Get Lost In The Magic:

As I'm beginning to discover, every person walking on this earth has a story to tell... every person lives a life filled with tragedies and triumphs.

Chet Baker(1929-1988)... what can I say about this man -- this jazz trumpeter -- that hasn't been said before? "Chet Baker was one of the greatest melodic soloists of mid-century American music." Chet Baker was talented, appreciated, tormented, damaged, forgotten, rediscovered, and died. What he left behind was a body of work that touches my soul. His trumpet and voice beckon me to places I haven't been before.

While watching the Sundance Channel this weekend, I saw again an award-winning, Bruce Weber documentary about Chet Baker's life entitled, "Let's Get Lost." It is filled with his music, a fascinating series of interviews with friends, musicians, his children and ex-wife, women companions and lovers, and is interspersed with film from Baker's earlier life and some modern-day performances. The intercuts of footage from the 1950s, when he was part of West Coast Cool, are amazing and engaging. It's the young Baker, he of the beautiful face, in California and in Italy, where he appeared in at least one movie and at least one jail cell (for drug possession). And, then we see the aged Baker, detached, indifferent, his face a ruin. Shot in black and white, the film belies its age -- it doesn't look twenty-three years old.

Check out some youtube cuts of my favorite songs: Time After Time, My Funny Valentine, Tenderly, I've Never Been In Love Before, Autumn Leaves, and Arborway.