Episode #63 | 9.29.20
Chet Baker: Heroin, Romance, Missing Teeth and the James Dean of Jazz
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In this episode
Chet Baker, with his natural talent, unique voice and beautiful looks was known as “the James Dean of Jazz.” He was also a savage junkie and part- time criminal. A one- of- a- kind musician, his soft singing style and romantic playing enraptured Hollywood, the jazz world and Europe, however, violence, crime and drugs led to numerous prison stints and to one of the most mysterious deaths in music. Who or what killed the great Chet Baker?
Sources
As Though I Had Wings: The Lost Memoir, by Chet Baker and Carol Baker
Deep In A Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, by James Gavin
Let’s Get Lost, directed by Bruce Weber
Born To Be Blue, directed by Robert Budreau
Born to Be Blue: The Rise and Fall of Chet Baker - Please Kill Me
Chet Baker’s Tale of Woe - Downbeat
The Deaths of Chet Baker - Bravofact
Chet Baker: My druggy valentine - Independent (UK)
The Troubled Life and Exquisite Music of Chet Baker - WBUR
How Chet Baker Really Died - KCRW
The Chet Baker Conspiracy - SleuthSayers
How Dentures Affected Chet Baker’s Jazz - B&D Dental Excellence
Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Music
Score by Jake Brennan.
Mixed and Engineered by Sean Cahalin.
Disgraceland theme song, "Crenshaw Space Boogie" written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak