Much as his background attitudes are overlooked , Chet ’ s Army experience is usually touched on and then passed over . From the testimony of fellowsoldiers , we know more than a little of his life in Germany and then back in California . We know that a complex personality was forming , self-driven , self-destructive , intimate and frighteningly remote by turns , vain and careless of his looks , even to the extent of not having a broken front tooth fixed , an accident that would have horrified most horn players . There was about Chet from the beginning , and not just in hindsight , something of the poète maudit , living outside society , reliant on intoxicants , borderline criminal in behaviour , cursed in some way by the very gift that made him exceptional . But there was also something of the farmboy in the city , the rustic innocent , a character out of Hamlin Garland ’ s stories , or a routine by Will Rogers . “ Oklahoma ’ s Favorite Son ” was born in the state ’ s Indian territory in 1879 , of Cherokee blood . Rogers went on to become one of the country ’ s most successful entertainers , moving out of vaudeville into the movies and sustaining a syndicated newspaper column that was read right across the union . In later life , Chet sometimes ironically quoted Rogers ’ famous line “ All I know is what I read in the papers ”, especially when anyone was tasteless enough to ask about his drug habits or recent skirmishes with the law . It might seem a stretch to look for a connection between America ’ s greatest humourist and a trumpet player turned singer , but both Rogers and Baker espoused a certain easy populism . In 1928 Rogers launched a mock presidential campaign , famously promising to resign if he was elected . ( In the event , it was Herbert Hoover who won – it could have been worse – the last Republican incumbent of the White House for nearly a quarter of a century .) During his knockabout campaign , Rogers was asked about policies that appealed to the common man and responded : “ You