Music Arcades: Chet Baker: The Best of Chet Baker Sings

Somehow when I listen to Hank Williams I can imagine him as a junkie, but Chet Baker's voice on these songs seems completely out of keeping with what we know about his life.

I got this because I saw it at a good price and because Tim had mentioned several times how much he liked Chet Baker. But Tim where likes his jazz cool, I like it harsher, with a bit of grit and bit of aggression — like my whisky.

If I want to feel completely inadequate as a listener (not to mention as a writer), all I have to do is pull out my copy of Geoff Dyer's But Beautiful and skim through the chapter about Chet:

Every time he played a note he waved it goodbye. Sometimes he didn't even wave. Those old songs, they were used to being loved and wanted by the people who played them; musicians hugged them and made them feel-brand new, fresh. Chet left a song feeling bereft. When he played it the song needing comforting: it wasn't his playing that was packed with feeling, it was the song itself, feeling hurt. You felt each note trying to stay with him a little longer, pleading with him. The song itself cried out to anyone who would listen: please, please, please.