Chet Baker American jazz trumpeter, singer, composer, and artist. Born: 23 December 1929 in Yale, Oklahoma, USA. Died: 13 May 1988 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (aged 58). Baker began his career in the early 1950s and played together with Charlie Parker and Gerry Mulligan. Unfortunately, his drug addiction hampered his career, including arrests for narcotics. From 1957 on, he had several comebacks with such musicians as Bobby Jaspar, René Thomas, and Gerry Mulligan with whom he had already recorded. In spite of having his teeth knocked out, Baker recovered and continued to record frequently, especially in live settings, for many different labels, including small groups and fronting large ensembles. From the 1980s until he died, he did a lot of his recordings in Europe. Review: Chet Baker, more than ten years after his mysterious death, is more popular than ever. Baker was an extremely handsome young man and this, coupled with his reckless, drug-addled life, earned him the tag ?ôthe James Dean of Jazz.?ö But even after he lost his looks, Baker's trumpet and vocals continued to spellbind. Jazz snobs like to forget that Charlie Parker chose Baker to be his West Coast foil or that it was Dizzy Gillespie who talked Baker into returning to the trumpet in the '70s after his teeth were knocked out. Baker hit the big time at a very young age, with Gerry Mulligan's groundbreaking ?ôpiano-less quartet?ö that made a name for West Coast Jazz. Baker's trumpet style owed a lot to Miles Davis (though, Baker never used a mute and was ashamed when he beat out Clifford Brown in jazz polls) and his pleasant, thin vocals were just as introspective and well-phrased.

Chet Baker Discography