chet baker was a jazz musician who was born to play the trumpet and gently croon. alex turned me on to him back in 2003 when we first met at wayne state. he put a few of his songs on compilation cd for me and i was instantly hooked. the documentary "lets get lost" from 1987 has resurfaced and played last weekend at the dft. i am so glad i didn't give in to the temptation of staying in on a cold night since it was one of the best documentaries i've seen. i had known bits and pieces about mr. baker's life prior to seeing the film. i knew he'd been extremely good looking and equally as talented. i also knew that he had fallen into the dark abyss of hardcore drug usage and had seen an untimely death.
i wasn't prepared to see the gaunt, weathered face staring back at me from the screen. chet baker at 57 years old looked about twenty years older than he should have. it was shocking to see what a lifetime of heroin and cocaine and cigarettes and alcohol and god knows what else can do to someone (not to mention that someone's family and friends.)
another thing that made me sad was watching footage of actors and musicians who belonged to the era of glamour that we can only dream of now.
check out chet baker's music. (my favorite song of his is "embraceable you.")
2 comments:
How funny. This lady at work was just telling me about his documentary last night. She said it was pretty good and interesting as well.
--Cousin Farah
its embarrassing what "stars" are allowed to get away with. i know actors and musicians did terrible things before too...but it was never glamourized like it is today. before, they were held to a higher standard than everyone else....today, celebrities are allowed to get away with things that no one else can
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