Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker

by James Gavin

Jazz musician Chet Baker (1929–88) was the stuff of legends. In the '50s, this Oklahoma-born singer and trumpeter gained a worldwide reputation as a giant of "cool" jazz. His fragile, intimate tenor voice and the melancholy lyricism of his playing made him a cult figure to devotees of the new American art. But almost from the start, Baker's career was plagued by drug addiction. His penchant for heroin undermined his artistry and exposed him to legal prosecutors, cynical nightclub owners, and manipulative managers. (Baker, who never learned to read, was often unable to decipher their swindles.) In 1968, the horn player was forced to retire after losing his teeth in a brawl with fellow junkies. Within a few years, he was back playing and in the last decade of his life undertook an extended tour of Europe. His jagged career ended with apt abruptness: Just weeks after one of his most astonishing performances, he mysteriously fell to his death from an Amsterdam window. Gerry Mulligan called Chet Baker "the most talented trumpet player I ever played with or ever heard." Certainly, though, he wasn't the most lucky.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Jazz, History

473 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

James^Gavin, author of books about jazz.

Reviews

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, Chet. You do make it hard to love you. I'd like to say I heard Chet play and sing before I ever saw him but I am not sure that is true. I can only say that both hearing and seeing him would have made me swoony--a pretty common reaction to the "jazz James Dean". Any romantic ideas I had about him (not too many, I had heard some tales) were pretty well laid to rest by this exhaustive biography.
Starting with his earliest life and continuing to his incredibly sad and undignified death, this biography is incredibly well researched. Having said that, it has it's issues. I have to say that I did not agree with the biographer (and many critics) in describing his music as "unemotional" or "monotone" and I don't think he was that way internally either. I do believe he was incredibly stunted as a person--his childhood and strange parents guaranteed that. An abusive father and overbearing mother were twin forces of destruction starting from little Chesney's birth. His father has the one benefit of having introduced "Chettie" to music--but that is pretty much it. His mother is like something out of a Tennessee Williams play--over loving to the point of looking a bit creepy. Chet took to music like a duck to water and was soon showing some prowess. His sound was probably forever changed by a typical childhood accident--playing with some kids, one threw a rock that ricocheted off a street lamp and hit Chet in the mouth. This knocked out a front tooth that would have changed his embouchure forever. It did not slow him down.
Chet did a stint in the army (marked by constant attempts to get out and plenty of stockade time) and was able to gain some musical experience playing in military bands. He was drawn first to a lighter style of jazz (Harry James) and later developed his own style that fit nicely into the new "West Coast Jazz" style that was becoming very trendy. Along the way he picked up and discarded a wife, bedded as many women as possible and began dabbling with drugs. He started with the very common jazz drug of pot and moved on to the drug of choice of most of the greats (including his hero/mentor Charlie Parker)--heroin. This of course would be his downfall.
Chet's relationships with women are about as ugly as his relationship with drugs. He was involved with some interesting and talented women--a beautiful French girl who went on to become a movie star in France, a lovely East Indian girl (she is most commonly pictured with Chet due to her beauty and innocence) and more than one musician. He eventually married his last wife, Carol a British woman, who despite being treated extremely badly by Chet comes out of the story smelling as bad if not worse than Chet himself. He never divorced her and had 3 kids by her but effectively abandoned her pretty early on in their marriage. She is the definition of the woman scorned, to this day having instilled her greed and anger into Chet's worst victims--his children. She and the kids continue to this day to reap the profits of the music Chet made during his lifetime as well as t-shirts, posters and pretty much anything that can be sold. It's easy to feel sympathy for his children--they barely knew their father and this was his fault, but they have been even more damaged by their vengeful mother. I can definitely understand the anger of his wife, but a good person would have done everything they could to protect their offspring instead of indoctrinating them with hatred. His children appear in the famed documentary about Chet,"Let's Get Lost" and his sons are disconcertingly handsome in the same way as Chet himself. His daughter is an Okie stereotype and as disturbing as her mother. Chet also has a son with his wife, Halema--Chesney Aftab--the only one of his kids to have any musical interest (and his father's wanderlust). He was the only child Chet ever seemed to have much interest in and even that was passing.
Many of the apocryphal stories of Chet's life are dispelled here. The story of how Chet eventually lost many more teeth (due to a beating but also due to what seemed to be bad teeth from his youth) and how he learned to play trumpet again, his legendary drug excesses (there are stories here that are so disturbing as to leave one haunted forever) and his dalliances with many women.
In between all the debauchery and horror of life on the road, jail, drugs, failure and darkness is the music--shining and melancholy and romantic as California beach at sunrise. I truly believe that music was the only real love of Chet's life. I believe he loved some of the women that he was involved with (several of whom he was physically abusive to) and all of which he was neglectful of, but I think he was emotionally stunted to a degree that he could not love like a complete person. He reserved that for music. At times the book and those quoted in the book will say that heroin was the only thing that Chet loved--I think like most junkies, he did love dope-but not for the dependence or even the high-but because it made the music spill out of him. I think he suffered from performance fear (he was notoriously shy at times) and as he got older and more tattered I suspect smack was the only way he could gain back his notoriously effortless playing. He is the ultimate beauty and talent, fallen as far as it is possible to fall. His death was ignoble and sad (though I do not believe it was a murder as some speculate) and the only fitting requiem is that he was raised up like Lazarus after his death by the beauty of his musical legacy. No matter how dissipated his life and legend is, the music stands alone, beautiful and haunting.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Desperately sad story of a junkie... who also played the trumpet, sang beautifully and had chiselled cheek bones.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy Methadone-y, Chet Baker, what a life. What a relentlessly grim, sad, smack-filled life. There are books like Keith Richards's "Life," full of the stories of a junkie and a life of excess, but also with some redemption and some life lessons to be found in the pages. This book--none of that. No maturity gained, no life lessons (except maybe "drugs are bad, mmmmkay"), and absolutely no redemption. Yet the book was beautifully written, and the story compelling enough to make me want to keep reading, even though I knew how it ended.

My Chet Baker records are still important to me, and his musical genius was undeniable, but hearing them now I will always be aware of the life that lay behind them and the life that could have been.

[Philippe Malzieu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw again « Let's get lost » the Bruce Weber's movie on Chet Baker. Weber, the fashion photograph star, famous for his campaign for Calvin Klein or Abercombie. Look at his last portfolio realised in the Hamprtons, full of a venenous erotism..
In this movie, no glamour, Weber has the intelligence to disappear behind his subject. It is a black and white movie. He had choosen a film like Tri-X-Pan, 400 ASA, perhaps more. TRI-X-Pan, the film which permit to Truffaut and Godard to work in the street. Without it, no nouvelle vague. Thank you Kodak.It gives to the pitcures a big grain, a dirty aspect. Chet appears to be often like a ghost, an ectoplasm, like someone back from hell, And really, Chet knew the styx. Angel and rebel, his fragile voice always at break limit is moving, he spoke about nostalgia, past time, love lost...Listen to « my funny Valentine ». My prefered version is the last one for ENJA label. It was recorded in germany. Ther is here some great jazz orchestra, memory of US occupation. The session was epouvantable. The night, Chet sale his trumpet for drug and the next day, the productor was complained to buy it to dealer.
Baker rise and fall. The reason? He explains it in the movie Speedball. Heroïne + cocaïne, but not too much cocaïne. A passport for Hell.
I saw Chet 3 times. The first one it was in roman amphyteatre in Vienne, near Lyon. July, end of an hot day. Chet seemed to be happy on stage, he drunk Perrier, it was magnific
After seing the movie, I wanted to read again this book. It is a good work, complete, but no empathy. In fact, it is the total inverse of the film, and so, it is it perfect complement.

[Mike DaRonco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please stay away from sharp objects and heavy machinery while reading this bio.

[China · Rating 5 out of 5]

The conflict in Deep in a Dream stems from my being a giant Chet Baker fan; my initial interest was based on my love of his music -- the way he sings exactly like he plays trumpet -- as well as having watched the 1988 documentary Let's Get Lost, after which I simply felt sorry for him. Whereas the documentary painted him as a sorry man with a drug addiction who essentially had nothing, someone easily sympathized with, Deep in a Dream shows him to have been the creator of his own end. It paints him in an incredibly unflattering light, in terms of the way he cheated on and abused the women in his life, robbed for drug money, destroyed his body with needles, abandoned his kids. It's a thorough portrait of Baker and goes into ridiculous detail, at nearly 400 pages, and yet, every page seems absolutely necessary. And it also goes behind that 1988 documentary, which, according to the book, was nothing more than a flattering tribute by a fan.

I finished this book hating Baker as a person, feeling foolish for being a female fan who saw him as a weak, mysterious man who made music as soft-spoken as I imagined him to be -- this aligns me with the bulk of his fanbase, which is how he'd have wanted it. But James Gavin did an impeccable job of turning Baker's life into a complete story.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was a harrowing read. I came to this book with some casual curiosity, and ended up learning waaaaay more than I'd bargained for. As is obvious to me at this point, it was never going to be possible to like or admire Chet Baker the person, but I think I have a better understanding of his music now. And I love the idea that the Italians fell in love with him (while the Americans shunned him) because of some of the Felliniesque qualities they saw in his nature and his art. It's all a fascinating, horrifying story.

[Joe Ahearn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful biography of a monstrous man. I have never liked the subject of a biography less than I liked Chet Baker.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first encountered Chet Baker when he played that beautiful, mournful trumpet solo on "Shipbuilding" by Elvis Costello. I never spent much time listening to his own records, released over a 35 year period until the end of his life in 1988, but I've heard enough to have a sense of a Chet Baker style both as a trumpeter and as a singer. Gavin actually makes me want to check out a few 70s and 80s recordings that sound as though they might have more substance than some of his 50s jazz "hits." But, this book isn't about music qua music - it's about a man with a talent but not an ambition, with a need for lovers but not for love, and mostly with an overwhelming commitment to heroin. I've read other junkie biographies, and they all have the same ups and downs, but I must admit that Gavin does a good job of laying out the chronology and connections with friends, girlfriends, and other musicians which moved in and out of Baker's life. At his core, Baker comes across as an empty shell who happened to be able, at times, to express emotions through music which didn't seem to have parallels with his feelings day to day.

[giselle · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I think its better to remember Chettie as you’ve always known him”
Wow. Just wow.
Wanting to go into this book I knew that Chet was an awful person although I had no clue to what extent. I made a joke that this was “anti-drug propaganda” to my friends but I honestly don’t mean it as a joke anymore as my perception of drugs has changed immensely.

This book at times made me swoon but also made me want to throw up. The last few chapters were really hard to read; but it was worth it.
The beginning to when he went to New York post Italian jail was the best part. And the descriptions of people were so backhanded you could tell Gavin thought they were ugly. (He called Gerry Mulligan jesus like 5 times on a page) This book has given me more pain than no other.
I really do love Chet even after reading this. Yeah he’s an awful person but I can help and feel bad not for just him both those around him.

imagine if twarzik never died

(Each time it mentioned his children it quite literally broke me)

[Kelly Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Angel music. Monster soul.

[Mark Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The jazz trumpeter Chet Baker presents an excellent argument for separating the artist from their art. Baker was gifted with a haunting romantic lyricism in his trumpet playing and singing. However, Chet Baker was also an absolutely terrible human being, as you’ll learn if you read James Gavin’s excellent 2002 biography of Baker, Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker.

Baker was a heroin addict for the better part of 30 years, and he also chronically abused prescription drugs as well. How he made it to 58 years old is a mystery to me. Baker’s drug addiction was at least partly responsible for the awful way he treated everyone in his life, as he basically was only interested in getting money in order to feed his drug addiction.

I started reading Deep in a Dream shortly after watching the fascinating 1988 documentary Let’s Get Lost, photographer Bruce Weber’s love letter to Baker’s youthful beauty that also pulls the rug out from under Baker’s cool mystique. About 250 pages in, I put Deep in a Dream down for a long time before finally returning to it and finishing it. That’s no criticism of James Gavin, who did a superb job of documenting Baker’s life and interviewing many, many people who knew him. But Baker was just such a terrible person that I tired of reading about him. I try to look on the bright side and attempt to find the good qualities of people. But with Chet Baker really the only positive thing I can say about him is “He played the trumpet beautifully.” And that’s the paradox of Chet Baker: how could someone who was such a toxic human being also produce beautiful, emotional music? It’s a mystery.

Baker’s behavior leads me to the conclusion that he was probably a sociopath. There’s nothing good I can say about him: he was awful (and physically abusive) to the women in his life, he was a terrible father, he did no favors for his friends. You can open Deep in a Dream to pretty much any page and find a story of Baker doing something awful.

I learned a lot of things from Deep in a Dream. Baker lost his left front tooth as a kid, just as he was beginning to learn the trumpet, and he didn’t get it replaced until much, much later in life. I’m amazed he was able to get the correct embouchure to play the trumpet at all. Baker played entirely by ear, and he rarely practiced. “My Funny Valentine” became Baker’s signature song, but he didn’t know the song the first time he recorded it with Gerry Mulligan in 1952—bassist Carson Smith had to teach the song to the rest of the band. (p.58)

Baker shot to fame in the early 1950’s, in no small part due to his high cheekboned handsomeness. Miles Davis was skeptical of Baker’s talent, as he thought that a decent part of Baker’s renown was due to his handsome good looks and his palatability to white audiences. However, Davis had the last laugh as he signed to a major label, Columbia Records, in 1955. Even by that early date, there was enough skepticism about Baker’s drug use and erratic personality that no major label would touch him. Baker eventually made albums for Verve, CTI, and A&M in the 1970’s, but the fact that he only recorded one album for each label says a lot about his personality. However, Baker remained a cult figure in Europe throughout his life, and despite all of the bridges he burned, he was still able to find gigs and record for tiny European record labels. Baker eschewed royalties in favor of quick cash up front—all the better to score drugs with.

Gavin chronicles Baker’s life exhaustively, from his rise to fame as part of the West Coast jazz scene, to Rikers Island prison, where Baker did four months for a drug conviction in 1959, to Baker’s tabloid fame in Italy, where he was arrested and served 18 months for drugs in 1960-61, to the late 1960’s, when Baker lost many of his upper teeth, either due to neglect or a beating from drug dealers, and had to re-learn how to play the trumpet again. And on and on, as Baker went across the world, playing his same repertoire of romantic songs and taking drugs.

Partly because he recorded for so many small European labels during the 1970’s and 1980’s, Baker’s discography is a hopelessly muddled mess. The records Baker made as part of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet on Pacific Jazz/World Pacific in the 1950’s still make for enjoyable listening, 70 years after they were recorded. Baker also made successful vocal records for Pacific Jazz, including Chet Baker Sings, where you can find his famous vocal version of “My Funny Valentine.” Baker’s voice probably falls into the “love it or hate it” dichotomy. Baker sang in an extremely high tenor, so high that sometimes it’s difficult to ascertain whether the voice is male or female, which just added to his sensitive heartthrob appeal. Chet Baker & Crew is one of my favorite albums of Baker’s on Pacific Jazz, and it features many songs written by members of the West Coast jazz scene. Baker became so troublesome to Pacific Jazz that they sold/loaned his contract to Riverside, a small New York City jazz label. (Riverside was home to some big jazz stars like Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, and Wes Montgomery.) Baker made some good records for Riverside, like Chet Baker in New York, on which Baker embraces comparisons to Miles Davis as he tackles “Solar,” written by Davis, and “When Lights Are Low,” another song associated with Miles. Baker also played with longtime Davis sidemen Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. During his tenure with Riverside, Baker recorded what I would consider to be the ultimate Chet Baker album, simply titled Chet. Released in 1959, it’s an album of intimate late-night ballads that could easily double as terrific make out music. I’m also a fan of the 5 albums Baker recorded for Prestige Records in 1965. That music has been reissued on 3 CDs, On a Misty Night, Lonely Star, and Stairway to the Stars. Baker plays the fluegelhorn on these sessions, giving his sound a softer tone. Many of Baker’s records from the 1970’s and 1980’s were live recordings, and they vary greatly in sound quality and performance.

While Baker was able to charm and con many people, one who was not fooled by him was Diane Mitchell, the wife of Leo Mitchell, who drummed with Baker in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. Diane said of Baker, “I felt the evil force the minute I met him.” (p.292) Others were not so perceptive.

If you want to know more about the life and art of Chet Baker, Deep in a Dream is the definitive biography of the troubled trumpeter. Just be warned that it’s not a pleasant journey.

[John Lyman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Chet Baker was a super hardcore drug addict who was an equal opportunity abuser, he abused himself and apparently every person he ever met. He had an overwhelming allure to men and women alike, both sexually and musically, to the point of destroying lives. His neglect and treatment of his children was abhorrent. And through all this he was adored and loathed. He took advantage of so many of the people in his life. He abused his talent, which was clearly immense, damaging his body in ways that forced him to struggle to be a fraction of his former self as a trumpter, but never having money to stay high, so a performer nonetheless until the end. Very interesting story, well written and researched.

[David Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chet Baker the myth — tortured genius, doomed romantic — is obliterated by reality in this well-researched and unsparing account. Whatever talent Baker had…and there’s plenty of room for debate on that…was squandered by his astonishing drug intake, mercenary approach to performing and relentlessly self-serving treatment of other people. First musical biography I’ve read that made me less interested in listening the subject’s work.

[Frederic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I neither like nor understand jazz and junkies bore me to tears,James Gavin has written a wonderful biography that illuminates some important aspects of Pop Culture in post-WWII America and Europe...

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baker's gentle, wavering, feminine voice and tone of trumpet are strangely appropriate expressions of his dark, despairing life.

[Em Ledford · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Gavin left no stone unturned with this masterfully crafted biography on the late Chet Baker. A true page-turner & at the same time, a labor of love to read due to its heavy topics.

I have been a fan of Baker’s music for years & found myself overtaken by his mystery. How thankful am I for this very honest unveiling & review of Chet’s talent, character & questionable presence of a soul.

Through this biography Gavin communicated with careful & perfect clarity that our idols will always overpromise and underdeliver.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid.

[Jesús Ramón Ibarra · Rating 5 out of 5]

No hay un músico de jazz que proyecte, en sus highlights, toda la absoluta desolación de un alma hostil con su propio talento como Chet Baker. Capaz de ofrecer, en una decena de discos (de los ciento y tantos que grabó) la naturaleza de un sonido que se volvió inconfundible, acompañado de una voz extraña por su ambiguedad, Chet Baker también se expuso a la desbocada furia del monstruo que él mismo contruía para sí mismo y su entorno. Haciendo acopio de toda la información posible sobre un artista tan complejo como humanamente desolador, Gavin ofrece la biografía reveladora del genio que solo levanta la cabeza para observar su propia ruina. Un gran libro que nos pone en escena la rotunda construcción del mito, y la absoluta y acelerada autodestrucción del ser humano.

[Jack Josie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like all my book reviews this is a mess

Agh, I must preface. I do not like the 5 star rating system. This book doesn’t deserve a 4 it doesn’t deserve a 3. It could deserve a five. But it’s clearly not a five and it hurts to give it a 4. Confusing I know.

This book reads like a 5 star book. It was so interesting, it was so well researched and it really held my attention from start to finish. Not many books can do that. I felt like I really got to know Chet Baker, it was a depressing crazy rollercoaster of a life. And I really feel like I got a vivid peak into it.

Not only did I learn about Chet Baker but I learned all about Jazz culture in the 50s-80s, I learned about the drug cultures in England, Spain Italy and France, and soooo much more. There’s SOOO MUCH information in this book about SO MANY THINGS. And I loveddd that.

but I have a problem with this book
My problem lies with James Gavin and his attitude towards Chet Baker and the West coast jazz scene in the 50s.
I really don’t think James Gavin likes Chet Baker. He shows no sympathy to the man, at times he writes as if he is a robot man without a soul. You have to look past that for this book to be GREAT. Thankfully I could look past it, understanding that Chet Baker is a man who has feelings and makes mistakes, Gavin doesn’t give Baker a heart in the book.
Granted baker was kind of a monster, it’s clear he had 2 sides of him. Baker chooses to focus on his dark side. Which is okay with me, but you MUST keep in mind that he also had a sweet side to him. I wish James Gavin would have shown Baker some sympathy.
I also think early on in the book James kinda doops west coast jazz and talks quite highly of east coast jazz. Which is all cool but I mean we’re reading a book about one of the biggest west coast jazz stars EVER. Show some appreciation for the west coast jazz art my man!!

Also Gavin quotes MANYYY people in the book. With this many different opinions you will hear many different things. In one chapter I’d hear that Chet Baker could hardly play strung out on dope, and another chapter shares anectodes of those raving about his immense talent even in the midst of an intense drug addiction.

This book gives you enough information so that you can really decide for yourself what you want to believe. After reading this book I could debate 2 ways of MANY arguments concerning jazz and Chet Baker.

I wish the information I have absorbed would stay with me forever. But in due time I will forget the things I’ve learned from this book.
Rest In Peace knowledge.
Great Book! Really enjoyed it.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Known for his clean tone on trumpet and as a romantic balladeer of song, he is often thought of as a tragic hero because of his well publicized heroin addiction.
Mr. Gavin paints a picture of a self-obsessed junkie who abused women and drugs in equal measure. Chet Baker was born with a natural affinity for music. Although his music reading ability was negligible, he had a superb talent for playing by ear, a talent he squandered on his addictions.
Heroin, cocaine, marijuana and pills; no drug was a stranger to him. Like most addictive personalities, he painted himself as the victim and yet ruined the lives of all who came within his circle of influence.
His death at 58 from falling (or jumping) from a third story window in Holland brought an end to the hellish existence he had created for himself and others.
Given his innate talent and early successes, one can only wonder "What If?" in regard to the path he chose.

[Margot McGovern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beginning with Baker’s funeral and then working through all the small and large acts of self-destruction that brought him to an early grave, this is a dark and haunting read. But it’s also full of moments of beauty. Gavin’s descriptions of Baker’s finer performances are almost as enchanting as the music itself. And yet it is theme glimmers of Baker’s genius and potential that ultimately make the book, and the man, so incredibly tragic.
Full review here: http://margotmcgovern.wordpress.com/2...

[Kieran · Rating 4 out of 5]

How much heroin can one man endure? Turns out a remarkable amount, and he played music.

[Reed A · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1952, Charlie Parker once warned Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis: "There's a little white cat out here [in California] who's going to give you boys a lot of trouble," referring to a handsome young man by the name of Chet Baker, a gifted and talented West Coast trumpet player with a voice that was angelic to listen to when singing! Baker ruled the jazz world in the ‘50s and had quite the following of women and men across the country and abroad in Europe!

He was a man of little words, choosing to let his trumpet playing speak for him. (Learning to play came easy to him…he just picked it up one day, given to him by his Dad, and started playing without any instruction at the age of nine.) Because of his quietness boarding on moodiness, his smoldering good looks, stylish clothes, and his aloofness, Chet Baker was called and known throughout the jazz world as, “Mr. Cool!”

I’ve always love listening to Chet Baker’s trumpet playing and sensual singing. Aside from this and hearing in passing conversations about vague references referring to a violent episode in his life that left him scarred and almost upending his playing career, as well as a violent mysterious death that left many questions unanswered, I knew almost next to nothing about this man and his life. Then I read this excellent and poignant book on him, with a most appropriate title, “Deep in a Dream!”

What startled me by reading this autobiography was finding out that his life and music were contradicting both in nature and substance! It’s a puzzling mystery how a musician who could create such romantic, heartfelt, and tender feelings coming through his trumpet playing and vocal sensibilities, also had the personality of a cold, calculating, and controlling person with only two loves in his life…his trumpet and heroin!

After the early ‘60s when Baker’s drug habit became known to the public, America gave him the cold shoulder for the most part, leaving Baker to hate living and performing in the U.S. He preferred to live and play in Europe, especially Italy, where these beloved fans were more enthralled and enchanted by this tragic, fragile, drugged out trumpeter who sounded so forlorn and lonely! Surrounding himself with this aura of want and need for love and redemption, he drove people to want to embrace him, protect him, and do anything for him too!

Reading about his upbringing, musical career, marriages, and four children left me scratching my head, trying to reconcile why he gave this all up for heroin! He spent 30+ years chasing down this drug that ravished his body, mind, and playing…all at the expense of children, wives, colleagues, and friends that he neglected, ignored, stole, and robbed from! Club owners and fellow musicians had to contend with him showing up late or not at all…and sometimes fading in and out on the stage in a drug induced fog, with his trumpet playing and singing sloppy and under par!

At the end of the day, I’ll just put on some Chet Baker music and let his trumpet and singing take me away on a romantic-sensuous journey that makes my heart feel alive and innocent!

Thank you, Chet, for baring your true inner soul for all us listeners to hear and dream the dream of lovers, no matter how damaged it was. No matter how ugly your outward personality was…for whatever reasons…your inner soul must have always been beautiful, tender, and loving…how else would we interpret such controversy and contradictions of one man!May your tortured soul find peace and redemption for the beauty that you have given us!

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gavin does a thorough job in framing the personality of Baker in the light he wishes, but the last 75% of the book gets redundant, with Gavin ruminating over every possible Baker fix and score to the point that the book loses steam. Baker, despite his myriad personal problems and increasingly impassive drug addiction, was an icon on so many levels. It's the next to last chapter in which Gavin highlights the making of Let's Get Lost where the book has one last attempt at a glimmer of capturing the essence of Baker.

Yes, Baker's was a life of two forks: the talented musician who long succumbed to his imposter syndrome and the fact that his whiteness was a gift but also prevented him from the sort of critical admiration he desired in his living life, and the yolk of addiction that became both a crutch and a curse that soured the man's reputation while also romanticizing it both in life and death.

Gavin goes too far into the muck, and therefore Deep in a Dream itself becomes a slog. No one needs to mythicize Baker -- that's just not a worthy pursuit. However, Baker's lasting impression on music is the soul with which he played and performed when he didn't buckle to addiction and fear. It's why he's now a relevant figure once more in the so-called vinyl resurgence that has everyone revisiting both his recorded catalogue but also unearthing the European radio and club performances of the 70s and 80s that often find a master in a moment of clear-headed elegance and soul. Gavin's book is lacking this, and chooses to throw more dirt on the grave of a trouble, imperfect man who, yes, succumbed to his demons way too early in life and never thought twice about trying to shed them.

[Miguel Aneas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creo que muchos habíamos escuchado algunas historias sobre Baker y su dependencia de las drogas, también sobre su actitud paranoide y sobre la degradación que había sufrido, pero este libro me ha dejado un poco descolocado.

Me gusta leer biografías de músicos y, la verdad, la mayoría no hablan mucho de música; pueden ser divertidas o tristes (la mayoría) y casi todas repletas de adicciones y locuras varias, aún así ayudan a comprender a la persona. Pero esta me ha sobrepasado. Baker tenía un don natural -y una pereza infinita- con el que llegó a lo más alto y desde allí se precipitó de manera estrepitosa en el abismo de las drogas -heroína principalmente- del que ya no pudo salir más que en algunos breves periodos de su vida. Así, la biografía al final es un recurrente "drogas, drogas, drogas..." que a mí se me ha hecho agobiante, además el personaje resulta tremendamente antipático la mayoría del tiempo: egoísta, ególatra, traicionero, sin compromiso... una gran decepción porque -como es lógico-, uno intenta identificarse en cierta manera con la persona que ha creado esa música.

Así, nunca fue tan grande la distancia entre el artista y la obra, aunque sus lánguidos lamentos musicales llenen nuestra vida de lirismo y emociones, aunque hubiera dado mucho por verlo tocar en directo en alguno de esos clubs de mala muerte en los que acabó, lo cierto es que me alegro de haber establecido cierta distancia con la persona. Ya se sabe, las idealizaciones no son buenas, y casi nunca ciertas.

¿Recomendable? Me ha gustado, cierto es, me ha afectado también y ha hecho que sienta emociones -no ciertamente positivas-, es un excelente trabajo biográfico y se nota que se han empleado muchas horas, entrevistas y viajes para sacarlo adelante, merece la pena sin duda. No será fácil olvidarlo cada vez que vuelva a sonar la trompeta de Baker.

[Emily Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

They say you don't want to meet your heroes. In this case, I'd also add that you don't want to read about your heroes.

Chet Baker is by no means a hero in my eyes (and this book cemented that), but his music has been important to me for the past few years. We danced to "It's Always You" at our wedding, my husband has Chet tattooed on his arm. We collect any record of his we can find; his music is our go-to.

This was a slow read because it is densely packed with names and places and information and if you read too fast, you missed important details about Chet's life. It seemed as though everyone he met made more than one appearance in his life. Not only that, but some of the stories were just mind-boggling. There were a number of times that I just had to stop reading to wrap my head around some of the shit that Chet did, or had happened to him.

I think I loved this book so much because it shows just how much of an American tragedy Chet's life ended up being, and it's prolificly sad. He had everything within reach, but he was his own worst enemy, his fame & fortune always beset by his bad habits. Chet's is a heart wrenching story because what could have been so beautiful ended up being one of the saddest stories of any artist I've ever heard.

All of that being said, this biography was extremely well researched and the content was heavy. I moved through it slowly on purpose, but I am thankful I did. Even though I see how terrible of a man he was, I feel like I know him now, and that alone is still pretty cool on its own.

[Grace Macej · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting and incredibly well-written. I was completely absorbed in this book for the month that I took to read it. Even after soaking in such an intimate record of Chet Baker's life, I still find it difficult to reconcile the man's incredible talent with his violent nature and path of destruction caused by decades of addiction.

Chet's life — especially the latter half of it — is a deeply saddening story. He hurt so many people, and his behavior was often appalling. Even so, my heart aches for his (clearly wounded) inner child that ultimately craved the love and comfort that he didn't receive early on.

It's a coincidence that I'll be traveling to Amsterdam in a few days — I plan to visit Hotel Prins Hendrick and see the plaque memorializing Chet's life.

[Juan León · Rating 5 out of 5]

Escritura fresca, ligera, amena -aún contando con capítulos largos. La vida de este mítico trompetista de jazz la conoce, a grandes rasgos, el aficionado a este género. Los pequeños detalles, los que la completan, se encuentran aquí.
Garvin hace una inmersión brutal a un personaje que es como la vida: nos lleva a una dualidad irreconciliable entre la rabia y el rechazo que provoca su vida de yonqui y el don para la música que hace que se rodee de personas que le idolatran. Y le conceden todo lo que quiere.
No puedo hacer más que animar a todo el mundo a que lea esta biografía. Te guste o no el jazz.

[Ray Quirolgico · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found myself described in the opening pages of this biography: just one casual fan who felt compelled to listen to Chet Baker’s music without really being able to explicate why. This book is a deep dive into a world that felt tortured and sad in so many ways, but the author never glamorizes or sanitizes the incredibly thoughtful and personally researched stories. Instead the book is such a terrific narrative that all of the fullness of one life reads like a fast heartbreak - the kind that might reveal some new insights into the reader’s own life too.