Let's Get Lost

I'm sorry.

No, Chet, it's OK. You were fine

No, no, it's not like that.

Those chords are in the first measure.

What's the problem here?

Jesus.

A lot of fucking attitudes going on here.

Don't let me get one. One, two, three...

Touch light, man, touch light.

Dizzy Gillespie, man.

Dizzy Gillespie was bad. He was so bad.

- Who? - Dizzy Gillespie.

When I was a little kid he was my favourite trumpet player.

I ever tell you that story? I loved Dizzy 'cause I played trumpet.

Dizzy Gillespie was my favourite guy in the whole world.

I went to go see him play, and I snuck backstage.

And he came up to me and put his arm around me and hugged me close

for like 15 minutes and just talked to me.

Chet just did a gig in your town.

- Really? - Yeah.

- He's got a double bill. - Let's see a jump. Let's see a jump.

- Oh, dude. - Whoo!

Oh, bud.

Wait a minute. You can't go hatless.

There you go, partner. What do you think?

Once all together like this.

Together with the legs up. Ready?

Christano, Christano.

Where the hell is this studio?

Everybody has a story about Chet Baker.

I can't forget the first time I ever saw him.

It was in New York City, a long time ago, in the winter.

It was snowing a lot and I was crossing the street in front of Tiffany,

at 57th and 5th.

He was in an old Chevy convertible with the top down.

He was stopped at a red light, and the snow was falling all over.

His hair was all slicked down.

He was listening to Zoot Sims on the car radio.

Oh, Cherry, he could have cared less about the snow, just the jazz.

He was bad, he was trouble and he was beautiful.

- Do you find life boring? - Uh...

Under some circumstance it can be very boring.

Most of the time.

And for a lot of people, it can be very boring.

Very boring.

Being hungry, being cold...

- Have you experienced that? - Oh, yeah.

Not too long ago. You never have?

- No. - Huh.

How fortunate you are.

Where in the hell are we?

I've loved these photographs for so many years.

He was only about 16 when he cut this album.

He's checking out this girl here.

The girl?

He was copied alot just like James Dean was copied a lot

by every young actor.

And I think that musicians copied him a great deal.

- Is this Russ? - Russ Freeman.

That's Red Mitchell on bass. That's Johnny Mandel, the arranger.

- Yeah, that's right. - Bob Neal on drums.

Carson Smith.

What recording session was this from?

That was the first set of Baker and Strings for Columbia Records.

That's Zoot Sims, the great Zoot.

That's the old Chippany Club.

That's Charlie Parker when Charlie Parker was in town.

The legend and he chose Chet to play with him.

How did Chet get to play with Charlie Parker?

Charlie Parker heard him playing somewhere and said, "I like that kid".

Legend was that Charlie Parker called Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, said,

"There's a white kid out here giving you trouble. You better watch out".

Dick Bock was a young record producer.

He was recording Chet, and so I showed him the pictures,

and he hired me to come and start photographing.

It was Chet Baker's first recording session, I believe it was his first,

I was photographing him. The strongest thing I remember about Chet

was that I was attracted to him photographically and the camera was too.

And Chet just drew like a magnet, like he was...

He loved the camera, but he was very unpretentious.

He didn't know he was doing it. At least it seemed that way.

I kept taking pictures of him and forgetting about the rest of the band.

I had to cover the whole thing, and later that night in the darkroom...

Remember, I'm a young guy trying to be a photographer.

The film was developed and I was making enlargements.

The images were coming through, developing through.

I remember having a very strong feeling, for the first time,

of what photogenic meant, or what star quality meant or charisma.

That was a new word in the mid-50's.

I thought, "This guy's got all that stuff and I discovered him".

Photographically.

Well, he always had wonderful looking ladies with him.

He always drove wonderful cars, even when he couldn't afford them.

And he usually had his dog there, too, wonderful dog,

sitting in the recording studio, which was unique.

You know how it is when you're young. You think you hear new music,

or you find a new artist and you discovered them.

I was supposed to play football in Oklahoma.

I was supposed to pick up the horn.

What I'm trippin' is that you came from Oklahoma and you play horn.

- It doesn't stack up. - It doesn't fit together.

- You got some musical family? - My father was a musician.

- Did he teach you how to play? - He didn't teach me.

- You taught yourself? - Pretty much.

You failed your course on chord progression?

- Keep swingin'. - I just made a claim on the pattern.

That's an alternative. That's not it.

Is this in tune?

You want to take a take on this?

Sure.

Do you like that delivery?

- It's nice. It's good. - All right.

You guys about ready yet? OK. Chetty?

- Let's do it. - Don't forget the "do wah's".

- All right, here we go. - I'll wait for you.

- Three and... - Wait a minute.

Um, let's take... let's just do it.

- You want to rehearse the intro again? - I think I got it.

OK.

- Three... - Whenever you're ready, then.

- OK, we're ready. - Are we rolling in the booth?

Yes, we are.

- Go ahead. - Hold on a second, wait.

- Are they rolling? - Yes.

- OK, let's go. - Three, and...

four and...

Meeting Chet Baker probably changed my life forever.

I was going to college at the time

and I was promoting a jazz night at the Haig Club,

a little club off of Wilshire Boulevard.

One night Chet Baker dropped in.

Gerry Mulligan was the saxophone player that evening.

They hadn't really met.

I think Chet was playing with Charlie Parker at the Tiffany Club,

which is about four blocks away.

And he just... At the end of the engagement at that night, at Tiffany,

he just came and sat in, and it was so fresh and so natural.

The natural talent. It started to change the whole picture there.

In fact, the next week I hired Chet and Gerry to play together.

By the third week they had booked Red Norvo's trio into the club,

and Red didn't have a piano.

He played with Tal Farlow and Charlie Mingus on bass and guitar.

He said, "I don't want the piano on the stage. Store it somewhere".

There was no place. The Haig was so small. It held 52 people.

The owner, John Bennett, put it in his apartment.

Gerry said, "It makes no difference.

I can play just as well without a piano".

So the Gerry Mulligan quartet was born.

Days of hearing Chet and Gerry at the Haig

were probably some of the greatest experiences I've ever had in jazz.

I've been producing jazz records for 40 years now,

and I've produced some of the greatest musicians,

but I think Chet is one of the most unique players.

And I got him at the best time in his life.

He was just a kid. He was 23 years, 22 years of age, just out of the Army.

He hadn't had junk yet.

He was smoking some pot, but he hadn't gotten into a habit.

So I got the best years and some of the best music that he ever played.

And it was a thrill.

It wasn't long before Chet really went past Gerry, in a sense.

He was becoming so bright in what he was doing

that he had to have his own thing.

And then it caused difficulty, because Gerry resented the fact

that Chet was no longer gonna be a sideman...

which broke up probably one of the best jazz quartets of the day.

At his best I don't think anybody played any better than Chet Baker on trumpet.

It sounded to me like he was the history of jazz.

There was Louis Armstrong, there was Bix Beiderbecke

and there was Bunny Berigan, all rolled into one.

He had that spark that Bunny had

and the Iyrical quality that Bix Beiderbecke had,

yet Chet was always fresh and new. He never really played cliches.

Sign the back of Imagination.

I've never heard anybody sing so soft.

He sings soft, but it keeps going.

It just keeps going and going and stays the same.

It sounds like the horn.

Like what he played at the end of that one song. OK.

You're not gonna let me carry your horn?

- No. - Come on, Chet.

Could be a world champion by the end of year.

You're not gonna come over and have enchilada, tostada..

- Step aside, please. - Don't change your hair for me.

Not if you care for me.

Stay, little funny Valentine. Stay.

I must say, the other night when you brought me in

I hadn't seen him for at least 15 or 20 years.

I was shocked. I was just stunned that I didn't know it was the same person

because he's changed so much.

It made me very sad, actually.

But the moment he talked and sang, and, of course, played his trumpet,

it just all came back as sort of a wonderful image again.

Then I just forgot about the age and the change of his looks.

'Cause he sounded so boyish.

I was the same old thing again. It was wonderful.

He said, "Goodbye, Bill. Great seeing you",

He just kept looking at me and I thought,

"It's probably gonna be the last time I see him".

It was a very sad feeling. I hope it's not true.

Now, after all these years, I don't know what he must think.