Chet Baker

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Essential Albums

  • The Best of Chet Baker Sings
  • Chet

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About Chet Baker

Trumpeter and singer Chet Baker’s father was a professional guitarist who gave up the instrument to support his family during the Great Depression. ∙ In 1946, Baker dropped out of school at age 16 to enlist in the U.S. Army, where he played trumpet in military bands. ∙ Even before he made his first album as a bandleader, he had already won the DownBeat poll as the best trumpet player in jazz—at age 24. ∙ Along with Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, and Dave Brubeck, Baker was one of the principal architects of the West Coast “cool school” jazz scene. ∙ His debut vocal album, Chet Baker Sings—which includes his acclaimed renditions of “My Funny Valentine,” “That Old Feeling,” and “I Fall In Love Too Easily”—was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. ∙ Baker’s artistry and movie-star good looks inspired the character Chad Bixby, played by Robert Wagner, in the 1960 film All the Fine Young Cannibals. ∙ Let’s Get Lost, the 1998 Oscar-nominated documentary filmed near the end of his life, chronicles how his remarkable talent had been derailed by drug addiction. ∙ Ethan Hawke played Baker in the 2015 biopic Born to Be Blue.

HOMETOWN
Yale, OK, United States
BORN
23 december 1929
GENRE
Jazz

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