Chet Baker

What a guy, what a fool am I, to think my breaking heart could kid the moon.

Well if I could play like Wynton, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.

Well if I could play like Wynton Marsalis, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.

In Europe they look upon jazz as art. In America it’s a diversion. Somebody opens a restaurant and installs another band off to the side. People don’t listen.

He almost adds a Chet-like sound to it.

What a fool I am to think my breaking heart could kid the moon.

I have a nice car, a Mercedes. And then I have an old El Camino truck that I’m crazy about. I like to get in that truck and go up in the hills near where I live, in Vegas, and take my camera. That, to me, is Heaven, being out in nature, taking pictures of the wildlife.

[In 1972] At the moment, we’re getting the same thrill from seeing the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Jo Jo Gunne, and Judee Sill happen… It’s as hard to do it with Jackson Browne as it was to do it with Joni five years ago.

If you have something in your life worth celebrating, you can put it in a blues song.

There’s always this sound out there that’s just a little beyond my reach and that just sort of keeps me going.

How are you going to know what’s new to play if you haven’t listened to everything that’s old?

Montreal was a very active jazz center until club owners started putting in strippers instead of music. Before long, there was nothing to hear.

When I got my first guitar my fingers wouldn’t go to the sixth string so I took off the big E and played with just five strings. I was only 6 or 7.

Talent is cheap, and many talents treat themselves cheaply.

People don’t want to suffer. They want to sound good immediately and this is one of the biggest problems.

I don’t really get nervous, I prepare. When the music messed up in the beginning, it tapped into my nerves and when you’re nervous and vulnerable, something special and something different can happen.

I never wanted to be like other blues singers. I might like hearing them play, but I’ve never wanted to be anyone other than myself. There are a few people that I’ve wished I could play like, but when I tried, it didn’t work.

I love songs that are very autobiographical.

You have a mentor or teacher and you learn all he can show you.

I got out of the car and there was a knife in my neck. The guy says, “Don’t move.” And the drummer got out of the car, and he got a gun in his head. This was my entrance to the South Side of Chicago. But it was necessary, because I wanted to play jazz.

If you really understand the meaning of be-bop, you understand the meaning of freedom.