I discover Chet for his trumpet voicing.... i understand perfectly your point all the more that his body voice is particular and his singing change a lot with time....I then understand that like any body voice, this voice could not appeal to all...
I confess i love his body-voice BUT i love Chet Baker for his way to voice the instrument so much that at some times you forget completely the trumpet playing and remember only the singing of the trumpet and speaking of the trumpet in your heart...
Like i said i discovered many years ago Chet Baker and at first i was surprized a lot by the impactful way he speak with the trumpet like anybody else....I was surprized because i have the impression that many other trumpet players are on par and even better virtuoso than him, for example Kenneth Wheeler is a genius like Miles Davis.... Kenneth Wheeler that i like a lot very much to the point to want all his cd like Miles Davis....But none of the 2 put tears in my heart....Except Chet Baker....
Why?
Interestingly i discovered a trumpet player, a classical one, that have the same natural and moving voicing of the instrument....Andre Heuvelman in his album " Silence"....Interestingly Heveulman succeed his career in spite of a shorter arm infirmity at birth, in some way a tragedy that gives him a fragility, a humility, and a simplicity that is similar impeding event than the drug disease of Chet Baker, in spite of the great difference coming from their training histories and style.... By the way Chet Baker also relearn himself to play without any dentition after an attack and he succeed what seems impossible and reach even greatest musical heights or deeper state after that test event.... Heuvelman also learn to go over his impediment and became the first trumpet of the Rotterdam philarmonic orchestra...Like Chet his "sound" is warm and cool at the same times and speak directly to the heart, you will completely forgot that it is a trumpet.... Astounding for me....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yERDKKbWx70
Then the question to know if Baker is a virtuoso of the trumpet begins to fade and to be secondary after some time for me, unlike the others trumpetists that we can listen to in the virtuoso scale where for example Miles Davis is at the top with few others... But then Chet Baker is on a scale of his own almost alone.....That explain the great love for many toward him....
His playing is a drama obsess with melody where he take refuge against himself and against the world, nothing else....It is this humility in his failings, and his simplicity in admitting them that touch the heart when he play....Listen to Andre Heuvelman who plays in the same scale for analogous reason....
Thanks for you interesting take on Chet....
Merry Christmas to you three_easy_payments
I confess i love his body-voice BUT i love Chet Baker for his way to voice the instrument so much that at some times you forget completely the trumpet playing and remember only the singing of the trumpet and speaking of the trumpet in your heart...
Like i said i discovered many years ago Chet Baker and at first i was surprized a lot by the impactful way he speak with the trumpet like anybody else....I was surprized because i have the impression that many other trumpet players are on par and even better virtuoso than him, for example Kenneth Wheeler is a genius like Miles Davis.... Kenneth Wheeler that i like a lot very much to the point to want all his cd like Miles Davis....But none of the 2 put tears in my heart....Except Chet Baker....
Why?
Interestingly i discovered a trumpet player, a classical one, that have the same natural and moving voicing of the instrument....Andre Heuvelman in his album " Silence"....Interestingly Heveulman succeed his career in spite of a shorter arm infirmity at birth, in some way a tragedy that gives him a fragility, a humility, and a simplicity that is similar impeding event than the drug disease of Chet Baker, in spite of the great difference coming from their training histories and style.... By the way Chet Baker also relearn himself to play without any dentition after an attack and he succeed what seems impossible and reach even greatest musical heights or deeper state after that test event.... Heuvelman also learn to go over his impediment and became the first trumpet of the Rotterdam philarmonic orchestra...Like Chet his "sound" is warm and cool at the same times and speak directly to the heart, you will completely forgot that it is a trumpet.... Astounding for me....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yERDKKbWx70
Then the question to know if Baker is a virtuoso of the trumpet begins to fade and to be secondary after some time for me, unlike the others trumpetists that we can listen to in the virtuoso scale where for example Miles Davis is at the top with few others... But then Chet Baker is on a scale of his own almost alone.....That explain the great love for many toward him....
His playing is a drama obsess with melody where he take refuge against himself and against the world, nothing else....It is this humility in his failings, and his simplicity in admitting them that touch the heart when he play....Listen to Andre Heuvelman who plays in the same scale for analogous reason....
Thanks for you interesting take on Chet....
Merry Christmas to you three_easy_payments