Let's Get Lost: Chet Baker as Gorgeous ’50s Ghost

This is one of the finest and starkly personal jazz documentaries ever made. Chet Baker was a handsome and brilliant trumpet player who appeared in L. A. in the 1950s and his musical fire burned into the 1990s. He was a user of dope, people and everything he touched. Some friends of mine were playing a pizza joint in San Jose when this seeming bum walked in and asked to sit in. "What do you do?" they asked. "I sing," he said. Then the toothless bum joined them and in a few notes they realized that it was Chet Baker who had just returned from an Italian jail where his teeth were knocked out. They bought him some new choppers which wouldn't let him play his horn and then a new set with which he could once again play his trumpet. As soon as he got his chops back he left them with a story but without so much as a "thank you."