Baker's quartet released popular albums between 19. Baker formed a quartet with a rotation that included pianist Russ Freeman, bassists Bob Whitlock, Carson Smith, Joe Mondragon, and Jimmy Bond, and drummers Larry Bunker, Bob Neel, and Shelly Manne. Within a year, Mulligan was arrested and imprisoned on drug charges.
With the quartet, Baker was a regular performer at Los Angeles jazz clubs such as The Haig and the Tiffany Club. " My Funny Valentine," with a solo by Baker, became a hit and was associated with Baker for the rest of his career. Rather than playing identical melody lines in unison like Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Baker and Mulligan complemented each other with counterpoint and anticipating what the other would play next. In 1952, Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and attracted considerable attention. Career īaker performed with Vido Musso and Stan Getz before being chosen by Charlie Parker for a series of West Coast engagements.
He was discharged from the Army in 1951 and proceeded to pursue a career in music. He became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco, spending time in clubs such as Bop City and the Black Hawk. He dropped out during his second year to re-enlist. : 170 After leaving the Army in 1948, he studied music theory and harmony at El Camino College in Los Angeles. He was assigned to Berlin, Germany, where he joined the 298th Army Band. īaker received some musical education at Glendale High School, but he left school at the age of 16 in 1946 to join the United States Army. Peers called Baker a natural musician to whom playing came effortlessly. After "falling in love" with the trumpet, he improved noticeably in two weeks. His mother said that he had begun to memorize tunes on the radio before he was given an instrument.
His father gave him a trombone, which was replaced with a trumpet when the trombone proved too large. īaker began his musical career singing in a church choir. In 1940, when Baker was 10, his family relocated to Glendale, California. Baker said that owing to the Great Depression, his father, though talented, had to quit as a musician and take a regular job. : 169 His father, Chesney Baker Sr., was a professional guitarist, and his mother, Vera Moser, was a pianist who worked in a perfume factory. Baker was born and raised in a musical household in Yale, Oklahoma on 23 December 1929.
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