Preface

Chet Baker is the subject of many misunderstandings. Read anything about Chet Baker - an article in a magazine or a newspaper, for example - and it's likely you will be told that Chet was a pitiful character who started using drugs when his popularity dwindled and his piano player Dick Twardzik died. That he faded into obscurity after spectacular early success and was rescued from oblivion by filmmaker Bruce Weber, who also inspired his last recording, the soundtrack for Let's Get Lost. That he was killed in Amsterdam, where the police handled the case carelessly.

The truth, alas, is less sensational. Chet had his problems, but he was hardly that badly off. He started using drugs when he was at the height of his popularity and Twardzik was still alive. In the last ten years of his life, he was very popular in Europe, where he recorded and performed extensively. His trumpet playing was usually much stronger than it is in Weber's film (Ed: HC's disagreement). The soundtrack was certainly not his last recording; he made over a dozen records afterward, both live and in the studio. One of them - Chet Baker in Tokyo - contains his best work ever. And, finally, Chet was not killed. After thorough examination, the police concluded that he died because he fell out of his hotel room, after having taken heroin and cocaine. This may sound anti-climactic for a jazz hero, but there is nothing I can do about it.

I trust this book will bring readers closer to the appreciation of the man's life and music.

Jeroen de Valk,
Amersfoort, the Netherlands, April 2000