Chet Baker

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Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, and vocalist.

Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s, particularly for albums featuring his vocals (Chet Baker Sings, It Could Happen to You). Jazz historian Dave Gelly described the promise of Baker's early career as "James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one."  His well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety and fame; Baker was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and '80s.

Baker was born and raised in a musical household in Yale, Oklahoma; his father, Chesney Baker, Sr., was a professional guitar player, and his mother, Vera (née Moser), was a talented pianist who worked in a perfume factory. His maternal grandmother, Randi Moser, was Norwegian.

Baker notes that due to the Great Depression, his father, though talented, had to quit as a musician and take a regular job. Baker began his musical career singing in a church choir. His father introduced him to brass instruments with a trombone, which was replaced with a trumpet when the trombone proved too large. His mother notes that Chet had begun to memorize tunes on the radio before he was even given an instrument and that after "falling in love" with the trumpet, he already developed noticeably within the first two weeks. Peers later described Baker as a "natural" musician, and that playing came effortlessly to him.

Baker received some musical education at Glendale Junior High School, but left school at the age of 16 in 1946 to join the United States Army. He was posted to Berlin, where he joined the 298th Army band. After leaving the army in 1948, he studied theory and harmony at El Camino College in Los Angeles.

He dropped out in his second year, however, re-enlisting in the army in 1950. Baker became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco,  and was soon spending time in San Francisco jazz clubs such as Bop City and the Black Hawk.  In 1952, Baker once again obtained a discharge from the army to pursue a career as a professional musician.

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"But Not for Me" is a popular song, composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin.

It was written for their musical Girl Crazy (1930) and introduced in the original production by Ginger Rogers. It is also in the 1992 musical based on Girl Crazy, Crazy for You. Judy Garland sang it in the 1943 film version of Girl Crazy.

In 1959 Ella Fitzgerald included a version of the song on her landmark album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook. The rendition won the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance.

Singer Ketty Lester remade "But Not For Me" with a gospel arrangement which reached #10 on the US Adult Contemporary chart, #41 the Billboard Top 40, and #45 in the UK in 1962.

It is also featured in the 1979 Woody Allen movie Manhattan, the 1989 Rob Reiner movie When Harry Met Sally... (performed by Harry Connick, Jr.), the 1994 Mike Newell film Four Weddings and a Funeral, in the opening scene of the 1998 Bennett Miller documentary The Cruise, and in the 2012 anime Sakamichi no Apollon (Kids on the Slope).

Beginning in 2012, it is being performed by Kelli O'Hara (Billie Bendix) in Act 2, Scene 1 of Joe Pietro's Broadway musical Nice Work If You Can Get It, which features the music of George and Ira Gershwin.

It also featured in Sedbergh Rose Theatre's 2012 performance of Farflung Mill by Sandra Gold Wood ably sung by Jenny Lamb and Kev Kendal