Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an A… Read Full Bio ↴Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and vocalist.
Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s, particularly for albums featuring his vocals (Chet Baker Sings, It Could Happen to You). Jazz historian David Gelly described the promise of Baker's early career as "James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one." His well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety and fame, Baker was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and '80s.
Baker was born and raised in a musical household in Yale, Oklahoma; his father, Chesney Baker, Sr., was a professional guitar player, and his mother, Vera (née Moser) was a talented pianist who worked in a perfume factory. His maternal grandmother, Randi Moser, was Norwegian. Baker began his musical career singing in a church choir. His father introduced him to brass instruments with a trombone, which was replaced with a trumpet when the trombone proved too large.
Baker received some musical education at Glendale Junior High School, but left school at age 16 in 1946 to join the United States Army. He was posted to Berlin, where he joined the 298th Army band. After leaving the army in 1948, he studied theory and harmony at El Camino College in Los Angeles. He dropped out in his second year, however, re-enlisting in the army in 1950. Baker became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco, but was soon spending time in San Francisco jazz clubs such as Bop City and the Black Hawk. Baker once again obtained a discharge from the army to pursue a career as a professional musician.
Baker's earliest notable professional gigs were with saxophonist Vido Musso's band, and also with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, though he earned much more renown in 1952 when he was chosen by Charlie Parker to play with him for a series of West Coast engagements.
In 1952, Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which was an instant phenomenon. Several things made the Mulligan/Baker group special, the most prominent being the interplay between Mulligan's baritone sax and Baker's trumpet. Rather than playing identical melody lines in unison like bebop giants Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, the two would complement each other's playing with contrapuntal touches, and it often seemed as if they had telepathy in anticipating what the other was going to play next. The Quartet's version of "My Funny Valentine", featuring a Baker solo, was a hit, and became a tune with which Baker was intimately associated.
The Quartet found success quickly, but lasted less than a year because of Mulligan's arrest and imprisonment on drug charges. Baker formed his own quartet with pianist and composer Russ Freeman in 1953, along with bassists Carson Smith, Joe Mondragon, and Jimmy Bond and drummers Shelly Manne, Larry Bunker, and Bob Neel. The Chet Baker Quartet found success with their live sets, and they released a number of popular albums between 1953 and 1956. In 1953 and 1954, Baker won the Down Beat and Metronome magazines' Readers Jazz Polls, beating the era's two top trumpeters, Miles Davis and Clifford Brown. Down Beat readers also voted Baker as the top jazz vocalist in 1954. In 1956, Pacific Jazz released Chet Baker Sings, a record that increased his profile but alienated traditional jazz fans; he would continue to sing throughout his career.
Due to Baker's chiseled features, he was approached by Hollywood studios, and he made his acting debut in the film Hell's Horizon, released in the fall of 1955. He declined an offer of a studio contract, preferring life on the road as a musician. Over the next few years, Baker fronted his own combos, including a 1955 quintet featuring Francy Boland, where Baker combined playing trumpet and singing. In 1956 Chet Baker completed an eight month tour of Europe, where he recorded Chet Baker In Europe.
He became an icon of the West Coast "cool school" of jazz, helped by his good looks and singing talent. Baker's 1956 recording, released for the first time in its entirety in 1989 as The Route, with Art Pepper, helped further the West Coast jazz sound and became a staple of cool jazz.
Baker began using heroin in the 1950s, resulting in an addiction that lasted the remainder of his life. At times, Baker pawned his instruments for money to maintain his drug habit. In the early 1960s, he served more than a year in prison in Italy on drug charges; he was later expelled from both West Germany and the United Kingdom for drug-related offenses. Baker was eventually deported from West Germany to the United States after running afoul of the law there a second time. He settled in Milpitas in northern California, where he played in San Jose and San Francisco between short jail terms served for prescription fraud.
In 1968, Baker was savagely beaten (allegedly while attempting to buy drugs) after a gig in The Trident restaurant in Sausalito, California sustaining severe cuts on the lips and broken front teeth, which ruined his embouchure. He stated in the film Let's Get Lost that an acquaintance attempted to rob him one night but backed off, only to return the next night with a group of several men who chased him. He entered a car and became surrounded. Instead of rescuing him, the people inside the car pushed him back out onto the street, where the chase by his attackers continued, and subsequently he was beaten to the point that his teeth, never in good condition to begin with, were knocked out, leaving him without the ability to play his horn. He took odd jobs, among them pumping gas. Meanwhile he was fitted for dentures and worked on his embouchure. Three months later he got a gig in New York City.
Between 1966 and 1974, Baker mostly played flugelhorn and recorded music that could mostly be classified as West Coast jazz.
After developing a new embouchure resulting from dentures, Baker returned to the straight-ahead jazz that began his career. He relocated to New York City and began performing and recording again, including with guitarist Jim Hall. Later in the 1970s, 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 in 1988, Baker resided and played almost exclusively in Europe, returning to the USA roughly once a year for a few performances. This 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 the period was one of Baker's most mature and rewarding. Of particular importance are Baker's quartet featuring the pianist Phil Markowitz (1978–80) and his trio with guitarist Philip Catherine and bassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse (1983–85).[citation needed] He also toured with saxophonist Stan Getz during this period.
In 1983, British singer Elvis Costello, a longtime fan of Baker, hired the trumpeter to play a solo on his song "Shipbuilding", from the album Punch the Clock. The song exposed Baker's music to a new audience. Later, Baker often featured Costello's song "Almost Blue" (inspired by Baker's version of "The Thrill Has Gone") in his concert sets, and recorded the song for Let's Get Lost, a documentary film about his life.
The video material recorded by Japanese television during Baker's 1987 tour in Japan showed a man whose face looked much older than he was, but his trumpet playing was alert, lively and inspired. Baker recorded the live album Chet Baker in Tokyo with his quartet featuring pianist Harold Danko, bassist Hein van de Geyn and drummer John Engels less than a year before his death, and it was released posthumously. Silent Night, a recording of Christmas music, was recorded with Christopher Mason in New Orleans in 1986 and released in 1987.
Baker's compositions included "Chetty's Lullaby", "Freeway", "Early Morning Mood", "Two a Day", "So Che Ti Perderò" ("I Know I Will Lose You"), "Il Mio Domani" ("My Tomorrow"), "Motivo Su Raggio Di Luna" ("Tune on a Moon Beam"), "The Route", "Skidadidlin'", "New Morning Blues", "Blue Gilles", "Dessert", and "Anticipated Blues".
At about 3:10 am on May 13, 1988, Baker was found dead on the Prins Hendrikkade, near the Zeedijk, the street below his second-story room of Hotel Prins Hendrik in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with serious wounds to his head. Heroin and cocaine were found in his hotel room, and an autopsy also found these drugs in his body. There was no evidence of a struggle, and the death was ruled an accident. A plaque outside the hotel memorializes him and the room he was staying in, No. 210, is named "The Chet Baker Room".
Baker is buried at the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.
- Baker was photographed by William Claxton for his book Young Chet: The Young Chet Baker. An Academy Award-nominated 1988 documentary about Baker, Let's Get Lost, portrays him as a cultural icon of the 1950s, but juxtaposes this with his later image as a drug addict. The film, directed by fashion photographer Bruce Weber, was shot in black-and-white and includes a series of interviews with friends, family (including his three children by third wife Carol Baker), associates and women friends, interspersed with film from Baker's earlier life, and with interviews with Baker from his last years.
- Time after Time: The Chet Baker Project, written by playwright James O'Reilly, toured Canada in 2001 to much acclaim. The musical play Chet Baker – Speedball explores aspects of his life and music, and was premiered in London at the Oval House Theatre in February 2007, with further development of the script and performances leading to its revival at the 606 Club in the London Jazz Festival of November 2007.
- Baker was reportedly the inspiration for the character Chad Bixby, played by Robert Wagner in the 1960 film All the Fine Young Cannibals. Another film, to be titled Prince of Cool, about Baker's life, was cancelled as of January 2008.
- In 1991, singer/songwriter David Wilcox recorded the song "Chet Baker's Unsung Swan Song" on his album Home Again, speculating on what might have been Baker's last thoughts before falling to his death. The song was later covered by k.d. lang as "My Old Addiction" on her 1997 album Drag.
- The song "Chet Baker", which appears on the 2007 CD Wally Page and Johnny Mulhern: Live at the Annesley House, by Irish folk singer-songwriter Wally Page, describes the end of Baker's life in Amsterdam.
- Jeroen de Valk has written a biography of Baker which is available in several languages: Chet Baker: His Life and Music is the English translation.
Other biographies include James Gavin's Deep In A Dream—The Long Night of Chet Baker, and Matthew Ruddick's Funny Valentine. Baker's "lost memoirs" are available in the book As Though I Had Wings, which includes an introduction by Carol Baker.
- He is portrayed by Ethan Hawke in the 2015 film Born to Be Blue.
- The Australian electronica musician Nicholas James Murphy chose Chet Faker as his stage name, in order to pay homage to Chet Baker, who was a big influence for him.
Honors
In 1987 Chet Baker was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
In 1989 he was elected to Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame by that magazine's Critics Poll.
In 1991 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.
In 2005 Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and the Oklahoma House of Representatives proclaimed July 2 as "Chet Baker Day".
In 2007 Mayor of the City of Tulsa, Kathy Taylor, proclaimed December 23 as "Chet Baker Day".
On October 10, 2015 Yale, Oklahoma held the inaugural Chet Baker Jazz Festival in Baker's honor.
Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s, particularly for albums featuring his vocals (Chet Baker Sings, It Could Happen to You). Jazz historian David Gelly described the promise of Baker's early career as "James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one." His well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety and fame, Baker was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and '80s.
Baker was born and raised in a musical household in Yale, Oklahoma; his father, Chesney Baker, Sr., was a professional guitar player, and his mother, Vera (née Moser) was a talented pianist who worked in a perfume factory. His maternal grandmother, Randi Moser, was Norwegian. Baker began his musical career singing in a church choir. His father introduced him to brass instruments with a trombone, which was replaced with a trumpet when the trombone proved too large.
Baker received some musical education at Glendale Junior High School, but left school at age 16 in 1946 to join the United States Army. He was posted to Berlin, where he joined the 298th Army band. After leaving the army in 1948, he studied theory and harmony at El Camino College in Los Angeles. He dropped out in his second year, however, re-enlisting in the army in 1950. Baker became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco, but was soon spending time in San Francisco jazz clubs such as Bop City and the Black Hawk. Baker once again obtained a discharge from the army to pursue a career as a professional musician.
Baker's earliest notable professional gigs were with saxophonist Vido Musso's band, and also with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, though he earned much more renown in 1952 when he was chosen by Charlie Parker to play with him for a series of West Coast engagements.
In 1952, Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which was an instant phenomenon. Several things made the Mulligan/Baker group special, the most prominent being the interplay between Mulligan's baritone sax and Baker's trumpet. Rather than playing identical melody lines in unison like bebop giants Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, the two would complement each other's playing with contrapuntal touches, and it often seemed as if they had telepathy in anticipating what the other was going to play next. The Quartet's version of "My Funny Valentine", featuring a Baker solo, was a hit, and became a tune with which Baker was intimately associated.
The Quartet found success quickly, but lasted less than a year because of Mulligan's arrest and imprisonment on drug charges. Baker formed his own quartet with pianist and composer Russ Freeman in 1953, along with bassists Carson Smith, Joe Mondragon, and Jimmy Bond and drummers Shelly Manne, Larry Bunker, and Bob Neel. The Chet Baker Quartet found success with their live sets, and they released a number of popular albums between 1953 and 1956. In 1953 and 1954, Baker won the Down Beat and Metronome magazines' Readers Jazz Polls, beating the era's two top trumpeters, Miles Davis and Clifford Brown. Down Beat readers also voted Baker as the top jazz vocalist in 1954. In 1956, Pacific Jazz released Chet Baker Sings, a record that increased his profile but alienated traditional jazz fans; he would continue to sing throughout his career.
Due to Baker's chiseled features, he was approached by Hollywood studios, and he made his acting debut in the film Hell's Horizon, released in the fall of 1955. He declined an offer of a studio contract, preferring life on the road as a musician. Over the next few years, Baker fronted his own combos, including a 1955 quintet featuring Francy Boland, where Baker combined playing trumpet and singing. In 1956 Chet Baker completed an eight month tour of Europe, where he recorded Chet Baker In Europe.
He became an icon of the West Coast "cool school" of jazz, helped by his good looks and singing talent. Baker's 1956 recording, released for the first time in its entirety in 1989 as The Route, with Art Pepper, helped further the West Coast jazz sound and became a staple of cool jazz.
Baker began using heroin in the 1950s, resulting in an addiction that lasted the remainder of his life. At times, Baker pawned his instruments for money to maintain his drug habit. In the early 1960s, he served more than a year in prison in Italy on drug charges; he was later expelled from both West Germany and the United Kingdom for drug-related offenses. Baker was eventually deported from West Germany to the United States after running afoul of the law there a second time. He settled in Milpitas in northern California, where he played in San Jose and San Francisco between short jail terms served for prescription fraud.
In 1968, Baker was savagely beaten (allegedly while attempting to buy drugs) after a gig in The Trident restaurant in Sausalito, California sustaining severe cuts on the lips and broken front teeth, which ruined his embouchure. He stated in the film Let's Get Lost that an acquaintance attempted to rob him one night but backed off, only to return the next night with a group of several men who chased him. He entered a car and became surrounded. Instead of rescuing him, the people inside the car pushed him back out onto the street, where the chase by his attackers continued, and subsequently he was beaten to the point that his teeth, never in good condition to begin with, were knocked out, leaving him without the ability to play his horn. He took odd jobs, among them pumping gas. Meanwhile he was fitted for dentures and worked on his embouchure. Three months later he got a gig in New York City.
Between 1966 and 1974, Baker mostly played flugelhorn and recorded music that could mostly be classified as West Coast jazz.
After developing a new embouchure resulting from dentures, Baker returned to the straight-ahead jazz that began his career. He relocated to New York City and began performing and recording again, including with guitarist Jim Hall. Later in the 1970s, 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 in 1988, Baker resided and played almost exclusively in Europe, returning to the USA roughly once a year for a few performances. This 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 the period was one of Baker's most mature and rewarding. Of particular importance are Baker's quartet featuring the pianist Phil Markowitz (1978–80) and his trio with guitarist Philip Catherine and bassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse (1983–85).[citation needed] He also toured with saxophonist Stan Getz during this period.
In 1983, British singer Elvis Costello, a longtime fan of Baker, hired the trumpeter to play a solo on his song "Shipbuilding", from the album Punch the Clock. The song exposed Baker's music to a new audience. Later, Baker often featured Costello's song "Almost Blue" (inspired by Baker's version of "The Thrill Has Gone") in his concert sets, and recorded the song for Let's Get Lost, a documentary film about his life.
The video material recorded by Japanese television during Baker's 1987 tour in Japan showed a man whose face looked much older than he was, but his trumpet playing was alert, lively and inspired. Baker recorded the live album Chet Baker in Tokyo with his quartet featuring pianist Harold Danko, bassist Hein van de Geyn and drummer John Engels less than a year before his death, and it was released posthumously. Silent Night, a recording of Christmas music, was recorded with Christopher Mason in New Orleans in 1986 and released in 1987.
Baker's compositions included "Chetty's Lullaby", "Freeway", "Early Morning Mood", "Two a Day", "So Che Ti Perderò" ("I Know I Will Lose You"), "Il Mio Domani" ("My Tomorrow"), "Motivo Su Raggio Di Luna" ("Tune on a Moon Beam"), "The Route", "Skidadidlin'", "New Morning Blues", "Blue Gilles", "Dessert", and "Anticipated Blues".
At about 3:10 am on May 13, 1988, Baker was found dead on the Prins Hendrikkade, near the Zeedijk, the street below his second-story room of Hotel Prins Hendrik in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with serious wounds to his head. Heroin and cocaine were found in his hotel room, and an autopsy also found these drugs in his body. There was no evidence of a struggle, and the death was ruled an accident. A plaque outside the hotel memorializes him and the room he was staying in, No. 210, is named "The Chet Baker Room".
Baker is buried at the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.
- Baker was photographed by William Claxton for his book Young Chet: The Young Chet Baker. An Academy Award-nominated 1988 documentary about Baker, Let's Get Lost, portrays him as a cultural icon of the 1950s, but juxtaposes this with his later image as a drug addict. The film, directed by fashion photographer Bruce Weber, was shot in black-and-white and includes a series of interviews with friends, family (including his three children by third wife Carol Baker), associates and women friends, interspersed with film from Baker's earlier life, and with interviews with Baker from his last years.
- Time after Time: The Chet Baker Project, written by playwright James O'Reilly, toured Canada in 2001 to much acclaim. The musical play Chet Baker – Speedball explores aspects of his life and music, and was premiered in London at the Oval House Theatre in February 2007, with further development of the script and performances leading to its revival at the 606 Club in the London Jazz Festival of November 2007.
- Baker was reportedly the inspiration for the character Chad Bixby, played by Robert Wagner in the 1960 film All the Fine Young Cannibals. Another film, to be titled Prince of Cool, about Baker's life, was cancelled as of January 2008.
- In 1991, singer/songwriter David Wilcox recorded the song "Chet Baker's Unsung Swan Song" on his album Home Again, speculating on what might have been Baker's last thoughts before falling to his death. The song was later covered by k.d. lang as "My Old Addiction" on her 1997 album Drag.
- The song "Chet Baker", which appears on the 2007 CD Wally Page and Johnny Mulhern: Live at the Annesley House, by Irish folk singer-songwriter Wally Page, describes the end of Baker's life in Amsterdam.
- Jeroen de Valk has written a biography of Baker which is available in several languages: Chet Baker: His Life and Music is the English translation.
Other biographies include James Gavin's Deep In A Dream—The Long Night of Chet Baker, and Matthew Ruddick's Funny Valentine. Baker's "lost memoirs" are available in the book As Though I Had Wings, which includes an introduction by Carol Baker.
- He is portrayed by Ethan Hawke in the 2015 film Born to Be Blue.
- The Australian electronica musician Nicholas James Murphy chose Chet Faker as his stage name, in order to pay homage to Chet Baker, who was a big influence for him.
Honors
In 1987 Chet Baker was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
In 1989 he was elected to Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame by that magazine's Critics Poll.
In 1991 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.
In 2005 Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and the Oklahoma House of Representatives proclaimed July 2 as "Chet Baker Day".
In 2007 Mayor of the City of Tulsa, Kathy Taylor, proclaimed December 23 as "Chet Baker Day".
On October 10, 2015 Yale, Oklahoma held the inaugural Chet Baker Jazz Festival in Baker's honor.
Chetty's Lullaby
Chet Baker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Veglierт,
Questa notteя solo per te,
Dolce bimbo ti dirт che presto tornerт,
Senza te,
Sento gelo nel mio cuor,
Cerco solo
L'illusione
Di averti qui con me...
Torneran per me le stelle,
Nel mio cielo senza piщ nubi...
Sogni d'or,
Scendon lievi verso te,
Dormi caro che domani,
Col sol ti bacerт.
Questa notteя solo per te,
Dolce bimbo ti dirт che presto tornerт,
Senza te,
Sento gelo nel mio cuor,
Cerco solo
L'illusione
Di averti qui con me...
Nel mio cielo senza piщ nubi...
Sogni d'or,
Scendon lievi verso te,
Dormi caro che domani,
Col sol ti bacerт.
The lyrics to Chet Baker's Chetty's Lullaby are a heartfelt message from a parent to their child. The song starts with the parent assuring the child that they will stay up all night, only for them. They then proceed to tell the child that they will return soon and express their feelings of loneliness without the child's presence. The parent knows that they are unrealistic in their hope to have the child with them at that moment but clings onto the illusion just the same. They then go on to say that the stars that have disappeared from their sky will soon return, along with a dream of gold, which they send to the child as they sleep.
The lyrics of Chetty's Lullaby evoke a sense of nostalgia, longing, and tenderness through their use of simple yet impactful language. It is a song that speaks eloquently of the love that a parent feels for their child, and the desire to protect and reassure them. Above all, the emotions conveyed through the lyrics make it a poignant and touching piece.
Line by Line Meaning
Veglierт,
I will stay awake,
Questa notteя solo per te,
This night only for you,
Dolce bimbo ti dirт che presto tornerт,
Sweet child, I will tell you that I will soon return,
Senza te,
Without you,
Sento gelo nel mio cuor,
I feel a chill in my heart,
Cerco solo L'illusione Di averti qui con me...
I only seek the illusion of having you here with me...
Torneran per me le stelle,
The stars will return for me,
Nel mio cielo senza piщ nubi...
In my sky without clouds...
Sogni d'or, Scendon lievi verso te,
Golden dreams, descend lightly towards you,
Dormi caro che domani, Col sol ti bacerт.
Sleep my dear, for tomorrow, I will kiss you with the sun.
Contributed by Jason K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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@ronniekahn6941
The first time I met Chet Baker, he was playing at a little neighborhood club called Strykers on 97th & Columbus Avenue on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He was coming back after years of an extended period of absence, having diligently devoted himself to re-learning to play trumpet with dentures, which everybody told him could not be done. But he persevered and prevailed, and this was one of his first comeback gigs. Awesome! I never heard any trumpet sound like that! I don't think it could ever be captured on a recording: So intimate tender innovative & personal...sometimes just whispering & breathing infinite silence space&timelessness into his trumpet...He just loved music & making music so deeeeeeeeeply & innately: just making the purest finest most beautiful sounds and blissful ethereal effects. Chet Baker was truly a great Maestro of the highest degree, a natural-born precocious musical genius like Mozart!
During the break I came up to Chet to thank & enthusiastically congratulate him. In my over-enthusiasm I started telling Chet how much I also dug & admired & had been imitating his singing for years, and automatically went into my little imitation of him singing “I Wish I Knew” till I caught myself & felt embarrassed & silly & said,“Oh no! Here I am doing my Chet Baker imitation for Chet Baker!” He just smiled & said “You don't look old enough to remember that record.” (1955 LP called “Chet Baker Sings& Plays")
He looked gaunt & emaciated, almost like a derelict. But his voice and manner were very polite mellow kind & refined, sensitive gentle very personable sweet good-natured & very likable, casual cultured & very well-bred. I asked him if he would sing during his second-set after the break. He thanked me for asking but apologized & explained why he really couldn't because he was working with just a bassist & drummer & no piano...
He excused himself when his band-mates summoned him to prepare for their second set. There were just a few other people at that very small dimly-lit cellar club that night. My date was a nice girl who had the same last name as me though we were otherwise unrelated, I barely remember her, but we were both blown-away by Chet!
When Chet came back from the break, he opened his set singing “Just Friends” Bless his heart! Still feels good that he honored my request & was singing just for me! His singing always kinda reminds me of Alfalfa from “Our Gang”
I still listen to Chet's music almost every day now, often listening to him continually all day long, and when I try listening to something else for a change, I find myself missing his familiar soothing sound which is so much an integral part of me, I find myself unable to listen to anything else & hafta sink right back into that sweet fine&mellow transcendent celestial atmosphere he creates so effortlessly & endlessly...
PS: I had given Chet my business card that night, and to my surprise & amazement—first thing in the morning--he called me! But that's another story for another time now...
@iamherenowandgoneforever5120
Lyrics:
Veglierò
Questa notte solo per te
Dolce bimbo ti dirò che presto tornerò
Senza te
Sento gelo nel mio cuor
Cerco solo
L'illusione
Di averti qui con me...
Torneran per me le stelle
Nel mio cielo senza più nubi...
Sogni d'or
Scendon lievi verso te
Dormi caro che domani
Col sol ti bacerò
@cxlxmbvs4535
Such a beautiful song; if someone's interested, the lyrics to the song in Italian can be translated into English as:
"I asked your bitch if I could bum a cig
She said she got a Kool, I said, "that's cool"
I don't give a shit what kind of cigarette that you prefer to smoke
I needed a reason to talk to you
Girl, it's true, what it do?
You making Ruby drool
Yeah, $lick slapped me across my face
Snapped me right back in my place
What the fuck? My pace sure lacks an ace
I'm such a slave to my old ways, make no mistake
All of these hoes want Ruby 'cause of the cherry
Fuck her pussy, I wanna be buried, bitch
She wanna be my girl and ride with me
She wanna creep up in the night with me
Blowin' up my phone like "$lick, I love you"
I'm too detached, I don't feel nothing for her
I might relapse and put these drugs above you
I might just snap and kill another for you
You see? It's dangerous when I think of her, when I think of us
When I think of love, think about my ex, think about the rest
None of them hoes used to give a fuck
Call Ruby up, "get the Uzi, bruh"
I'm so sick of these hoes, light up the joe
Bury her in the grave I dug
Did it all in the name of love, in the name of love
In the name of love, ayy."
@ronniekahn6941
The first time I met Chet Baker, he was playing at a little neighborhood club called Strykers on 97th & Columbus Avenue on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He was coming back after years of an extended period of absence, having diligently devoted himself to re-learning to play trumpet with dentures, which everybody told him could not be done. But he persevered and prevailed, and this was one of his first comeback gigs. Awesome! I never heard any trumpet sound like that! I don't think it could ever be captured on a recording: So intimate tender innovative & personal...sometimes just whispering & breathing infinite silence space&timelessness into his trumpet...He just loved music & making music so deeeeeeeeeply & innately: just making the purest finest most beautiful sounds and blissful ethereal effects. Chet Baker was truly a great Maestro of the highest degree, a natural-born precocious musical genius like Mozart!
During the break I came up to Chet to thank & enthusiastically congratulate him. In my over-enthusiasm I started telling Chet how much I also dug & admired & had been imitating his singing for years, and automatically went into my little imitation of him singing “I Wish I Knew” till I caught myself & felt embarrassed & silly & said,“Oh no! Here I am doing my Chet Baker imitation for Chet Baker!” He just smiled & said “You don't look old enough to remember that record.” (1955 LP called “Chet Baker Sings& Plays")
He looked gaunt & emaciated, almost like a derelict. But his voice and manner were very polite mellow kind & refined, sensitive gentle very personable sweet good-natured & very likable, casual cultured & very well-bred. I asked him if he would sing during his second-set after the break. He thanked me for asking but apologized & explained why he really couldn't because he was working with just a bassist & drummer & no piano...
He excused himself when his band-mates summoned him to prepare for their second set. There were just a few other people at that very small dimly-lit cellar club that night. My date was a nice girl who had the same last name as me though we were otherwise unrelated, I barely remember her, but we were both blown-away by Chet!
When Chet came back from the break, he opened his set singing “Just Friends” Bless his heart! Still feels good that he honored my request & was singing just for me! His singing always kinda reminds me of Alfalfa from “Our Gang”
I still listen to Chet's music almost every day now, often listening to him continually all day long, and when I try listening to something else for a change, I find myself missing his familiar soothing sound which is so much an integral part of me, I find myself unable to listen to anything else & hafta sink right back into that sweet fine&mellow transcendent celestial atmosphere he creates so effortlessly & endlessly...
PS: I had given Chet my business card that night, and to my surprise & amazement—first thing in the morning--he called me! But that's another story for another time now...
@angelabelcastro798
Wish you could tell the rest of the story some day. Thank you for your sweet, beautiful account. I listen to only him also.
@progressiverockman5346
+Ronnie Kahn I'd like to hear the rest of the story, as well! :)
@angelabelcastro798
Thank you
@MrTarade
Cool
@adamland12345
i would love to hear that story!
@kingoma61
The lyrics to the song in Italian can be translated into English as: "I will watch only for you this night, sweet child. I'll tell you that I will return soon. Without you I feel cold in my heart. I have only the illusion of having you here with me. You will return to me the stars in my sky without clouds. Golden dreams descend gently towards you, dear sleep, that tomorrow I'll kiss by the sun."
@captainacabo7968
ignore saving for later
@iamherenowandgoneforever5120
Lyrics:
Veglierò
Questa notte solo per te
Dolce bimbo ti dirò che presto tornerò
Senza te
Sento gelo nel mio cuor
Cerco solo
L'illusione
Di averti qui con me...
Torneran per me le stelle
Nel mio cielo senza più nubi...
Sogni d'or
Scendon lievi verso te
Dormi caro che domani
Col sol ti bacerò
@kingoma61
"Chetty's Lullaby", composed by Chet Baker, was released as a 45 single by RCA in 1962 b/w "So che ti perderò" as RCA PM 45-3068 in mono. The track was recorded during the Chet is Back! sessions for RCA in Rome, Italy at RCA's studios. Ennio Morricone was the conductor and arranger. The track was released as a bonus track on the Chet is Back! CD release by RCA. Chet Baker plays the trumpet and sings on the track.