while his undependability prevented him from making long-term commitments to record labels. As a result, his discography is extensive and wildly uneven.

By William Ruhlmann

Bio & photo courtesy of The Verve Music Group