What is a Chet Baker mood?
Written on 10/27/03

By Henry Y. Chung

People who know me well know that I'm a jazz snob and a die-hard Chet Baker fan. They also know that if alleged jazz aficionados claimed they do not like Chet, I'd stop speaking to them. To me, all true jazz lovers should embrace Chet Baker as a phenomenon. Not only is Chet a fantastic trumpet player/vocalist (to recap my treatise on Chet's singing and playing, please review my Chet Baker tribute page here), his name can also be used as an adjective to describe a particular mood or ambiance. Hence the term "Chet Baker mood."

Not everyone can have the Chet Baker mood (for simplicity sake, hereinafter called "CB mood"). For one, those who dislike Chet either as a trumpeter or singer will never attain this form of Nirvana. Nevertheless, those who can truly appreciate the mood will likely have the following attributes: (1) They own at least one Chet Baker LP or CD and have listened to it at least 30 times (and that album'd better be The Best of Chet Baker Sings); (2) They consider Ken Burns' omission of Chet in his PBS documentary "Jazz" an unforgivable sin; and (3) They have been in love before.

For those who lack one or more the aforementioned criteria, you need not read on since this article is not for you. For those who don't, you have passed the preliminary test, meaning that you have the ability to be legitimately acquainted with CB mood.

Now, what is a Chet Baker mood? My good friend Jeff Conlin identifies the CB mood as "mellow" and then adds, "It has been a Chet Baker kind of year." Other adjectives describing the CB mood include "laid-back," "relaxed," "romantic," and "stoned sexy."

When I think of the CB mood, the first solo of the song "Isn't it Romantic?" pops into my head. Chet's trumpet playing is so expressive that he invites you to join him in a dreamlike paradise. Therefore, daydreaming is a by-product of the CB mood. So if you know how to daydream, chances are, you're not far from that mood.

Next, I think of Chet's poignant vocals on "Look For the Silverlining." I once wrote, "Chet's voice is so mysterious you will cry if you draw yourself into experiencing his tragic life. His voice has so much emotion, sentimentality and humanity. If you dig deeper into it, his voice speaks to you as if to say: Life sucks, but there are moments where romantic things occur and those are the best moments that one should treasure." That pretty much sums up what the CB mood is all about.

The CB mood usually hits the hardest when autumn leaves start falling, since the sight of falling leaves inevitably provides sentimental imagination. Van Morrison writes these beautiful lyrics in his song "When the Leaves Come Falling Down":

And as I'm looking at the colour of the leaves, in your hand
As we're listening to Chet Baker on the beach, in the sand.

Van is certainly an expert of the CB mood, because he has performed with Chet on several different occasions. As fan and friend, Van cites Chet as one of his major influences in his music (check the cover of Van's 2002 album Down The Road where he lists all his favorite artists).

So folks, when you know you are in the CB mood, you can probably guess that Christmas is near. To many, Christmas symbolizes joyous festivities and family reunion. While I believe Christmas is jolly and happy and full of presents wrapped in expensive gift papers (indeed it's my favorite holiday), Christmas also reminds me of hungry people, lost childhoods, and the girl who sells matches. The fact that Jesus was born in a manger suggests that Christmas is not supposed to be a time for celebration. Who can honestly say Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time is Here" for the Charlie Brown TV Special is a happy song? In fact, I cry almost every time I hear that song. What makes Christmas more or less meaningful every year depends on whether one learns from her past experience.

Chet Baker's songs capture the very feeling of sentimentality and reflection of one's life during Christmas time (because it is the end of the year). Songs like "Just friends" and "Time After Time" have the classic ingredients of Christmas carols: refined, lyrical, and romantic. Interestingly, Chet released a Christmas album in 1986 on which his played classic Christmas tunes like "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Joy to the World." Upon casual listening, my friend's Dad aptly comments, "Are these really Christmas songs?" What he really means is: Chet's personality has totally disappeared into those songs; he has made them his own hymns.

The essence of the CB mood is universal. One can experience the CB mood by listening to Debussy's piano preludes; reading the first chapter of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray; deconstructing Bill Evans' solo in "Blue in Green," plagarizing e.e. cummings' "somewhere i have never travelled" in a love poem; sipping gourmet coffee at Starbuck's while pretending to read Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting; analyzing the lyrics of Lisa Ekdahl's "I Don't Miss You Anymore;" memorizing Woody Allen's "What Makes Life Worth Living" list in Manhattan; or typing your ex's name on Google.com's search engine.

Above all, the CB mood reminds us that once in a blue moon, something miraculous comes along. There's nothing more romantic than playing Chet Baker's "Let's Get Lost" through your car stereo, glancing at your lover sitting in the front row passenger seat, and admiring the color of her hair under the pale fall moonlight.

A word of advice: Don't wait until the CB mood disappears. If you are in love or are desperately searching for love, use the CB mood to your advantage. Run, don't walk, to your lover and reveal your true feelings. If you run out of things to say, use the last verses in "That Old Feeling": "There'll be no new romance for me/It's foolish to start/For that old feeling/Is still in my heart."

There's an old saying: "Old times can only be reminisced." To echo that wisdom, I can only counter: The more you're familiar with the Chet Baker songbook, the more likely you'll put your lover on the books.

Trust me, it works!