The Making of Chet Baker Sings | Page 22

young as his life-habits continually threatened . His hardscrabble Oklahoma genes kept him going until he became a shadow , arguably the most famous icon of a suffering artist . Much as commentators invariably make reference to Miles Davis ’ s distinctive husky whisper , caused when he shouted at his agent following throat surgery , so they almost always make reference to Baker ’ s appearance , as if it was the outward , physiological expression of the music . Charlie Parker engineered his own demise much quicker , leading the last doctor to attend him to conclude he was dealing with the body of a much older man . Chet lived on , spectrally enough , but the point was that he did live on .
In the early days in California , everything was before him . Hollywood came courting , though his only appearances on screen were diffident and wooden and are now wisely forgotten . Girls flocked to him , perhaps indifferent to the music , but drawn by the contrast between his angelic looks and bad-boy image . For Chet , though , admiration was as lightly brushed aside as it was studiously courted . The only thing that mattered , far beyond the industry ’ s careful nurturing of a West vs . East rivalry in jazz , was the comparison between himself and black players . Chet knew that , despite the early enthusiasm and mentorship of Charlie Parker , he had a point to prove . Being the white Miles Davis was tantamount to not being Miles Davis at all , and this was a corrosive thought , that burned at him . When Chet came East , the jazz cats all came out to see what the fuss was about . Many decided that it was about nothing at all , or about cheekbones and a physical frame that supported a fisherman ’ s sweater like a magazine model . This conveniently overlooked that Miles Davis was something of a fashion icon , too , sparking a craze for slim Italian suits and , once Milestones came out , for green shirts of a very particular shade . Some of it was sour grapes . Those who
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