- Though it was said that he couldn't read music, he was actually semi-literate; he had a rudimentary ability to read music, but because he was so good at playing by ear, he never used or improved his music-reading ability.
- Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1987.
- His father, Chesney Baker, Sr., played guitar in country & western bands.
- Jazz trumpeter
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 53-55. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
- In 1983, British singer Elvis Costello, a longtime fan of Baker, hired the trumpeter to play a solo on his song "Shipbuilding" for the album Punch the Clock. The song exposed Baker's music to a new audience. Later, Baker often featured Costello's song "Almost Blue" (inspired by Baker's version of Ray Henderson's "The Thrill Is Gone", not to be confused with the Roy Hawkins song of the same name, made famous by B.B. King) in his concert sets, and recorded the song for Let's Get Lost.
- In 1968, Baker was savagely beaten (allegedly while attempting to buy drugs) after a gig in The Trident restaurant in Sausalito, California sustaining severe cuts on the lips and broken front teeth, which ruined his embouchure. He stated in the film Let's Get Lost that an acquaintance attempted to rob him one night but backed off, only to return the next night with a group of several men who chased him. He entered a car and became surrounded. Instead of rescuing him, the people inside the car pushed him back out onto the street, where the chase by his attackers continued, and subsequently he was beaten to the point that his teeth, never in good condition to begin with, were knocked out, leaving him without the ability to play his horn.
- Baker began his musical career singing in a church choir.
- Baker 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. He was assigned to Berlin, Germany, where he joined the 298th Army Band.
- In 1966, Baker was beaten, probably while attempting to buy drugs, after performing at The Trident restaurant in Sausalito.
- Chet Baker is portrayed by Ethan Hawke in the 2015 film Born to Be Blue. It is a reimagining of Baker's career in the late 1960s, when he is famous for both his music and his addiction, and he takes part in a movie about his life to boost his career.
- He was discharged from the Army in 1951 and proceeded to pursue a career in music.
- Close to the end of Baker's life, he stayed and worked almost exclusively in Europe, only returning to the U.S. about once a year to attend some performances.
- Jazz historian Dave Gelly described the promise of Baker's early career as "James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one".
- Vocalist Luciana Souza recorded The Book of Chet in 2012 as a tribute.
- He appeared in 1960 in the Italian film Howlers in the Dock. He also played himself in the 1963 British film Stolen Hour.
- During most of the 1960s, Baker played flugelhorn, and recorded music that could be classified as West Coast jazz.
- Baker was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and 1980s.
- Steve Wall plays Baker in the 2018 film My Foolish Heart.
- Baker's "lost memoirs" are available in the book As Though I Had Wings, which includes an introduction by Carol Baker.
- American singer/songwriter David Wilcox included the tender biographical portrait Chet Baker's Unsung Swan Song on his 1991 album Home Again.
- He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool".
- Brazilian jazz pianist Eliane Elias dedicated her 2013 album I Thought About You to Chet Baker.
- A plaque was placed outside the hotel in his memory.
- His well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety and fame.
- In 1987 Chet Baker was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
- In 1989 he was elected to Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame by that magazine's Critics Poll.
- The video material recorded by Japanese television during Baker's 1987 tour in Japan showed a man whose face looked much older than he was, but his trumpet playing was alert, lively and inspired. Baker recorded the live album Chet Baker in Tokyo with his quartet featuring pianist Harold Danko, bassist Hein van de Geyn and drummer John Engels less than a year before his death, and it was released posthumously.
- Baker was eventually deported from West Germany to the United States after running afoul of the law there a second time. He settled in Milpitas in northern California, where he played in San Jose and San Francisco between short jail terms served for prescription fraud.
- In the early 1960s, he served more than a year in prison in Italy on drug charges; he was later expelled from both West Germany and the United Kingdom for drug-related offenses.
- In 2007 Mayor of the City of Tulsa, Kathy Taylor, proclaimed December 23 as "Chet Baker Day".
- Silent Night, a recording of Christmas music, was recorded with Christopher Mason in New Orleans in 1986 and released in 1987.
- At times, Baker pawned his instruments for money to maintain his drug habit.
- He took odd jobs, among them pumping gas. Meanwhile he was fitted for dentures and worked on his embouchure. After developing a new embouchure resulting from dentures, Baker returned to the straight-ahead jazz that began his career. He relocated to New York City and began performing and recording again, including with guitarist Jim Hall.
- In 2005 Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and the Oklahoma House of Representatives proclaimed July 2 as "Chet Baker Day".
- Baker began using heroin in the 1950s, resulting in an addiction that lasted the remainder of his life.
- In 1991, singer/songwriter David Wilcox recorded the song "Chet Baker's Unsung Swan Song" on his album Home Again, speculating on what might have been Baker's last thoughts before falling to his death. The song was later covered by K.D. Lang as "My Old Addiction" on her 1997 album Drag.
- The song "Chet Baker", which appears on the 2007 CD Wally Page and Johnny Mulhern: Live at the Annesley House, by Irish folk singer-songwriter Wally Page, describes the end of Baker's life in Amsterdam.
- The Australian electronica musician Nicholas James Murphy chose Chet Faker as his stage name, in order to pay homage to Chet Baker, who was a big influence for him.
- Baker was reportedly the inspiration for the character Chad Bixby, played by Robert Wagner in the 1960 film All the Fine Young Cannibals. Another film, to be titled Prince of Cool, about Baker's life, was cancelled as of January 2008.
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