The Prince of Cool!
Chet Baker was a trumpeter, most famous for singing the jazz standard My Funny Valentine using a very soft voice.
In the old days, you’d set up a microphone at the front of the room, put the singer close to it, and the drums far away. The rest of the band would line up in order of volume, so you’d literally mix the recording by placing musicians at a suitable distance from the microphone.
It makes sense that the singer, to survive this kind of environment, would need to be great at belting it out. Not so with Chet, he’d whisper it!
As long as the band played quietly, this worked and would allow for more sensitivity in the voice to be captured.
Perhaps his skills as a trumpeter allowed him to try this, if a singer had come to the studio whispering, they’d probably been laughed at!
As Chet was already regarded as a fantastic musician, getting him to sing was a bonus, so to speak.
As a trumpeter, Chet played with the best, including Charlie Parker but also as an alternative to what Charlie and Dizzy did, which was to play in unison at breakneck speed,
Chet would with another saxophone player, Gerry Mulligan, do the opposite to Dizzy and Bird. Using counterpoint harmony and more space, and in general with more of a laid-back approach., he spearheaded an alternative to Bepop.
Dubbed the prince of cool, Chet clearly appreciated space rather than super-fast Bebop, perhaps this is where his soft singing came from as well, as a reaction to what everyone else was doing at the time.
Clearly, Chet’s playing resonated with more than just critics, he even won readers’ polls in best trumpeter, ahead of Miles Davis in the ’50s.
Impossible to not mention in this context is Chet Bakers’ heroin addiction which would see him in and out of hospitals and jail throughout his career. He even got caught in Europe and deported back to the U.S. in the ’60s.
In the late 70s, Chet had been allowed back into Europe and spent a lot of time there. Unfortunately, he died in Amsterdam in 1988 as he was attempting to get back into his hotel room through a window and fell. There were traces of both cocaine and heroin in his blood.
As a jazz artist, Chet played most standards and is known for his versions of Autumn Leaves, I Fall In Love Too Easy, Stella By Starlight, A Foggy Day, and of course for his singing on My Funny Valentine.
Chet Baker Tunes | Related Pages
Angel Eyes
You can learn how to play Angel Eyes by Frank Sinatra using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and Spytunes video guitar lessons.
| Am Am/G Am/F# Am/F | Am/E Am/Eb |
Try to think that love’s not around…
Autumn Leaves
You can learn how to play Autumn Leaves by Chet Baker using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and the original recording.
| Am7 | D7 | Gmaj7 | Cmaj7 |
The falling leaves drift by my window…
My Funny Valentine
You can learn how to play My Funny Valentine by Chet Baker using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, the original recording, and cover versions.
| Cm | Cmmaj7 | Cm7 | Cm6 |
My funny Valentine, sweet comic Valentine…
Summertime
You can learn how to play Summertime by Billie Holiday using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and the original recording.
| Bbm7 F7b9/C | Db6 F7b9/C | Bbm7 F7b9/C | Db6 F7b9/C |
Summertime and the living is easy…
Chet Baker on the web
Artists & Bands
Behind every single tune you learn, there’s an artist or band with an entire catalogue of music, waiting to be discovered.
Find out more about these great Artists & Bands, and let their tunes guide you to success.
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was an article about Chet Baker tunes, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
