1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:05,600 Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of double Elvis. Heads Up, guys. 2 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:07,640 Speaker 1: In this episode, there's a lot of talk of the 3 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:10,840 Speaker 1: mid century concept of cool, as well as about heroin. 4 00:00:11,119 --> 00:00:12,960 Speaker 1: It should go without saying that there is nothing in 5 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:15,760 Speaker 1: this episode that is an endorsement of that drug, any 6 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:18,159 Speaker 1: drug for that matter. But you're smart enough to know 7 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:32,720 Speaker 1: that already. All right, let's get into it. The stories 8 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:37,040 Speaker 1: about jazz musician Chet Baker are truly insane. He was 9 00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:40,320 Speaker 1: a natural, gifted musician with a mile long rap sheet. 10 00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:43,880 Speaker 1: He was worshiped by beautiful movie stars and both loved 11 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:48,159 Speaker 1: and loathed by serious jazz contemporaries. He was heavily addicted 12 00:00:48,159 --> 00:00:51,839 Speaker 1: to heroin and made heavily addictive music. Chet Baker, with 13 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:55,520 Speaker 1: his overtly romantic style of playing and singing, coupled with 14 00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:59,160 Speaker 1: his matinee idol good looks, was called the James Dean 15 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:07,920 Speaker 1: of jazz. He was also called many other things, gifted, junkie, angel, scammer, cool, stupid, charming, abusive, beautiful, 16 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:11,640 Speaker 1: in a rat. He was indeed all of these things, 17 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:14,840 Speaker 1: and he did, of course make great music. And that 18 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:16,679 Speaker 1: music I played for you at the top of the 19 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:20,520 Speaker 1: show that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop 20 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:26,280 Speaker 1: for my melotron called Second Story Swing MK. One. I 21 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:29,000 Speaker 1: played you that loop because I can't afford the rights 22 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:32,840 Speaker 1: to Wishing Well by Terrence Trent Darby. And why would 23 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:36,120 Speaker 1: I play you that specific slice of hard Line Cheese? 24 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:39,960 Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one 25 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:44,000 Speaker 1: song in America on May thirteen, nineteen eighty eight, And 26 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:47,360 Speaker 1: that was the day Chet Baker lost his life, creating 27 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:50,680 Speaker 1: one of the most enduring mysteries in music. The cause 28 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 1: of his death. On this episode hard Bop heroin Hard 29 00:01:56,280 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 1: Line Cheese, the James Dean of Jazz in getting lost 30 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:01,080 Speaker 1: with Chet Baker. 31 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:13,040 Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan, and this this disgraceland. 32 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:30,640 Speaker 1: The smack to the mouth stung, but he said nothing. 33 00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: His mother looked on in horror, but she said nothing. 34 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,880 Speaker 1: His father, who gave him the crack, said nothing as well. 35 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:41,880 Speaker 1: Nobody said anything. They were too busy trying to keep 36 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:46,640 Speaker 1: it cool. The house was a powder keg of suppressed tension. 37 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:50,919 Speaker 1: The tension was always there, just like those Oklahoma clouds. 38 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 1: They never seemed to pass. Even when the sun fought 39 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:57,400 Speaker 1: its way through, the clouds hung around, ensuring that the 40 00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:03,040 Speaker 1: sky would never be more than just almost who. The 41 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:06,880 Speaker 1: humiliation would never fully pass either, even as an adult, 42 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:09,840 Speaker 1: even in success, even with the adoration of jazz lovers 43 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:12,959 Speaker 1: up and down the West Coast, whenever anything good would 44 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:15,640 Speaker 1: happen to him, there was that familiar pull in the 45 00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 1: back of his mind. It blasted into his conscience like 46 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 1: hard bot demanding to be heard. It said, remember me, 47 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:25,080 Speaker 1: pretty boy, I'm here to remind you that you ain't shit, 48 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:27,240 Speaker 1: You ain't cool, you ain't never been cool, and you 49 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:29,080 Speaker 1: ain't never gonna be cool. You're gonna be just like 50 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:31,959 Speaker 1: your daddy, some javass half a musician who can't find work, 51 00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:36,760 Speaker 1: who nobody ever heard of. When Downbeat magazine, the paper 52 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:40,440 Speaker 1: of record for jazz aficionados, named him check Baker Trumpeter 53 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:43,200 Speaker 1: of the Year two years running back in nineteen fifty 54 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:46,880 Speaker 1: four and fifty five, there was no joy he beat 55 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:50,760 Speaker 1: out Miles Davis. He knew what that meant, resentment and anger. 56 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:55,080 Speaker 1: There's something he couldn't control. The color of his skin white, 57 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:59,080 Speaker 1: so very unhipp When he met Miles, he told him 58 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 1: straight up that he wanted to write him a letter 59 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:03,720 Speaker 1: apologizing for winning the award, because he knew he wasn't 60 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: better than Miles. Miles said, you got about fifteen other 61 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: letters to write before you get to me. The sting 62 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:13,720 Speaker 1: of the rejection from the hippus musician on the planet 63 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:16,040 Speaker 1: was the same, if not worse, than the sting of 64 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:20,160 Speaker 1: the beatings he took from his old man. Like Miles, 65 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:23,080 Speaker 1: the old man was not short on resentment and anger. 66 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: The drugs helped heroin grass whatever pills he could get, 67 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:31,560 Speaker 1: but mainly heroin the drug. Shooting it, scoring it. It 68 00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:34,760 Speaker 1: occupied every waking moment he wasn't on stage, and in 69 00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six, the stage wasn't bringing in the bread 70 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:40,600 Speaker 1: like it was back in the mid fifties in Los 71 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:44,120 Speaker 1: Angeles and New York. His reputation as a serious jazz 72 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:47,600 Speaker 1: man was eclipsed by his reputation as a dangerous drug addict, 73 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 1: and so road work was necessary. Scoring depended entirely on 74 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:55,600 Speaker 1: what city you were. In this city, wherever the fuck 75 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:58,880 Speaker 1: USA was not hip. He needed to come up with 76 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 1: a new plan to catch a thief with carry Grant, 77 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:07,960 Speaker 1: the Hitchcock movie Grant clad head to toe and black night, 78 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: crawling throughout the Italian Riviera, in and out of unsuspecting socialites, windows, 79 00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:15,839 Speaker 1: robbing them of their jewelry and cash. Chet thought he 80 00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:18,400 Speaker 1: could have been cast as the thief over Grant. He 81 00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:20,400 Speaker 1: knew Italy like the back of his hand, and he 82 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:22,520 Speaker 1: would have been able to do his own stunts. He 83 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:26,560 Speaker 1: was a righteous second story man. Next to blowing trumpet 84 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 1: and crooning, Scamming people was one of his greatest talents, 85 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 1: particularly breaking and entering above the ground floor on the 86 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:37,920 Speaker 1: crimespree he and his bassis Bob Whitlock, had embarked upon 87 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:43,240 Speaker 1: was necessary. Without junk, they would be rendered useless, bedridden 88 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,599 Speaker 1: with violent withdrawals, and unable to perform, which was the 89 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 1: whole point of being on the road in the first place. 90 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:51,880 Speaker 1: Put in work, make the bread, except all the bread 91 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:54,520 Speaker 1: went toward Heroin, and when it ran out, there were 92 00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:58,320 Speaker 1: no options. Chet's habit was extreme, to say the least. 93 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:03,040 Speaker 1: He'd have to improvise es. Whitlock looked on in amazement 94 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:06,240 Speaker 1: as the great Chet Baker scaled the fire escape. He 95 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:08,200 Speaker 1: then hemmed his body tight to the side of the 96 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:11,560 Speaker 1: Optolan home on the second story and carefully placed each 97 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:14,360 Speaker 1: foot on the ledge of the home's massive window nearest 98 00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:17,880 Speaker 1: the fire escape. He popped the lock, lifted the glass, 99 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:20,719 Speaker 1: pushed his wiry body through and was in and out 100 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:24,040 Speaker 1: with the valuables in no time. They'd cool their jets 101 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:25,880 Speaker 1: at an all night diner and wait for the pawn 102 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:31,760 Speaker 1: shop to open. When second story work wasn't an option 103 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 1: ie they couldn't wait on the sun to come up 104 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:35,800 Speaker 1: and the pawn shops to open and the dealers to 105 00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:39,440 Speaker 1: wake up, they'd work their drug store scam. Chet had 106 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:41,920 Speaker 1: it down pat, all that acting over in Italy had 107 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:45,000 Speaker 1: paid off. First he'd prick his finger and draw blood 108 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:47,080 Speaker 1: into a tiny vial, and then he'd hit the local 109 00:06:47,120 --> 00:06:50,320 Speaker 1: pharmacists up with his plate ge, Doc, I don't know, 110 00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:52,839 Speaker 1: hurts when I move, and my gut hurts when I 111 00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:55,880 Speaker 1: pee too. Maybe it's a kidney stone, I don't know, 112 00:06:56,839 --> 00:06:59,200 Speaker 1: and the pharmacists would have check, give a urine sample. 113 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:01,479 Speaker 1: Chet would drop a couple specks of his own blood 114 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:04,920 Speaker 1: from the vial into the urine, and voila, a diala 115 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:08,839 Speaker 1: did prescription and a passable substitute for heroin. The scam 116 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 1: didn't end there. While Chet was performing his little one 117 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:14,360 Speaker 1: act on the good doctor, Whitlock would sidle up to 118 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: the counter, all nonchalant and work his charm on the 119 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:20,000 Speaker 1: nurse and if shoe was easily flattered, which was usually 120 00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:22,480 Speaker 1: the case, he would manage to get his sweaty paw 121 00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:25,360 Speaker 1: on the doc's prescription pad, and from there it was 122 00:07:25,400 --> 00:07:28,840 Speaker 1: off to the races. But it wasn't always about the 123 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:34,880 Speaker 1: drugs in the beginning. It was about the music. Chet 124 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:37,600 Speaker 1: Baker was a lot of things. Stupid might have been 125 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:39,960 Speaker 1: one of them. It was little thought that went into 126 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:42,360 Speaker 1: his playing. When people who knew him as a man 127 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:45,160 Speaker 1: and as a musician speak of him, they almost always 128 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:49,160 Speaker 1: reference his natural talent. The music seemed to flow right 129 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:52,880 Speaker 1: through him, often at lightning speed and n tight, perfectly natural, 130 00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:56,400 Speaker 1: impeccably timed phrases. It was a style that other jazz 131 00:07:56,400 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: trumpeters practiced rigorously to achieve, but none of them ever 132 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:04,679 Speaker 1: saw Chet practice. He'd just show up and blow. He cared, 133 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:08,040 Speaker 1: but not enough to rehearse, or so it seemed, and 134 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: this detachment, along with his natural talent and striking good looks, 135 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:14,760 Speaker 1: lent an air of cool to chet Baker's persona that 136 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:18,920 Speaker 1: wasn't previously seen or heard in any musician anywhere in 137 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:24,200 Speaker 1: any genre. In the nineteen forties and fifties, for jazz musicians, 138 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:27,160 Speaker 1: and fans, particularly those being swept up in the thrill 139 00:08:27,200 --> 00:08:30,280 Speaker 1: of a new type of jazz called bebop, being vanguarded 140 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:33,559 Speaker 1: by the great jazz musicians Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and 141 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:37,600 Speaker 1: the aforementioned Miles Davis. The concept of cool meant you 142 00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:40,679 Speaker 1: were different, You were apart from the rest of society. 143 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:43,440 Speaker 1: Cool was a way of life. Cool, it was said, 144 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:46,360 Speaker 1: meant that you get done in a sentence what somebody 145 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:49,360 Speaker 1: else would get done in a paragraph. Coole was an 146 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:53,200 Speaker 1: economy of effort in life and in ones playing. Miles 147 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:56,720 Speaker 1: Davis was cool. Cool was ice, Cool was intellectual. Cool 148 00:08:56,840 --> 00:09:01,240 Speaker 1: was black. But Chet Baker was warm, those soft eyes 149 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:04,480 Speaker 1: and romantic melodies. Chet was a lot of things, and 150 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:07,680 Speaker 1: intellectual was not one of them. And Chet was white. 151 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:12,440 Speaker 1: Yet Chet was still somehow cool. Charlie Parker said so, 152 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:16,520 Speaker 1: and Charlie Parker knew from cool. He, along with Dizzy, 153 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:19,720 Speaker 1: Miles Trummer, Max Roach, and pianist Bud Powell, were among 154 00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:21,880 Speaker 1: a handful of musicians on the East Coast who were 155 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:26,200 Speaker 1: literally revolutionizing music, taking swing music and pop standards and 156 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:30,200 Speaker 1: ripping them inside out, preserving little of the original compositions. 157 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:33,480 Speaker 1: These players would demolish the song's melodies, using going the 158 00:09:33,559 --> 00:09:37,199 Speaker 1: chord progressions as their road forward, upon which they would 159 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:42,360 Speaker 1: blaze manic, furious improvisational melodies and solos and bebop horn 160 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:46,760 Speaker 1: players blue hard. The Great Louis Armstrong, the father of jazz, 161 00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:48,840 Speaker 1: had no idea what he was listening to when you 162 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:51,840 Speaker 1: first heard it, few others did either. Only those who 163 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:55,000 Speaker 1: were cool got it. It was a badge of honor, 164 00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:56,800 Speaker 1: a sign that you were cool if you were into 165 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:02,040 Speaker 1: bebop shooting. Heroin further cemented your staff. Bebop musicians, Charlie 166 00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:07,800 Speaker 1: Parker especially, were largely hardcore savage junkies. Heroin took one's 167 00:10:07,880 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 1: disaffected attitude toward life, towards society, toward everything, and rooted 168 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:16,080 Speaker 1: it into something real and dangerous. Nothing signaled to the 169 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:20,000 Speaker 1: straight world, your hipness, your otherness, more than your Heroin habit. 170 00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:23,640 Speaker 1: It blocked out the harshness of white conformists post World 171 00:10:23,679 --> 00:10:26,240 Speaker 1: War two America and heightened the only part of the 172 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:28,280 Speaker 1: day that mattered, the only part of the day that 173 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:31,360 Speaker 1: you weren't high on narcotics when you were on stage, 174 00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:34,960 Speaker 1: tearing apart tradition on the icy cool wings of improvisation 175 00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:39,520 Speaker 1: in the early fifties, the only thing cooler than being 176 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:43,520 Speaker 1: into bebop and being on heroin was being black. Chet 177 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:46,760 Speaker 1: Baker did not play bebop. He played straight. Chet Baker 178 00:10:46,880 --> 00:10:49,800 Speaker 1: was not on heroin. His drug at the time was reefer, 179 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:53,120 Speaker 1: and he was again obviously not black. He wasn't even 180 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:55,120 Speaker 1: from the East Coast. He was from the not very 181 00:10:55,160 --> 00:10:59,040 Speaker 1: beebop West Coast. Yet that didn't stop Charlie Parker from 182 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:02,199 Speaker 1: hiring Chet Baker on a West Coast stint in nineteen 183 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:06,719 Speaker 1: fifty two. Such was Chet's immense natural talent and disaffected 184 00:11:06,760 --> 00:11:11,000 Speaker 1: cool charisma. After Parker's engagement had run its course, during 185 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:14,160 Speaker 1: which Chet further proved himself to his hero by personally 186 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:17,720 Speaker 1: scoring dope form on a regular basis, Parker called Dizzy 187 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:20,719 Speaker 1: Gillespie back in New York. His message was short and 188 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:24,080 Speaker 1: to the point, you better look out. There's a little 189 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:26,000 Speaker 1: white cat out of here who's going to eat you up. 190 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:51,400 Speaker 1: Chet Baker stood on stage and the rest of the 191 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:55,240 Speaker 1: quartet eased into the ballads intro. Chet's head was down, 192 00:11:55,760 --> 00:11:58,840 Speaker 1: chin pressed to the top of his chest, trumpet hanging 193 00:11:58,880 --> 00:12:02,200 Speaker 1: off to his right, waiting not for a cue but 194 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:05,880 Speaker 1: with that feeling. When it came, he lifted his head 195 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:08,120 Speaker 1: and positioned his lips to the end of the microphone, 196 00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:13,120 Speaker 1: so close they touched. He clinched his eyes together hard, 197 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:16,200 Speaker 1: locked out the rest of the band, the audience, starlet's 198 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:18,880 Speaker 1: boppers and hobbers among them, and the muscles in his 199 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:21,800 Speaker 1: face tightened while he listened for the right note. It 200 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:27,200 Speaker 1: was there, then it was gone, lost stone Still, he 201 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:29,840 Speaker 1: waited for the core progression to loop back around, for 202 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:33,160 Speaker 1: another opportunity to ease into the romance afforded by what 203 00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:36,600 Speaker 1: was one of his favorite melodies. When it came, he 204 00:12:36,679 --> 00:12:39,760 Speaker 1: opened his mouth to sing in a whisper so vulnerable 205 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:43,000 Speaker 1: it stunned the audience into silence or fear of what 206 00:12:43,040 --> 00:12:46,160 Speaker 1: any unintended distraction on their part might do to the 207 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:51,480 Speaker 1: beautiful and wounded artist on stage. His trumpet playing may 208 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:54,720 Speaker 1: have been natural, but his voice was much affected, though 209 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:56,920 Speaker 1: in such a way that it seemed, of course natural. 210 00:12:57,520 --> 00:12:59,920 Speaker 1: Check Baker knew what he was doing as a horn 211 00:13:00,760 --> 00:13:03,320 Speaker 1: He knew about controlling pitch, so as a singer, he 212 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:05,840 Speaker 1: was able to manipulate the pitch of his own voice, 213 00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:09,880 Speaker 1: a concept that likely never occurred to traditional singers. It 214 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:13,120 Speaker 1: was subversive a sensibility owe to his love of bebop, 215 00:13:13,160 --> 00:13:16,400 Speaker 1: a genre he admired but seldom played, opting for a 216 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:19,560 Speaker 1: more traditional style of jazz that suited his natural talent 217 00:13:19,679 --> 00:13:23,440 Speaker 1: and well laziness. But when it came to singing, Check 218 00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:26,560 Speaker 1: would consciously manipulate the pitch of the melody he was singing, 219 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:29,280 Speaker 1: causing his vocal line to be, as he would later say, 220 00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:33,400 Speaker 1: under the center of tonality, the squares. It sounded wrong 221 00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:36,760 Speaker 1: to those with ears, however, it sounded entirely unique and 222 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:41,360 Speaker 1: created a beautiful sense of intense vulnerability. Chef Baker whispered 223 00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:45,080 Speaker 1: his vocals softly and intentionally, and the result was such 224 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:47,280 Speaker 1: that you felt as though he was singing to you, 225 00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:52,840 Speaker 1: and only to you. You were alone together. Chet Baker's 226 00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:56,360 Speaker 1: vulnerability is such that it makes you feel vulnerable more 227 00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:59,200 Speaker 1: than any other musician. Check Baker when he's on sends 228 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:02,560 Speaker 1: you reeling. His music creates a sense of wooziness, an 229 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:06,200 Speaker 1: emotional vertigo where you lose yourself in the spell of Chet. 230 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:10,599 Speaker 1: It's everything about him, his voice, his playing, his vulnerability, 231 00:14:10,640 --> 00:14:14,400 Speaker 1: his addiction, his myth. It detaches you. Chet sings that 232 00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:18,000 Speaker 1: old saloon song. Everything happens to me, and you're naked, 233 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:20,840 Speaker 1: untethered from your resolve, and in need of a good cry, 234 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:23,800 Speaker 1: or at the very least, the warm embrace of a beautiful, 235 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:30,680 Speaker 1: understanding Italian lover, you know, like Chet. At least that's 236 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:34,480 Speaker 1: how Marilyn Monroe felt, and Jane Russell and even Jane's friend, 237 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:37,480 Speaker 1: Professional Hard asked Robert Mitcham, and they were all in 238 00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:40,840 Speaker 1: the audience on that night. Mitcham knew about bad luck 239 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:44,000 Speaker 1: his life experience to that point. A fourteen year old 240 00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:48,320 Speaker 1: runaway turned shoe salesman turned Hollywood star, Tinseltown's first real 241 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:52,560 Speaker 1: life bad boy both on and off screen, Tall, dark Hanson, brooding, 242 00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:55,880 Speaker 1: often drunk, arrested and shipped off to World War II 243 00:14:56,120 --> 00:14:58,960 Speaker 1: his punishment, only to return to a reefer bust in 244 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:02,800 Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight. Mitcham was not your friendly neighborhood banker. 245 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:05,680 Speaker 1: He was not Jimmy Stewart. Bob. Mitcham was a real 246 00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:08,280 Speaker 1: life anti hero who could easily pick up the bird 247 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:11,480 Speaker 1: and Chet Baker was putting down. And this despite the 248 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:15,920 Speaker 1: fact that Mitcham was Hollywood's masculine archetype, handsome and strong 249 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:19,800 Speaker 1: with a deep baritone, and Chet Baker was the opposite, 250 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:23,400 Speaker 1: pretty and sensitive with a tenor singing voice far more 251 00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:27,800 Speaker 1: James Dean than John Wayne. Didn't matter. Chet Baker's playing 252 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:30,560 Speaker 1: his image, the rumors of his notorious drug habit, the 253 00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:34,880 Speaker 1: growing myth of his cool, all that subversiveness. Bob Mitcham 254 00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:39,400 Speaker 1: was hooked, and Jane Russell, like Bob and Marilyn Monroe, 255 00:15:39,400 --> 00:15:41,960 Speaker 1: would listen to anything Jane said. So they, along with 256 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:44,760 Speaker 1: a club full of Hollywood elite, all wound up at 257 00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:48,960 Speaker 1: the Hague Nightclub one night in April of nineteen fifty three. 258 00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:54,800 Speaker 1: So too to Detective John Edward O'Grady, scourge of hoppers, Bobsters, 259 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:58,880 Speaker 1: and jazz heads throughout Los Angeles. Dangerous musician and celebrity 260 00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:01,720 Speaker 1: drug addicts like Robert Mitcham and Chet Baker were public 261 00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:06,000 Speaker 1: enemy number one for O'Grady, leader of the LAPD Narcotics Squad, 262 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:08,840 Speaker 1: who pledged that the quote dream of his life was 263 00:16:08,920 --> 00:16:14,160 Speaker 1: quote protecting society against the creeping menace of drugs. To O'Grady, 264 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:18,240 Speaker 1: being a narcotics detective wasn't a job, it was a crusade. 265 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:21,480 Speaker 1: He cast himself into his own starring role as savior 266 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 1: to the goods, straight hardworking people of nineteen fifties Los Angeles. 267 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:28,520 Speaker 1: He wore his crew cut high and tight. He wore 268 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,440 Speaker 1: his dark sunglasses inside and out, and he wore his 269 00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:34,520 Speaker 1: pearl handled revolver proudly on his hip as he patrolled 270 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:39,040 Speaker 1: Hollywood Boulevard, calling himself the ball busting Sergeant O'Grady, the 271 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:42,040 Speaker 1: big time big oh daddy, oh, the most feared cop 272 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:45,080 Speaker 1: in the city, the meanest motherfucker on the fourth scourge 273 00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 1: of the drug scourge, and he hated Chet Baker as 274 00:16:47,800 --> 00:16:53,000 Speaker 1: much as he hated Bob Mitchell. He trailed Mitcham to 275 00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:55,400 Speaker 1: the Hague and that Baker was playing as part of 276 00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:58,960 Speaker 1: the fashionably hip Jerry Mulligan quartet as a bonus two 277 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:01,840 Speaker 1: for one special, one reafer Head and one Junco and 278 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:04,399 Speaker 1: one night if Oh Brady was lucky. He and his 279 00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:08,119 Speaker 1: men positioned themselves as inconspicuously as they could within the crowd, 280 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:11,640 Speaker 1: which is to say, not very conspicuously at all, given 281 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:15,119 Speaker 1: their square haircuts, white socks, and black shoes. But it 282 00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:18,480 Speaker 1: didn't matter. Oh Grady had a devious play. With the 283 00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:21,840 Speaker 1: band distracted on stage, he dispatched some of his squad 284 00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:24,960 Speaker 1: to Jerry Mulligan's house, where they entered without a warrant 285 00:17:25,160 --> 00:17:28,399 Speaker 1: and intimidated Mulligan's and Baker's girlfriends into giving up whatever 286 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:31,119 Speaker 1: oodical drugs they had, which was marijuana, which at the 287 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:35,120 Speaker 1: time in California carried a stiff prison sentence. Oh grady's 288 00:17:35,119 --> 00:17:37,240 Speaker 1: man brought the girls back to the Hague, and after 289 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:40,600 Speaker 1: the set, they wrangled them and their musician boyfriends into 290 00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:42,800 Speaker 1: the back room office to grill them on where they 291 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:47,720 Speaker 1: kept their stash. Chet Baker played it cool. Jerry Mulligan, 292 00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:51,040 Speaker 1: perhaps in the throes of a heroine Jones, broke down crying. 293 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:54,399 Speaker 1: O'Grady noticed the track marks on his arms. He and 294 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:57,000 Speaker 1: his men drove the musicians and their girls back to 295 00:17:57,040 --> 00:18:00,320 Speaker 1: Mulligan's for a proper search, again without a war weren't 296 00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:02,600 Speaker 1: and scared Mulligan into giving up his works and his 297 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:09,400 Speaker 1: heroin stash, and they were all busted. The following day, 298 00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:12,600 Speaker 1: the headline from the Los Angeles Mirror screened hot Lips, 299 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:17,120 Speaker 1: Bobster eight and two wives jailed naw Dope. The headline 300 00:18:17,119 --> 00:18:19,680 Speaker 1: and article were accompanied by a photo of Chet Baker, 301 00:18:19,760 --> 00:18:27,119 Speaker 1: who of course looked undeniably cool. We'll be right back 302 00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:33,840 Speaker 1: after this word were were Chet skated from the bust. 303 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:37,600 Speaker 1: It was Jerry Mulligan's dope. After all, Jerry went to jail. 304 00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:40,720 Speaker 1: Chet felt invincible. He was the great Chet Baker, the 305 00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:44,080 Speaker 1: coolest stadio, so cool that Hollywood opened its arms for real. 306 00:18:44,520 --> 00:18:47,720 Speaker 1: Chet made his acting debut in the war film Hell's Horizon. 307 00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:51,159 Speaker 1: Then he was offered a movie studio contract. The idea 308 00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:54,160 Speaker 1: was he'd be the next Sinatra by way of James Dean, 309 00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:57,399 Speaker 1: the James Dean of Jazz Baby, a new type of 310 00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:02,080 Speaker 1: screen star. But Chet declined movie stars were decidedly uncool 311 00:19:02,119 --> 00:19:05,639 Speaker 1: compared to jazz musicians. He continued to blow for his bread. 312 00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:09,800 Speaker 1: After filming for Hell's Horizon wrapped, Chet hit the road 313 00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:13,240 Speaker 1: Carnegie Hall in New York with Dave Brubeck. The staunch 314 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:16,800 Speaker 1: East Coast jazz critics bucked movie star Jasmine didn't play. 315 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:23,240 Speaker 1: Chet bang more dope into his arm. In Boston, Chet 316 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:26,119 Speaker 1: allowed a young jazz pianist, Dick Twardzik, to sit in 317 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:29,240 Speaker 1: with him, and afterward Chet Baker would never be the same. 318 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:33,800 Speaker 1: Dick Twardzik's playing seemed to embody well everything. It was 319 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:37,199 Speaker 1: steeped and classical, yet unafraid to flirt with the avant garde, 320 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:41,199 Speaker 1: and his approach to harmony was unmatched. Emotionally, it was 321 00:19:41,359 --> 00:19:45,360 Speaker 1: deep and cutting, and his playing incredibly soulful. He achieved 322 00:19:45,359 --> 00:19:48,399 Speaker 1: a trance like state on stage. His whole vibe as 323 00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:52,040 Speaker 1: a musician as a man, smacked of euphoria. Chet Baker 324 00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:55,240 Speaker 1: was in love Dick Twardzik was everything he was not. 325 00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:59,920 Speaker 1: Chet soft, his music was as he was approachable. Dick 326 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,120 Speaker 1: was hard, mysterious and egon shield portrait come to life 327 00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:06,359 Speaker 1: sprung from the cafes of Paris in their twenties, a 328 00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:09,879 Speaker 1: long way from Chet's Oklahoma. Chet was a simple melodist, 329 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:16,520 Speaker 1: Dick a complex harmonist. Immediately Chet loved playing with him. 330 00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:19,159 Speaker 1: Dick was going to forever change the face of jazz. 331 00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:21,879 Speaker 1: Everyone knew it, and it lent an extra air of 332 00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:24,960 Speaker 1: cool to chet Baker. Chet was hip squared with Dick. 333 00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:28,560 Speaker 1: On stage with him and off stage, Chet vibed all 334 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:33,359 Speaker 1: over Dick's personality. Dick compensated for Chest's shortcomings. He fulfilled 335 00:20:33,359 --> 00:20:36,080 Speaker 1: something in Chet. Those who knew Chet Baker best his 336 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:39,800 Speaker 1: longtime girlfriend later in life, Ruth young Swear, Dick roused 337 00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:43,919 Speaker 1: Chet's late and homosexual feelings and of course, Dick shared 338 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:48,080 Speaker 1: Chet's fascination with Heroin. The euphoric highs Dick achieved with 339 00:20:48,119 --> 00:20:52,360 Speaker 1: his playing seemed to Chet to only be possible through junk. Together, 340 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:54,800 Speaker 1: the two collided into their own kind of lost chord 341 00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:59,160 Speaker 1: Heroin harmony. The stint in Boston only lasted a matter 342 00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:01,639 Speaker 1: of days, but Chet, felt he had made a friend 343 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:06,120 Speaker 1: for life, left Dick behind and continued his tour. Dick 344 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:10,399 Speaker 1: remarkably got clean, completing rehab and kicking junk altogether. But 345 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:13,280 Speaker 1: before the year would end, Chef Baker came calling with 346 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:15,119 Speaker 1: an offer for Dick to join his band on a 347 00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:19,439 Speaker 1: tour of Europe. Dick accepted. Nick's girlfriend knew in her 348 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:21,520 Speaker 1: gut that it would be the last time she would 349 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:26,159 Speaker 1: see him alive. She was right. It took literally minutes 350 00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:28,600 Speaker 1: upon his departure with Chat and the rest of his band, 351 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:31,879 Speaker 1: for Dick to come to that old habit. In no time, 352 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:37,719 Speaker 1: he was hooked again. On the night of October twentieth, 353 00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:41,080 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five, in Paris, Dick Twardzik played his last 354 00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:44,639 Speaker 1: gig with Chet Baker, the last gig of his life. 355 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:47,919 Speaker 1: He returned to his hotel room, locked his door and 356 00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:51,480 Speaker 1: proceeded to jack a gluttonous amount of junk into his arm. 357 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:53,560 Speaker 1: When they broke down the door and found him the 358 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:56,320 Speaker 1: next morning, the needle was still sticking out of his arm. 359 00:21:56,760 --> 00:22:01,199 Speaker 1: He was twenty four years old, dead and blew. Chet 360 00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:04,240 Speaker 1: was in shock. Those who knew Dick, including members of 361 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,399 Speaker 1: Chet's band at the time, were angry. Chet's then drummer 362 00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:09,800 Speaker 1: Peter Littman, had his own version of what happened, and 363 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:12,480 Speaker 1: it involved Check going back to Dick's hotel room, with 364 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,280 Speaker 1: him shooting up and bailing in a panic. After Dick 365 00:22:15,359 --> 00:22:18,600 Speaker 1: began to ode. Concerned about more bad press and is 366 00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:23,520 Speaker 1: already dwindling career opportunities, Chet Baker Littman alleged ran out 367 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:27,360 Speaker 1: on a dying friend. Chet's reputation took a massive hit. 368 00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:30,159 Speaker 1: A metronome even hinting in its pages that Chet was 369 00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:34,600 Speaker 1: somehow responsible. Dick's parents wrote Check countless letters blaming him 370 00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:37,959 Speaker 1: for their son's death. Chet Baker was ravaged with gilt 371 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,520 Speaker 1: and for his part, had no real answers as to 372 00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:44,720 Speaker 1: what actually happened that night. Unbelievably, he claimed, among other things, 373 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:47,080 Speaker 1: that he was actually clean at the time and had 374 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:50,840 Speaker 1: no awareness of Dick's habit. Chet gave numerous accounts to 375 00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:54,119 Speaker 1: different people over the years, each eventually arriving or hinting 376 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:58,520 Speaker 1: at Chet somehow being the victim. Chet Baker forever cast 377 00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:01,480 Speaker 1: is the lost Lovable Lows were in his own saloon song, 378 00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:08,560 Speaker 1: regardless of who was to blame. Loss Crushed, chet Baker 379 00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:12,160 Speaker 1: returned to America to fine work, to New York City, 380 00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:18,399 Speaker 1: the heroin capital of the world, and there was little 381 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:20,840 Speaker 1: work for him upon his return. And the only people 382 00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:23,240 Speaker 1: who cared about chet Baker's arrival in New York City 383 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:26,320 Speaker 1: were the drug dealers at the Five Spot nightclub, Dirty Nick, 384 00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:29,680 Speaker 1: Johnny E Slim and Ray with the blonde hair Serious 385 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:33,520 Speaker 1: Bee Bop heads were preoccupied downtown with Miles Davis, who 386 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:36,879 Speaker 1: just released his incredible album Miles Ahead, as well as 387 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:40,480 Speaker 1: with the now legendary East Village Live residency of Thelonious 388 00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:43,560 Speaker 1: Monk and John Coltrane. They could care less about some 389 00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:46,480 Speaker 1: white West Coast trumpeter who made more headlines with his 390 00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:49,960 Speaker 1: drug use than he made heads turn with anything resembling innovation. 391 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:54,440 Speaker 1: Chet skulped and the Shadows hustled dope on money borrowed 392 00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:56,320 Speaker 1: from friends there took it on the arm from the 393 00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:59,240 Speaker 1: dealers when the goodwill of the five spot would dry 394 00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:03,399 Speaker 1: out Hanson's drug store on fifty first and seventh to score, 395 00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:05,600 Speaker 1: and that is only if he could pride the attention 396 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:08,480 Speaker 1: of the dealers away from comedian Lenny Bruce, who'd set 397 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,679 Speaker 1: up shop in the back his own private clubhouse a 398 00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:14,760 Speaker 1: drug store. Lenny Bruce may have been ahead of his time, 399 00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:18,800 Speaker 1: but a sense of place was beyond brilliant. For Chet 400 00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:22,359 Speaker 1: Baker not so much. It was another heroin bust, and 401 00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:25,800 Speaker 1: then another Baker to satisfy the judge committed to cleaning 402 00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:29,480 Speaker 1: up in a legendary rehab facility in Lexington, Kentucky, who 403 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:31,960 Speaker 1: made good on his promise move right back to New York, 404 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:34,439 Speaker 1: settled in with a prostitute friend named Pixie in her 405 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:39,080 Speaker 1: Streethouseler roommate, and quickly ut back on the horse again. Remarkably, 406 00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:41,879 Speaker 1: with his reputation in near tatters, some of the greatest 407 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:44,639 Speaker 1: jazz men of the era agreed to a recording session 408 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:48,160 Speaker 1: with Chet, the great pianist Bill Evans and incredible guitarist 409 00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:52,040 Speaker 1: Kenny Burrell among them. Chet was something approaching professional in 410 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:54,760 Speaker 1: the face of these modern day giants, and he delivered 411 00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:59,280 Speaker 1: creating one of his best studio albums, nineteen fifty nine's Chet, 412 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:04,359 Speaker 1: But the creative success was unsatisfying his demons, be they 413 00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:07,240 Speaker 1: driven by the guilt and shame of Dick Twardzi's death, 414 00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:10,320 Speaker 1: the rejection he felt from the hardcore bebop set, the 415 00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:13,960 Speaker 1: sting of his father's abuse, or just his own reckless detachment. 416 00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:16,359 Speaker 1: We're going to get the better of him, and chet 417 00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:21,080 Speaker 1: Baker was determined to lose himself. Nineteen fifty nine, one 418 00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:24,879 Speaker 1: hundred and sixteenth in Lennox, Harlem. The spot the cop. 419 00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:27,520 Speaker 1: The junkies knew it, the dealers knew it, and the 420 00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:30,159 Speaker 1: cops knew it too. They also knew that if you 421 00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:33,520 Speaker 1: were white, stayed far away from this corner in Harlem. 422 00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:36,520 Speaker 1: Chet Baker apparently didn't know this, or didn't care, or 423 00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:39,679 Speaker 1: was too stupid to understand. Either way, he was an 424 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:42,800 Speaker 1: easy mark and he was busted while on baile. He 425 00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,159 Speaker 1: went back uptown to Harlem to score, and of course 426 00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:49,080 Speaker 1: he was busted again just two weeks later. Rehab, this 427 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:53,080 Speaker 1: time would be received only at Riker's Island, East River, Detox. 428 00:25:53,280 --> 00:26:00,919 Speaker 1: Welcome to hell Shipbird Chet cleaned up. He had to 429 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:04,640 Speaker 1: in order to survive, kicked, worked out, got himself back 430 00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:07,640 Speaker 1: into shape, and because of his physical attractiveness, he did 431 00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:11,520 Speaker 1: what was necessary to survive in a racially divided nineteen 432 00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:15,119 Speaker 1: fifties prison. Chet Baker, in order to avoid the notorious 433 00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:19,080 Speaker 1: Riker's booty bandits, the rapists who congregated in the prison showers, 434 00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:21,720 Speaker 1: where so much forced sex took place that the stank 435 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:25,240 Speaker 1: of seamen was constant, moved into a black and mad's cell, 436 00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:28,879 Speaker 1: a much larger black in me. Chet then began hanging 437 00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:32,320 Speaker 1: out exclusively with black and mates. One inmate later recalled 438 00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:34,480 Speaker 1: that Chet would hang in the yard and stretch out 439 00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:37,520 Speaker 1: for some sun, laying his head in his roommate's lap, 440 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:41,800 Speaker 1: staring lovingly up into his eyes. Chet's friend Jack Simpson 441 00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:45,800 Speaker 1: recalled that upon release, Chet remarked that his roommate protected him, 442 00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:48,800 Speaker 1: loved him, and they quote he would have fucking died 443 00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:53,040 Speaker 1: for me. Chet Baker survived Rikers, but now free, the 444 00:26:53,119 --> 00:27:16,159 Speaker 1: question was would he survive himself. After prison, chet Baker 445 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:20,680 Speaker 1: abandoned America, perhaps sensing it was about to abandon him. 446 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,720 Speaker 1: He settled in Italy, where he was beloved as Angelo 447 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:28,359 Speaker 1: the Angel and Trumpadioro, or the golden trumpet. Italy, with 448 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:31,919 Speaker 1: its love of glamour and Grid loved Chet Baker, and 449 00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:35,400 Speaker 1: so too did their infamous paparazzi. It wasn't long before 450 00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:38,199 Speaker 1: drug officials got hipped at Chet's heroin jive and he 451 00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:42,119 Speaker 1: was busted again for narcotics. The trial was national news, 452 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:45,800 Speaker 1: during which Chet's defense attorney presented evidence in an effort 453 00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:48,560 Speaker 1: to appeal to the court's pity, depicting Chet as a 454 00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:51,280 Speaker 1: victim of heroin, going so far as to tell the 455 00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:54,040 Speaker 1: story of Dick towards ex girlfriend, slapping Chet in the 456 00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:58,200 Speaker 1: face and accusing him of killing her boyfriend. Chet was traumatized, 457 00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:01,480 Speaker 1: as attorney argued, surely the court could sympathize and go 458 00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:04,480 Speaker 1: easy on him, and they didn't. Chet was sent to 459 00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:07,879 Speaker 1: prison again. He did a year and a half, and 460 00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:10,320 Speaker 1: by the mid sixties with something more to support than 461 00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:12,840 Speaker 1: a heroin addiction, namely a new baby and a wife. 462 00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:16,320 Speaker 1: His third Jeff Baker, returned to the States to find work. 463 00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:19,000 Speaker 1: He wound up again on the West Coast and was, 464 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:24,760 Speaker 1: of course looking to score. All Cheff Baker wanted to 465 00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:27,320 Speaker 1: do was to score. It had been a rough night 466 00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:30,400 Speaker 1: and the gig was awful and as Jones was strong. 467 00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:34,280 Speaker 1: It was early morning. San Francisco was waking up. Chet 468 00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:36,600 Speaker 1: hit the CD hotel in the film wore to cop 469 00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:39,920 Speaker 1: in the hallway, he came upon the dealer. Chet gave 470 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:42,800 Speaker 1: him the knowing nod and the dealer just stared at him. 471 00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:46,320 Speaker 1: And then, according to Chet and numerous recountings of the story, 472 00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:48,760 Speaker 1: five guys came up behind the dealer from the back 473 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:51,880 Speaker 1: of the hall and the dealer said nothing, just walked backward. 474 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:54,720 Speaker 1: Chet turned to run, and the five dudes broke into 475 00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,240 Speaker 1: a sprint out the door onto the sidewalk. One of 476 00:28:57,280 --> 00:28:59,120 Speaker 1: them got his hand on a Che's shoulder in mid 477 00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:02,360 Speaker 1: sprint and spun a Chet maintained his balance, caught a 478 00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:05,040 Speaker 1: fist to the grill. He swung back toward them while 479 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:08,480 Speaker 1: continuing to move backward. All five guys now punching it, 480 00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:11,440 Speaker 1: kicking him in stride, Chet compelled them in a slow 481 00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:15,960 Speaker 1: motion backward ball of violence, fiss feet, fury flying from all. 482 00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:19,360 Speaker 1: Chet stumbled backward into a newspaper stand, grabbed it, shoved 483 00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:22,520 Speaker 1: it toward his attackers. One of them tripped. Chets stumbled 484 00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:25,320 Speaker 1: back some more into a parking meter that halted his progress. 485 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:27,480 Speaker 1: He took a sharp fist to the cheek, and of 486 00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:30,960 Speaker 1: the opposite effect that was supposed to have, it invigorated Chet. 487 00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:34,120 Speaker 1: He fought back harder, faster. Another one of his attackers 488 00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:36,880 Speaker 1: hit the pavement from one of Chet's haymakers. Two down, 489 00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:40,680 Speaker 1: three to go. In the brawling forsome continued their backward progression. 490 00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:44,440 Speaker 1: Check continued, landing shots and defence. He stumbled into a 491 00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:47,520 Speaker 1: park sedan with four people inside. He climbed on top 492 00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:50,400 Speaker 1: of the car. His attackers swiped at his ankles. Chet 493 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:53,640 Speaker 1: hot stepped around their grass, alternately stomping on their hands. 494 00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:55,840 Speaker 1: One attacker attempted to climb up on the back of 495 00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:58,560 Speaker 1: the trunk. Check booted him in the face, sending him reeling. 496 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:01,800 Speaker 1: Three down two. Chet leapt to the street side of 497 00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:04,400 Speaker 1: the car, opened the back seat passenger side door to 498 00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:06,880 Speaker 1: the shock and horror of the car's passengers, and dove in, 499 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:09,640 Speaker 1: screaming to the driver, whom he did not know, to 500 00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:11,560 Speaker 1: step on it and get him the fuck out of there. 501 00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:14,280 Speaker 1: The driver did no such thing. Chet pounded on the 502 00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:16,200 Speaker 1: back of the seat. The dude next to him reached 503 00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:18,600 Speaker 1: across Chet's body, opened the door and pushed Chet out 504 00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:21,120 Speaker 1: onto the street, where now all five of his attackers 505 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:24,120 Speaker 1: had reassembled. Chet landed on the pavement on his side, 506 00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 1: and the men surrounded him, and then the real beating began, 507 00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:30,480 Speaker 1: repeated kicks to the head, face in the body. Chet 508 00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:34,080 Speaker 1: was lost no idea what was happening, and the kicking stopped. 509 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:36,160 Speaker 1: One of the men told another to roll him over, 510 00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:41,320 Speaker 1: let me see his teeth. Chet was rolled under his back, 511 00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:45,040 Speaker 1: his face a bloody mess, barely conscious, his head rolled 512 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:47,800 Speaker 1: to his side, his cheek on the pavement or one 513 00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:50,680 Speaker 1: of the attackers anchored his left legs solid into the ground, 514 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:53,120 Speaker 1: pulled his right leg back and hauled off, and with 515 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:55,880 Speaker 1: all the strength it could must kicked his foot straight 516 00:30:55,920 --> 00:31:02,440 Speaker 1: into the trumpeter's mouth, shattering his teeth. When they found 517 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,640 Speaker 1: Chef Baker, he was passed out in a pool of 518 00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:08,440 Speaker 1: his own urine and vomit. His teeth were shattered. All 519 00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:11,120 Speaker 1: of them were so badly damaged that the ones that 520 00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:14,680 Speaker 1: didn't remain were required to be pulled. A trumpeter can't 521 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:17,160 Speaker 1: blow his horn without his teeth. The shape of a 522 00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:21,040 Speaker 1: trumpeter's dental structure their ambucher accounts for part of the 523 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:25,000 Speaker 1: player's delivery. Without teeth, it is near impossible to play 524 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,720 Speaker 1: a wind instrument. Chet Baker was done, and as far 525 00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,880 Speaker 1: as the dealers in San Francisco were concerned, this was 526 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:35,360 Speaker 1: a good thing. Chet was suspected of being at best 527 00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:37,960 Speaker 1: a scamming junkie who couldn't make do on his debts 528 00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:40,800 Speaker 1: or promises, and at worst a rat who was selling 529 00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:43,440 Speaker 1: out fellow junkies and dealers to the cops in order 530 00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:46,760 Speaker 1: to avoid arrest in more jail time. Whoever was behind 531 00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:49,400 Speaker 1: the beating of Chet Baker knew what they were doing. 532 00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:52,760 Speaker 1: Want to get payback on a dirty trumpet player, take 533 00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:57,400 Speaker 1: away his teeth. Chet spent the next three years of 534 00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:02,120 Speaker 1: his life pumping gas in California seven am to eleven pm, 535 00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:05,480 Speaker 1: the hardest work of his life, he would recall. Eventually 536 00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:08,240 Speaker 1: he put the sketch together to get dentures he wanted 537 00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:11,120 Speaker 1: back in. Dizzy Gillespie put together some work him in 538 00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:14,720 Speaker 1: New York City, and the rebirth of Chet Baker commenced 539 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:18,080 Speaker 1: a success. In New York, he departed for Europe again, 540 00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:21,680 Speaker 1: where he was beloved. He supplemented his heroin habit with methadone. 541 00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:24,560 Speaker 1: He fell into some sort of working junkie groove. For 542 00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:26,960 Speaker 1: the most part, avoided the law and continued to make 543 00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:30,240 Speaker 1: music into the eighties, where a new generation of hipsters 544 00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:34,160 Speaker 1: discovered his incredible talent through a creatively fruitful collaboration with 545 00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:39,600 Speaker 1: Elvis Costello. Chet Baker was living in Amsterdam on the 546 00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:42,800 Speaker 1: second floor of the Hotel prin Hendrick. He was lost 547 00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:45,720 Speaker 1: in the romance of his newfound relevance and attempting, as 548 00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:49,160 Speaker 1: always to get lost. His heroin use was back in 549 00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:53,800 Speaker 1: full swing. May thirteenth, nineteen eighty eight, chet Baker walked 550 00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:56,800 Speaker 1: into his hotel room after his gig grabbed his works, 551 00:32:56,840 --> 00:32:59,960 Speaker 1: injected himself with potent Dutch heroine. Sat in the open 552 00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:03,440 Speaker 1: window sill of his second story room, dragged on a cigarette, 553 00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:07,040 Speaker 1: knotted off and tipped over into the springtime air. He 554 00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:17,440 Speaker 1: fell two stories and lost his life. May thirteenth, nineteen 555 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,560 Speaker 1: eighty eight, chet Baker walked into his hotel room after 556 00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:24,480 Speaker 1: his gig grabbed his works, injected himself with potent Dutch heroine. 557 00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:27,360 Speaker 1: Sat in the open window sill of his second story room, 558 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:30,520 Speaker 1: dragged on a cigarette while the dealer he'd scammed burst 559 00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:32,640 Speaker 1: through his door to push him out the window. He 560 00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:43,240 Speaker 1: fell two stories and lost his life. May thirteenth, nineteen 561 00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:46,320 Speaker 1: eighty eight, chet Baker lost the keys to his hotel 562 00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:49,080 Speaker 1: room after his gig. His works were in his room. 563 00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:52,080 Speaker 1: He needed to get high. He deployed his second story 564 00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:55,680 Speaker 1: man's skills, climbed out of his neighbor's window onto the balcony, 565 00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:58,720 Speaker 1: attempted to cross over onto his own balcony, and lost 566 00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:05,480 Speaker 1: his footing. He fell two stories and lost his life. 567 00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:13,080 Speaker 1: Either way, chet Baker was dead, lost finally for good. Remarkably, 568 00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:14,960 Speaker 1: he'd made it as long as he had to the 569 00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:18,680 Speaker 1: age of fifty eight. The mystery surrounding his death survives 570 00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:21,160 Speaker 1: as part of the myth of his cool. Nodding off 571 00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:23,239 Speaker 1: and falling out of the window and being shoved out 572 00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:25,319 Speaker 1: of the window by an angry dealer are the two 573 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:28,759 Speaker 1: stories to get the most traction, but in reality, the 574 00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:32,040 Speaker 1: story about check clumsily losing his balance while trying to 575 00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:35,680 Speaker 1: scale the balcony is corroborated and likely the most plausible, 576 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:37,520 Speaker 1: if not the least romantic. 577 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:45,120 Speaker 3: So uncool, such a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, and this 578 00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:59,960 Speaker 3: is Disgraceland. 579 00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:05,160 Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in 580 00:35:05,200 --> 00:35:08,600 Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis credits for this episode can be 581 00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:12,239 Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com. 582 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:15,439 Speaker 1: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank 583 00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:18,080 Speaker 1: you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it, and 584 00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:20,520 Speaker 1: if not, you can become a member right now by 585 00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:25,200 Speaker 1: going to disgracelampod dot com Slash Membership. 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