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.
I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face
Chet Baker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Oh I, I've grown, grown accustomed to her voice
I've grown accustomed to her face
She almost makes the day begin
I've grown accustomed to the tune
She whistles night and noon
Are second nature to me now
(Second nature)
Like breathing out and breathing in
(Breathing out and in)
I was serenely independent and content before we met
Surely I could always be that way again and yet
I've grown accustomed to her looks
Accustomed to her voice, accustomed to her face
Grown accustomed to her looks
Grown accustomed to her voice
I've grown accustomed to her face
She almost makes the day begin
(Day begin)
I've gotten used to hear her say
"Good morning", every day
Her joys, her woes, her highs, her lows
Are second nature to me now
(Second nature)
Like breathing out and breathing in
(Breathing out and in)
I'm so grateful she's a woman and so easy to forget
Rather like a habit one can always break and yet
I've grown accustomed to the trace of something in the air
Accustomed to her face
Grown accustomed to her looks
Grown accustomed to her trace
I've grown accustomed to her voice
Grown accustomed to her face
She's second nature to me now
Like breathing out and breathing in
(Breathing out and breathing in)
I was serenely independent and content before we met
Surely I could always be that way again and yet
I've grown accustomed to her looks
Accustomed to her voice, I've accustomed to her face
Her looks
(I can't believe)
Her trace
(How much I love her)
Her voice
Her face
(I'm addicted to you, baby)
Her looks
Her trace
(Because your love that drives me crazy)
Her voice
Her face
Grown accustomed to her voice
(You know I finally realize)
Grown accustomed to her face
(I got to hold it by my side)
Grown accustomed to her looks
(I wanna be, be your ornament)
Grown accustomed to her trace
('Cause I love you, baby, please take my hand)
Grown accustomed to her voice
(I'll be good to you each and everyday)
Grown accustomed to her face
(I've grown accustomed)
Grown accustomed to her looks
Grown accustomed to her trace
(Can't live if the livin' is without you)
Grown accustomed to her voice
Grown accustomed to her face
(Can't give, can't live anymore)
"I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" is a classic love song, originally written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe for the Broadway musical "My Fair Lady" in 1956. The song appears in the second act, after the show's central characters, the linguist Henry Higgins and the flower girl Eliza Doolittle, have developed a complicated relationship. The song has been covered by many artists over the years, but perhaps one of the most beloved versions is the one recorded by jazz trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker in 1958.
The song speaks about the singer's growing love for someone. He has become accustomed to the way she looks, the sound of her voice, and the way she moves. She almost makes his day begin, and he has gotten used to hearing her say "good morning" every day. Her joys and hardships have become second nature to him, like breathing. Even though he was content before they met, he has become addicted to her and can't imagine going back to his old life without her. He's fallen deeply in love, and he can't help himself from being completely devoted to her.
One interesting fact about the song is that it includes a line from a different song, "Without You," another Broadway tune written by Lerner and Loewe that debuted in "My Fair Lady." The line "I'll be good to you each and every day" appears in both songs. Additionally, Chet Baker's version of the song is notable for his plaintive trumpet playing and smooth vocals, which perfectly capture the song's wistful, romantic tone. However, Baker was known for his issues with addiction and had a distinct, sometimes croaky voice, which some critics found off-putting.
Line by Line Meaning
Grown accustomed to her looks
I have become familiar with the way she looks
Oh I, I've grown, grown accustomed to her voice
I have become used to the sound of her voice
I've grown accustomed to her face
I have adjusted to seeing her face regularly
She almost makes the day begin
She plays a big role in starting my day off right
I've grown accustomed to the tune
I have become accustomed to the melody she whistles
She whistles night and noon
She whistles at all times of the day
Her smiles, her frowns, her ups and her downs
I have become accustomed to her different emotions
Are second nature to me now
I am used to her moods as if they were a part of me
(Second nature)
I am so used to her emotions that they feel like a natural part of me
Like breathing out and breathing in
Her emotions are as natural to me as breathing
(Breathing out and in)
Just like breathing, I don't even have to think about it anymore
I was serenely independent and content before we met
I was happy and self-sufficient until I met her
Surely I could always be that way again and yet
Although I know I could go back to that state of mind, it wouldn't be the same
I've grown accustomed to her voice, accustomed to her face
I am so used to her voice and face now
I've gotten used to hear her say
I now expect to hear her say
"Good morning", every day
She says "good morning" to me every day and it has become a comforting routine
Her joys, her woes, her highs, her lows
I have become accustomed to all the different emotions and experiences she goes through
I'm so grateful she's a woman and so easy to forget
I am thankful she is a woman because it would be too hard to forget about her otherwise
Rather like a habit one can always break and yet
I know I can break this "habit" but I don't want to
I've grown accustomed to the trace of something in the air
I can sense something in the air when she's around and it has become familiar to me
I can't believe
I am amazed at
How much I love her
The depth of my love for her is surprising to me
I'm addicted to you, baby
I am so attached to you, darling
Because your love that drives me crazy
Your love is what makes me feel this way
I wanna be, be your ornament
I want to be seen as a decoration or accessory to her
('Cause I love you, baby, please take my hand)
Because I love you so much, please take my hand and don't leave me
You know I finally realize
I have come to a realization
I got to hold it by my side
I can't bear to be without her by my side
Can't live if the livin' is without you
I can't imagine living without you
Can't give, can't live anymore
If I can't have you, I can't go on anymore
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Capitol CMG Publishing, Integrity Music, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@JamesYisrael
This masterpiece should have a billion likes, but it's so special only us lucky ones are privileged to enjoy and cherish it
@connieolivares9453
👍👍
@peterlloyd5285
Nobody plays from the heart like Chet. You can't fake or copy that emotion.
@HairBilly
Il suono del mondo a memoria
@turelion85
L ho riletto proprio stasera con questo pezzo in sottofondo
@francescobecattini1601
Meraviglioso
@txikilin
This is my favourite work by Chet Baker. It's very lyrical, luminous. Like strolling in parks and gardens smelling the fragrance of a new springtime.
@lucianoiann6712
Amazing, just amazing. Damn... Chet Baker is one of the few....
@francescosorrenti8263
Castelfranco Veneto - Treviso 23 Marzo 1988 una serata indimenticabile.
Ero tra gli organizzatori e quel giorno averti conosciuto e parlare con te di musica e della vita in genere è stata un'esperienza unica, di quelle che arricchiscono.
La tua musica parla da sola, come l'immensità della tua sensibilità. Non servono molti discorsi è sufficiente ascoltarla, ascoltarla ed ascoltarla ..arte e bellezza allo stato puro, parla soprattutto al cuore e si posiziona nelle profondità dell'anima, ti emoziona e trasporta nel mondo della sensazioni più vere ed autentiche ..sempre con noi grandissimo e sfortunato Chet ..heart, soul, feeling and music ..penso di avere tutti i tuoi dischi oltre cento e continuerò a cercare sempre qualsiasi tua registrazione.
Alcuni anni fa ho fatto omaggio a tuo Figlio Paul dell'unica registrazione esistente di quella serata, alla Fondazione Chet Baker di Oklahoma City, in tuo onore, spero ne verrà tratto un album...
@mikedibona3150
Stunning.