Baker, Chet. (1929 - 1988). Black Leather Dress Shoes. A pair of black leather dress shoes which by their evident wear and tear, vividly illustrate the hard life of the celebrated American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and vocalist. From the last ten years of Baker's life, from the collection of his longtime companion Diane Vavra. The history of this relationship is extensively documented in, among others, James Gavin's "Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker" (Chicago Review, 2011).
‘‘He was one of the first generation of masters who created the powerful American urban music that came to be called bebop. He was the last of them to remain faithful to heroin, long after the others had cleaned up or died young. It was a love affair more than a habit.’’ (Chet Baker Obituary by Mike Zwerin, International Herald Tribune)
Baker was known for the clarity and ease of his tone as a trumpeter, and the preternatural calm, quiet, and reflectiveness of his singing, the way in which he could, “somehow,” as the Italian pianist Enrico Pieranunzi puts it, “express the question mark of life in so few notes." Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s, particularly for albums featuring his vocals (Chet Baker Sings, It Could Happen to You) and Jazz historian David Gelly has described the promise of Baker's early career as "James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one." But Baker began using heroin in the 1950s, resulting in an addiction that lasted the remainder of his life, landing him in and out of jail and partly driving his notoriety and fame. His career enjoyed a resurgence in the late 1970s and '80s, during which time he lived in Europe, recording and touring, for most of the ten years prior to his death. On May 13, 1988 Baker was found dead on the street below his second-story room of Hotel Prins Hendrik in Amsterdam, in what was almost certainly a suicide, but ruled an accidental if drug-induced fall.
Baker, Chet. (1929 - 1988). Black Leather Dress Shoes. A pair of black leather dress shoes which by their evident wear and tear, vividly illustrate the hard life of the celebrated American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and vocalist. From the last ten years of Baker's life, from the collection of his longtime companion Diane Vavra. The history of this relationship is extensively documented in, among others, James Gavin's "Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker" (Chicago Review, 2011).
‘‘He was one of the first generation of masters who created the powerful American urban music that came to be called bebop. He was the last of them to remain faithful to heroin, long after the others had cleaned up or died young. It was a love affair more than a habit.’’ (Chet Baker Obituary by Mike Zwerin, International Herald Tribune)
Baker was known for the clarity and ease of his tone as a trumpeter, and the preternatural calm, quiet, and reflectiveness of his singing, the way in which he could, “somehow,” as the Italian pianist Enrico Pieranunzi puts it, “express the question mark of life in so few notes." Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s, particularly for albums featuring his vocals (Chet Baker Sings, It Could Happen to You) and Jazz historian David Gelly has described the promise of Baker's early career as "James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one." But Baker began using heroin in the 1950s, resulting in an addiction that lasted the remainder of his life, landing him in and out of jail and partly driving his notoriety and fame. His career enjoyed a resurgence in the late 1970s and '80s, during which time he lived in Europe, recording and touring, for most of the ten years prior to his death. On May 13, 1988 Baker was found dead on the street below his second-story room of Hotel Prins Hendrik in Amsterdam, in what was almost certainly a suicide, but ruled an accidental if drug-induced fall.