System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Chet Baker, Jazz Trumpeter
December 23, 1929 - May 13, 1988
Chet Baker was born on December 23, 1929, in Yale, Oklahoma. His father, Chesney Baker, sr., was a musician who played the guitar semi-professionally. The family moved to Glendale, a suburb of Los Angeles in 1940. By the time Chet was 13 his dad bought him a trumpet, he started taking lessons in High School. At aged 16, Chet quit school and joined the US Army where he was stationed in Berlin, Germany. While he was there he played trumpet with the Army Band and was exposed to all types of jazz music.
By 1952 Chet took advantage of the opportunity to play back up on his first commercially issued recording . Soon after he managed to grab the attention of local jazz club owners and was later asked to accompany other jazz greats like Freddie "Snickelfritz" Fischer's, tenor saxophonist Vido Musso and with altoist Charlie Parker. Chet joined with Gerry Mulligan put together a quartet in 1952. They drew large crowds and soon after acquired a cut like following. Chet moved on from there to play and record under the Pacific Jazz label, he toured and traveled around North American and Europe. However it wasn’t long until Chet started using and abusing drugs.
Chet returned to the USA by 1964, he married Carol Jackson, an English show-dancer, and had a son Dean. Soon after this, his downhill slide started: he recorded several albums which hardly made any impact on the jazz charts. His luck ran out the night he got his teeth kicked out, and for several years he was hardly able to play. From 1970 Baker gave up playing altogether and lived on welfare with his wife and children, they now also had son Paul and daughter Melissa.
By 1973 Chet decided to take up the trumpet again, which incidentally triggered his huge comeback. He ended up being the most frequently-recorded American jazz musicians in Europe, Chet Baker holds approximately 200 albums, LP, CD’s, half of which were recorded during his last 15 years. Chet Baker died on May 13, 1988, in Amsterdam, Holland. He fell from the window of his hotel room in the early morning hours. He was 58 years old. He is buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.
