Chet Baker was a top-notch jazz musician,
the creator of a uniqueand personal poetics,
an interpreter who did not wallow in his own
torments but who also knew how to take less
introspective paths, including a superfine and
very lively swing.
Chet Baker’s music had characteristics of its
own. Of a bebop nature in the fast pieces, he
had in solos that complex and pulsating way
that characterized this style. He differed from
it in the soft timbre of the trumpet, which
rarely indulged in the “flare-ups” typical of
the boppers, and above all for the insistent
use of pauses. These were precisely one of the
cornerstones of his musical language.
His performances took place in a continuous
interplay of sound and silence – elements
that were of equal importance to him – of
inhalations and exhalations.