Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. born Yale, Oklahoma, December 23, 1929 played trumpet, flugelhorn and did a little singing as well. At the age of 12 he learn to play trumpet. He played trumpet through junior high school, and on through college.
After developing a new embouchure Baker returned to the straight-ahead jazz that began his career, relocating to New York City and began performing and recording again, notably with guitarist Jim Hall. Later in the seventies, Baker returned to Europe where he was assisted by his friend Diane Vavra who took care of his personal needs and otherwise helped him during his recording and performance dates.
From 1978 until his death, Baker resided and played almost exclusively in Europe, returning to the USA roughly once per year for a few performance dates.
From 1978 to 1988 was Baker's most prolific era as a recording artist. However, as his extensive output is strewn across numerous, mostly small European labels, none of these recordings ever reached a wider audience, even though many of them were well-received by critics, who maintain that this was probably Baker's most mature and most rewarding phase.
In 1946 he was drafted into the Army, and played in the Army band in Berlin.1953, Baker formed his own band featuring Russ Freeman on piano. The Chet Baker Quartet toured and recorded with great success. As the decade came to a close, Chet was addicted to heroin and his life was filled with arrests and scandals.
After returning home, Baker continued his music education at El Camino College.
In 1952 he won an audition with Charlie Parker, then went on to join Gerry
Mulligan's pianoless quartet. The group performed regularly at
Hollywood. In
Baker's prominence rose during the cool jazz of the 50's. But his success wasBetween 1966 and 1974, Baker mostly played flugelhorn and recorded music that could mostly be classified as early smooth jazz or mood music.
badly hampered by drug addiction, particularly in the 1960s, he was
imprisoned for a short period of time.In 1966, Baker was severely beaten after a
gig in San Francisco, sustaining severe cuts on the lips and broken front teeth,
which ruined his embouchure. Accounts of the incident vary from that point on
Baker had to learn to play all over again with dentures.
After developing a new embouchure Baker returned to the straight-ahead jazz that began his career, relocating to New York City and began performing and recording again, notably with guitarist Jim Hall. Later in the seventies, Baker returned to Europe where he was assisted by his friend Diane Vavra who took care of his personal needs and otherwise helped him during his recording and performance dates.
From 1978 until his death, Baker resided and played almost exclusively in Europe, returning to the USA roughly once per year for a few performance dates.
From 1978 to 1988 was Baker's most prolific era as a recording artist. However, as his extensive output is strewn across numerous, mostly small European labels, none of these recordings ever reached a wider audience, even though many of them were well-received by critics, who maintain that this was probably Baker's most mature and most rewarding phase.
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