The cool Chet Baker
Submitted by Jazz Suite
In honor of Chet Baker’s birthday, here he is with Stan Getz in Sweden in 1983 singing and playing My Funny Valentine.
Not every jazz player is a good singer, something more than a few should take to heart, but Chet Baker could pull it off. Often imitated (poorly), the intimacy so evident in his playing was also his voice, sensitive and vulnerable in its tone. It was all too much for many so-called experts who’d do better to keep their yaps shut anyway.
But one should not slight Baker’s trumpet for his singing. In more ways than one might see on the surface, he is a disciple to Bix. The parallels in their lives, the addictions that eroded their skills and eventually took both of them, make for interesting study. Chet was “cool,” Bix was “cool” before it was hip.
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