Chet Baker is my favorite jazz musician. He could play (trumpet), he could sing, and he was cool as cool gets, because of his James-Dean-like looks and West Coast music circle affiliation. Though he lived a tragic life filled with drug addiction, jail time, divorce, and heartache, he channeled all that misery into some brilliant music over his 30 or so year career. I found this video on YouTube of my fave song that he did (in fact, it was the song Julie and I first danced to a our wedding) with some footage from Bruce Weber's film Let's Get Lost, which is a biography of sorts of Chet. You can see how the years aged him harshly. Also, check out the links to some of what I think are the best Chet albums that represent his artistry. (memorial photograph by Jeroen Coert)
The Best of Chet Baker Sings
Chet Baker in Milan
The Original Gerry Mulligan Quartet w/ Chet Baker
Hey Jeff -
ReplyDeleteI found the blog template online - I don't remember the name of the site. I'll do some searching and see if I can find it for you - they had a lot of great ones.
Mmmmm....Chet Baker + Gerry Mulligan = awesomeness squared.
btw: after opening your blog (and hitting the comment button) I am prompted to enter a Twitter user name and password. I had no problem Xing out, but just so you know (I don't Twitter..)
Katie