James Gavin
Chatto & Windus, 2002
Hardback. 440pp. b&w illustrations
£20.00

From his emergence in the 1950s - when an uncannily beautiful young man from Oklahoma appeared on the West Coast and became, seemingly overnight, the prince of 'cool' jazz - until his violent, drug-related death in Amsterdam in 1988, Chet Baker lived a life that has become an American myth. Sexy, angelic, needy and forbidding all at once, the so-called 'James Dean of Jazz' struck a note of menace in the staid fifties. His impact lives on: Baker's ultracool handsomeness inspired the Calvin Klein advertisements photographed by Bruce Weber; his singing of the Rodgers & Hart ballad My Funny Valentine was imitated by Matt Damon in the film The Talented Mr Ripley. His cool mannerisms have been reincarnated in countless American teenagers.

In this first major biography, the story of Baker's demise - a previously unsolved riddle - is revealed. So is the truth behind his tormented childhood, the pain of which would haunt his whole life. Gavin explores the birth of the melancholy trumpet playing and fragile tenor voice that catapulted the musician to fame. Behind his icy façade lay something ominous, unspoken; the mystery drove both sexes crazy. But his only real romance, apart from music, was with drugs. In mesmerising detail, Gavin narrates the harrowing spiral of dependency down which Baker tumbled, dragging with him those who dared get close.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and untapped sources, James Gavin brilliantly recreates the life of a man whose journey from golden promise to eventual destruction mirrored America's fall from post-war innocence - but whose music has never lost the power to enchant and seduce us.

JAMES GAVIN is the author of Intimate Nights: The Golden Age of New York Cabaret and a frequent contributor to the New York Times and other publications

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