Let’s Get Lost
“I’ve got him at the best time in his life, he was a kid and hadn’t got into the habit yet. So, i’ve got the best years and some of the best music he ever played and it was a thrill.“ - Dick Bock
“Time After Time” was a song written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne in 1947 for Sarah Vaughan and Teddy Wilson Quartet. It got covered a few time by other jazz musician such as Frank Sinatra, Ricky Nelson, Dinah Washington, etc. But who’d got me into this song was Chet Baker. His voice spread out in the air like a perfume and the way he played trumpet was magnificent. Very, very clean.
He kinda looked like James Dean at that time, physically a beautiful young man with charisma and a very talented trumpeter. Dave Gelly described the promise of Chet’s early career as James Dean, Sinatra and Bix rolled into one. Even though he was a sideman in Gerry Mulligan Quartet, they’re complemented each other and made a very successful group. “My Funny Valentine” with a solo by Chet became a big hit and would be forever associated with him for the rest of his career.
Chet’s quartet released popular albums between 1953 and 1956. He won reader’s polls at Metronome and Downbeat magazine, beating trumpeters Miles Davis and Clifford Brown. He’s career went really great as in 1954, reader’s named Baker the top jazz vocalist then he also released an album called “Chet Baker Sings”.
But oh boy what a turnaround.
Let’s Get Lost was a documentary film directed by Bruce Weber showed how Chet Baker’s life turned from a young and promising to a broken vulnerable soul. He’s old but the charm and charisma is still exude. His face can’t covered sadness he’d got from all the circumstances and turbulents that ever happened in his life. Even though he was surrounded by people adored him especially his girlfriend at that time(Dianne), he still broken inside.
“Chet, he never practiced at all. He could just play and he knew every song. He could just play any tune and he knew the melody, he could play jazz to it, and he always knew where he was. And it was real hard for me, i never knew where i was and i would always forget what bar we were in fact, where are we now?” - Jack Sheldon
He married three times, all of them didn’t last long. He had a very complicated relationship with all the lover he got up to. Accused as irresponsible father, husband and manipulative boyfriend might be the reasons he can’t stand with only one woman. Moved from one to the other heart is the only choice to kept himself feel better. Though, it wouldn’t last really long either.
A few of his friends said Chet’s addiction to heroine started in the early 50’s. But, he’d already tried marijuana in his teenager ages. He’s pretty rebellious with his addiction to drugs, a couple times he was arrested because of a transaction with drug dealers. One night, he was beaten up by some people until unconscious and ended up breaking his teeth that ruined his embouchure. That accident leaving him unable to play trumpet and force him to working at gas station.
He got his embouchur retrained and make a comeback in 70’s. He got the chances to play with Paul Desmond, Jim Hall, Hubert Laws, etc. There’s a lot of insecurities of himself before the comeback because he thought everything’ll quiet different than it used to be.
“I have a feeling here(Holland) that much more freedom, people are not so uptight with petty things as they are in other country such as swiss you know.. or in germany, also france is a little shaky and belgium is terrible.. But, Holland is another thing you know, it’s like coming to a country where there’s permanent 24 hour party going on all year.“
Chet spent the rest of his live in the europe playing trumpet and singing. He feel more alive with the freedom to express himself as a wild and melancholy man. A long time fan, Elvis Costello hired him to play a solo on his song “Shipbuilding” for the album “Punch The Clock”. The song exposed Chet’s music to a new audience. Later on, he often featured Costello’s song “Almost Blue” in his performance in the europe.
The last scenes of Let’s Get Lost shows Chet’s performance in 1987 at Cannes Music Festival. He sang “Almost Blue” and told the cheering audience to build a quiet moment while he was singing because “it’s that kinda tune” he said it. He sing it in depth and gracefully.
4 months before the film was released, Chet was found dead on the street below his room in his hotel Prins Hendrik Hotel, Amsterdam. He was 58 years old. There was cocaine and heroine found in his room. The police reported that they found a body of thirty year old man with his trumpet.
