I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend ……..... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an often overlooked painter now being given a career retrospective is the French portraitist Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun— on display at the Metropolitan Museum in New York through May 15th ….. and which will be shown later at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
Part of a traveling exhibitHAIL and FAREWELL to the Hall of Fame hockey player Andy Bathgate who has died at the age of 83 …. to the Irish actor Frank Kelly — best known for his role as the foul-mouthed priest Father Jack in the sitcom Father Ted— who has died at the age of 77 …. and to several from the musical world: country musician Sonny James — with numerous #1 country hits to his credit at the age of 87 …. the Grammy-winning British jazz correspondent/trumpeter John Chilton at the age of 83 …. and Sha Na Na saxophonist Lennie Baker who has died at the age of 69.
THIS WEEKEND on public television saw the premier of a career retrospective documentary on the life of the legendary New Orleans musician Fats Domino— on his 88th birthday.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at a state which is a leader in Pre-K education. No, not New York, California or Massachusetts ….. but instead Oklahoma — and how a (now retired) Democratic legislator was able to push it through a GOP legislature with some sleight-of-hand (and assistance from the business community).
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Toby the Cat— a blind kitteh who makes the rounds of senior citizen centers in North Carolina to much appreciation.
Toby the CatCHEERS to Black Sabbath bassist Terence ‘Geezer’ Butler— currently with the band on an extended, international farewell tour — who is supporting a bill before the New York state legislature to abolish the declawing of cats.
WHILE THIS HAS NOT received much notice in the US, a high-profile attorney who is helping the first democratically-elected president of the south Asian archipelago nation of The Maldives (and was ousted in a coup four years ago) avoid treason charges is Amal Alamuddin Clooney — whose husband you may have heard of.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Kunkush the Cat— an Iraqi kitteh who became separated from his family while fleeing to Europe … yet reunited thanks to a GoFundMe campaign.
Kunkush the CatBRAIN TEASER #1 — try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
BRAIN TEASER #2 — by request from Blacksheep1 ….. is this weekly Science Quiz from NPR.
BOOK NOTES — a picture book about the “Bloom County” feline Bill the Cat — “Aackk!” — is due out this coming September.
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? — Norwegian novelist Johan Falkberget (“Christianus Sextus”) and Scottish actor David Tennant (a former “Doctor Who”).
Johan Falkberget 1879-1967 David Tennant...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… not many jazz performers became household names, even before the rock & roll era. One who did was the trumpeter Chet Baker - who not only had an appealing tone on trumpet, but also had matinee idol looks and a quirky yet appealing singing voice that all led to his becoming a Hollywood favorite. His is also a cautionary tale: as his substance abuse led to his death (at only age 58) more than twenty-eight years ago, with a hard life for much of the second half of his existence. But with a song that can still be heard every February 14th and a wide-ranging recording career, he remains an important part of music history.
Born in 1929 as Chesney Baker in Oklahoma, his guitarist father was forced to seek employment elsewhere during the Depression and the family moved to the Los Angeles area when he was 11. His singing career began before his instrumental career, as he sang in a church choir and at amateur competitions. Picking up the trumpet after deciding the trombone was too heavy for him, he enlisted in the Army at only age 16, where he played in the 298th Army Band in West Berlin. After his 1948 discharge he studied music and played in LA jazz clubs but wound up re-enlisting at age 20, this time performing in the Sixth Army Band at San Francisco’s Presidio base. Leaving the armed services for good, he began playing at the city’s noted jazz clubs, such as the Blackhawk and Bop City.
He gained notoriety playing in Stan Getz’s band, but achieved fame when he won a 1952 audition to perform with the legendary Charlie Parker in Los Angeles. It can be said that when it came to the evolution of West Coast jazz – with its cool, less-blues-based and more influenced by the Bossa Nova sound – Chet Baker was “present at the creation”, as he joined the short-lived Gerry Mulligan Quartet led by the innovative baritone saxophonist who joined the trumpeter Baker on the front row … with only bass and drums; not having a pianist was a notable departure from the norm. The two used counterpoint rather than playing in unison, and Baker’s vocals on their version of My Funny Valentine made the band a hit - and their recording is a song you might hear on the radio each February to this day.
The arrest of Gerry Mulligan for drugs less than a year later led to the end of the band and the beginning of Chet Baker’s solo career. He became a very popular performer on the West Coast, winning several Downbeat magazine readers polls (Miles Davis in his autobiography said that Chet had a nice tone on his horn) and his 1953 album Chet Baker Sings made jazz purists less than happy but made him a hit with the public. His versions of Cole Porter’s Everytime We Say Goodbye plus the Jimmy McHugh-Frank Loesser tune "Let’s Get Lost" and his own composition "Chetty’s Lullaby" are a few examples of his best-loved tunes.
Hoping to capitalize on his looks and appeal, Hollywood came-a-calling in the form of a 1955 film Hell’s Horizon– and he could have remained a film actor as well as a West Coast-based jazz musician. But he chose to remain a road musician, settling in Italy in 1960. That same year, the actor Robert Wagner starred in the film All the Fine Young Cannibals– a fictionalized biography of Chet Baker – in the role of ‘Chad Bixby’.
But his constant travelling led to hard-core heroin addiction, which was to plague him the rest for his life. He was first arrested in Italy, then West Germany where he was deported to Switzerland. Still performing in night clubs, he moved from France to England, where he starred in the 1963 film The Stolen Hours - portraying himself. After stretches in France and Spain, he was arrested in West Germany again –this time, deported back to the United States, where he returned just after the Beatles arrived, which was to adversely affect the market for jazz musicians in the near future. His family life was no different, with several failed marriages (including one to Carol Baker).
By the end of the 1960’s, his performances had become erratic, as he would often pawn his instruments to feed his habit. Whereas he once looked angelic, with a face appearing younger than his actual age: hard living (including a beating he sustained in 1966 related to his drug use) now made him look much older than he actually was. He was fitted with new dentures and learned to control his habit with methadone, which helped launch a comeback in New York in late 1973, often recording and performing with the legendary cool-jazz guitarist Jim Hall. It was there that he had a reunion concert with Gerry Mulligan in 1974 at Carnegie Hall– to widely enthusiastic reviews.
Chet Baker returned to Europe in 1978, where he remained for the rest of his life (excluding tours of Japan and the US). His recording schedule became more stable during this period, although they often involved small European labels, and he often performed with the Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine during this period.
By the 1980’s he had become an elder statesman of sorts, with Elvis Costello as a big fan. He asked Chet to play trumpet on his anti-Falklands War song Shipbuilding– which reached the Top Twenty in Britain. Chet Baker, in turn, often performed Costello’s song Almost Blue– which had been inspired by Baker’s version of "The Thrill is Gone" – in concert. Filmmaker Bruce Weber included "Almost Blue" in his 1987 documentary film entitled Let’s Get Lost - which premiered in September, 1988 to critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination.
But Chet Baker was unable to attend the premiere: as he died in May, 1988 from a fall from a hotel room window in Amsterdam after mixing both cocaine and heroin. A plaque at that hotel commemorates him, and he was buried in Inglewood, California. His unfinished memoir was issued with the eerie title As Though I Had Wings in 1997 and this 2-disc compilation album captures his career in a microcosm.
His legacy includes election to the Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame plus a well-received biography first published in Dutch, and finally with a stage musical that premiered in London in 2007. And to bring it all home: then-Democratic Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry signed a proclamation, designating July 2nd, 2005 as Chet Baker Day in honor of the Yale, Oklahoma native.
Young man with a horn Weather-beaten older manOf all of his songs, my favorite is his version of Everything Happens to Me - written by Tom Adair/Matt Dennis in 1940 and first recorded by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (sung by Frank Sinatra). It has that trademark vulnerable Chet Baker voice that isn’t for everyone …. but below you can listen and decide for yourself.
I never miss a thing I've had the measles and the mumps And every time I play an ace, my partner always trumps I guess I'm just a fool who never looks before he jumps Everything happens to me
At first, my heart thought you could break this jinx for me That love would turn the trick to end despair But now I just can't fool this head that thinks for me I've mortgaged all my castles in the air
I've telegraphed and phoned and sent an air-mail special, too Your answer was goodbye and there was even postage-due I fell in love just once and then it had to be with you Everything happens to me
x YouTube Video