Cool jazz trumpeter and singer Chet Baker was born in Oklahoma in 1929. He is best known for the tracks "My Funny Valentine" and "Let's Get Lost" from the Chet Baker Sings album from 1952.
After leaving the army Baker worked with a variety of artists including Vido Musso, Stan Getz and Charlie Parker, but he found his greatest, if shortlived, success with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. The recordings the group made at that time were highly critically acclaimed, and the band had a hit with the track "My Funny Valentine" in 1952. The bands' career was cut short when Mulligan was imprisoned for drugs offences.
Baker's own drug use would have a negative effect on his career (and a disastrous affect on his life). He often found himself on the wrong side of the law, and sometimes in prison. Broken teeth sustained by Baker, during a fight in 1966, meant he was unable to play his trumpet as before, and he swapped instruments, playing the flugelhorn for almost ten years before switching back to trumpet.
In the late 70s Baker relocated to Europe where he found regular playing and recording work, but he was unable to generate a profile outside jazz circles. In 1983 his trumpet playing was introduced to a wider audience when Elvis Costello asked him to play on the track "Shipbuilding", which became a top 40 hit in the UK in 1983.
Baker died as the result of a fall from a window in Amsterdam in 1988. The same year, the documentary Let's Get Lost was made by a fan of Bakers. Baker's compelling and tragic life story saw the film nominated for an Oscar.
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