Let's Get Lost

‘Prince of Cool’ - that's how American jazz trumpeter and singer Chet Baker was also called. A nickname he owed not only to his fragile, lyrical tone, both on the trumpet and singing, and his contribution to cool jazz, but certainly also to his charismatic appearance. Natural talent Baker, born in 1929, played with many greats, including Stan Getz, Charlie Parker and Gerry Mulligan. He achieved his greatest fame in the 1950s, the same period in which his drug addiction began; in 1957 he said he used heroin for the first time. It became a lifelong addiction, which proved fatal to him on 13 May 1988 when he fell out of a hotel window in Amsterdam while under the influence.

Earlier that year, Bruce Weber made this dreamy documentary about Baker, in which he uses archive footage and interviews to paint a fascinating portrait of a man who had so much going for him, but with whom things ended so badly. A few months after completing this film, Baker took his fatal fall.