Chet Baker: Sings and Plays From the Film “Let’s Get Lost”

A musician whose talent never seemed to reach it’s natural zenith due to a long standing drug addiction and general life mismanagement, Chet Baker still emerged as a leader in the West Coast “Cool” jazz movement of the 1950's. The trumpet was the instrument with which he first came into prominence, but his distinctive voice appears to be the artistic vehicle that will carry his legend into the future. Just before he died of injuries suffered in a fall from a window in Amsterdam, the renown photographer Bruce Weber made a piercing documentary of Baker’s life. To accompany the dramatically revealing video of this prodigy’s precipitous decline, Weber culled vocal tracks from Baker’s signature years of 1953 through 1956. The curious result is a beautiful collection of standards presented simply with Baker’s dulcet tone crooning in a hushed, casual manner. The songs are soft and comforting, from Cole Porter’s Every Time We Say Goodbye to Edward Heyman and Oscar Levant’s Blame It On My Youth. This album serves as an excellent representation of the developing, vocal jazz styling of the West Coast during the post bop years.