Chet Baker

1929 in Yale Oklahoma Chet Baker was born. When the family decided to move Cher’s father decided to buy him a trombone. The 12 year old thought it was a little hard to handle and eventually switched over to trumpet. Chet Baker grew up to be one of the most interesting and mysterious performers of Jazz. A life full of talent, women, drugs, travel and all drenched in Jazz music.

Chet Baker was unschooled. He was a man who played by ear, quickly learning tunes and improvising understanding what worked and what didn’t yet Chet could never tell you what key he was in or what he had technically just played. When I had heard this it blew my mind! I am studying music at KSU and knowing the hours spent in Theory and Aural Skills to be a better musician is so helpful. That type of understanding is assumed wherever you go and to see Chet as someone who was such an in tune musician and couldn’t read music astounds me! In 1987 Herbie Hancock spoke about his recording of "Fair Weather": "I had forgotten that Chet didn't read music. I remember how fresh his first take was, he followed the chords as if he had known them all his life". No one in their right mind would have really been able to guess by listening that Chet was unschooled musically. 

Baker said in a 1987 interview with biographer J. de Valk; "Well, I can't read chord sequences. I can play a melody line that is written down for trumpet. But chord symbols tell me nothing. For a time I went to instrument training class in junior high school. That was the only instruction that I ever had."

This is a huge part of Bakers charm. Within the mysteriousness of Chet’s personal life on stage he always kept people guessing. Surprising audiences with each performance.

Chet Baker-"My Funny Valentine"
This is one of the most common standards of all time, and it seems to transcend jazz. What I’ve noticed is that there are quite a few interpretations of the chord changes on this particular tune, and it’s difficult to know what the “real” changes are. The tune is typically done in C minor, but the bridge goes the relative major, in Eb. The form is AABA. However, beyond this the various recordings are very different harmonically. Leaving excessive amounts of room for improvisation that jazz musicians love.

After a run as Charlie Parker’s trumpeter in the Quintet during the bebop giant’s stay in L.A., Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. In 1952, the quartet cut four sides for the Fantasy label recorded live at San Francisco’s Blackhawk club. Along with two Mulligan originals, bassist Carson Smith suggested a ballad called “My Funny Valentine,” which no one in the group had ever heard before. “The song fascinated Baker. It captured all he aspired to as a musician … ‘Valentine’ became his favorite song; rarely would he do a show without it, or fail to find something new in its thirty-five bars.” Stated by James Gavin’s from Abiography, Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker. The instrumental version of the song clearly resonated with Baker. This first of many vocal versions of “My Funny Valentine” is a premonition of the pain to come in his heroin-addicted future—singing almost as if he was already on his deathbed. Though the singer addresses another person, it’s almost as if he’s singing to himself, about himself: lines like “my favorite work of art” and “your looks are … unphotographable” hint at the narcissism and selfishness that would come to dominate his life.

“Chettie was so gifted and so magical that what he gave out he could never, ever get back.”

My Funny Valentine

“My Funny Valentine”

My funny Valentine, sweet comic Valentine
You make me smile with my heart
Your looks are laughable, unphotographable
Yet, you’re my favorite work of art

Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?

But don’t change your hair for me
Not if you care for me
Stay little Valentine, stay!
Each day is Valentines day

Written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart

Cited:

http://chetbakertribute.com/about.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOEIQKczRPY

http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/01/chet-baker-my-funny-valentine/