Jazz trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker has been described as many things – perhaps most famously, the James Dean of jazz. Indeed, Baker’s public and personal images have been the subject of much discussion and debate throughout his career and beyond. Less common amongst members of the listening public, however, were earnest and thoughtful analyses of the jazzman’s distinct stylistic approach, which made use of a great intuition seemingly inherent within Baker from the time he picked up his instrument of choice.
The duality of man is a notion inherent in just about every facet of Baker’s fascinating career. Much has been said of how naturally the musician took to his instrument, with those who knew and worked with him making note of how little practice he put into his craft in spite of what remained an enormously remarkable gift. Bassist Paul Warburton, who worked with Baker, said of the trumpeter, “Chet’s playing wasn’t limited by anything…Anyone, in my opinion, who says Chet’s playing was limited by anything, especially theory or harmony, is wacko!”
Baker did receive some amount of what one might call formal music training during his time with the military. But the heartthrob jazzman was, by essentially all accounts, and self-taught ear player with a very limited understanding of theoretical concepts in music. Still, Baker’s ear for being able to internalize and regurgitate the melodies he heard in real time would become the stuff of legend.
Even among the jazz greats where were plenty of iconic musicians with a limited – or nonexistent – understanding of formal music theory. Such titans of the genre include Wes Montgomery, Dave Brubeck, and Erroll Garner, just to name a few, so how and why does this notion become such a significant factor in Chet Baker’s story while remaining a footnote in the respective stories of such contemporaries?
The legitimate answer lies in the dark underbelly of who Baker was as a person – the detail which takes centerstage during any discussion of the musician and his work and which often serves to kneecap widespread understanding of any legitimate contributions to the genre for which he could be considered partially responsible. This detail, of course, is that Chet Baker spent the bulk of his life and almost the entirety of his career as an unscrupulous and unrepentant heroin addict.
Substance abuse among musicians is not necessarily uncommon and was even considered a rite of passage in some jazz circles during Baker’s heyday. But Baker was unique in that he generally made no bones about his issue and quite openly participated in copious numbers of sessions of varying degrees of quality in order to fund his habit.
Baker’s great sin was lack of discipline, which perhaps translated to a lack of seriousness to contemporaries. While figures like John Coltrane – who himself struggled with substance abuse while working with Miles Davis – were known to practice their instrument incessantly in search of the next musical development, Baker is said generally to have concerned himself with securing his next fix. On what level this affected his musicianship is up for debate, but Baker’s practice schedule – or lack thereof – notwithstanding, it is clear that he maintained, at the very least, minimal chops so as to be able to convincingly recreate his distinct “cool jazz” sound before paying audiences.
Another aspect of Baker’s public image which seemingly attracted the ire of both contemporaries and purist audience members was his early status as a teen heartthrob. Just as he possessed a seemingly natural aptitude for the trumpet, good looks were something that seemed to come naturally to Baker prior to the emergence of clear signs of physical deterioration after decades of substance abuse.
Boyish good looks in conjunction with the musician’s unique, minimalist singing style, earned Baker a national following along with unofficial the moniker, “The James Dean of Jazz.” Such publicity inevitably led to Baker’s triumph in several music polls seeking to determine “best trumpet player” and other similarly arbitrary accolades. The seemingly musically limited Baker having bested contemporaries such as Miles Davis in these public polls was reportedly another source of frustration in jazz scene – this, exacerbated by the fact that the new golden boy of the genre was very much a white man in a genre developed by black musicians.
Due to their having gained notoriety in the same era and both having risen to success by way of a minimalistic style of trumpet playing – especially when considering the hyper-active and relentless bebop stylings of the 1950s – Chet Baker and Miles Davis have undergone countless assessments over the years which primarily have consisted of stylistic comparison exercises. Many will refer to Davis’ restless pursuit of expansion of the jazz medium as justification for dismissing Baker entirely, but such a conclusion would be decidedly shortsighted and inconsiderate of all the variables at play.
Far from considering himself the superior player, Baker would allude to Davis multiple times throughout his career as a source of inspiration, even going as far as to credit Davis with having inspired what would become Baker’s signature trumpet-playing style. Pitting the two against one another also implies that the two shared the same aspirations with regard to both their music and respective public images – an assumption which would be far from accurate.
Miles Davis came up as a musician with a chip on his shoulder – a black man with extraordinary talent and seemingly limitless vision looking to lay claim to his own piece of the pie in white America. Part of Davis’ construction of his public image was the perpetuation of a “tough guy” persona which aligned with the “cool” aura surrounding him.
Baker, by contrast, was packaged and pitched early on to appeal to a female audience. The tenderness and nuance of his playing need not be backed by the ability to “throw down,” because tenderness was a part of the image he was attempting to convey. Miles Davis, of course, was not a singer. But had he been, it would be farfetched to envision someone of Davis’ demeanor earnestly crooning, “I’m a little lamb who’s lost in the woods.” For Baker, however, this was merely another facet of the public’s perception of him as a person and artist. Ergo it was little problem for Baker to recite the lyrics to “Someone to Watch Over Me” and similarly delicate tunes.
It is interested to consider the perception of Baker – musically speaking – outside the context of his chosen genre. Jazz is notorious for requiring a certain degree of skill – both technically and improvisationally speaking – to pull off effectively. In this arena, theoretical knowledge is essentially the bread and butter of the exercise.
In genres such as rock, however, not only is theoretical and technical competency not viewed as necessary, some within the genre may even view it with a certain degree of suspicion. Rock is a genre which places much significant on “feel” and “personal meaning” in its musical expression. Viewed through this particular lens of what is and isn’t acceptable, Baker could be seen as musically transcendent, existing alongside similarly flawed and limited geniuses such as Kurt Cobain and Keith Richards.
One’s assessment of Chet Baker’s contributions and abilities as a musician will depend almost entirely upon subjective criteria such as personal preference with regard to styles and approach. In spite of subjective determinations, however, one should be able to objectively concede that Baker possessed an incredible gift that resulted in an array of great recordings that can still be enjoyed today. From the longing passages of “Moon Love” and “Moonlight Becomes You” to the delicate delivery of “Isn’t It Romantic?,” the expansive body of work left behind by Baker stand as testament to his considerable abilities. Any remaining doubts in this regard should be expelled through the understanding that Charlie Parker wouldn’t sing the musical praises of just anyone during his time as the perceived savior of jazz, yet he felt compelled to lend his seal of approval to an up-and-coming trumpeter by the name of Chet Baker.
Feature Photo: English: Distributed by Joe Glaser’s Associated Booking Corporation. Photographer uncredited and unknown., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
