Chet Baker's
Top 10 Records |
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Chet Baker |
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Name: Chet Baker
| Nee: |
Chesney Henry Baker Jr. |
| Born: |
23 Dec 1929 |
| Died: |
13 May 1988 |
| Origin: |
Yale, Oklahoma, United States |
| Instruments: |
Trumpet, Vocal |
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| Raised in a musical household (his father was a guitar player), and coming to age during the bebop era of jazz, Chet Baker found success as a trumpet player in 1951 when he was chosen by Charlie Parker to play with him on a series of West Coast dates. In 1952, Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which lasted less than a year due to Mulligan's arrest on drugs charges. Over the next few years, Chet Baker fronted his own combo, both playing trumpet and singing.
In the early 60's, drug addiction caught up with Chet Baker and his promising musical career declined as a result. Heroin addiction created a myriad of legal problems for him as well; he ended up serving more than a year in prison in Italy, and was later expelled from both West Germany and England for drug related offenses. He was eventually deported to the United States from West Germany after running afoul of the law there a second time. In 1966, he was severely beaten after a gig in San Francisco. Accounts of the story vary, largely to Baker's lack of reliable testimony on the matter. |
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