chet baker's teeth

[Bright Moments]

o.k. i saw "lets get lost" - now who knows the real story about how chet lost his teeth?

[Chuck Nessa]

Extorting quarters from the tooth fairy.

[Larry Kart]

From Jeroen De Valk's "Chet Baker: His Life and Music" (much to be preferred to James Gavin's "Deep In A Dream" IMO):

"{Chet's] own version of the incident is as follows. After one of his rare gigs, he is headed home when five hulking youths suddenly surround him.... They are toughs who his dealer has set upon him. Chet has not paid his bills, the dealer has undoubtedly threatened force, and now it's payback time. Chet is badly hurt. Not only does he lose his dope money but ... his teeth are damaged. He would later qualify the extent of the injury by pointing out that his teeth were already in bad shape, then add: 'They finished them off.'

Carol Baker's version: "It happened in July 1966.... Chet had a club gig in San Francisco. He had just been paid and went on the street to his car when five black guys surrounded him. Theey had already tried the evening before to rob him, but they failed. So they tried it again, and they were so furious at him that after they took the money they started to kick him. They beat him and kicked him between the legs, they gave him two black eyes, and they hit him in the mouth.... For two or three years afterward Chet couldn't play a note.... At the end of 1966 he got a denture, paid for by someone at a record company. I think it was Dick Bock...."

De Valk adds: "In fact it was unlikely that Chet got his dentures in the summer of 1966. He was still active in the latter half of that year. He made at least two more records after July, and two more were possibly recorded in the same period. But it is certain that he was beaten up in the summer of 1966. In its August 20, 1966 issue, Melody Maker reports: 'Chet Baker was seriously injured in San Francisco last week when he became innocently involved in an ugly interracial incident.... Baker was walking home after headlining the show at the Trident in Sausalito....

"'I was just trying to get a taxi,' he says, 'when five guys surrounded me and started to beat me up. Ironically it was two colored guys who saved me after I'd tried to escape by getting into car with four or five white kids who threw me back into the street. The hoodlums beat me some more until these two colored guys told them to stop and took me to the hospital.... They also smashed a part of a tooth off.'

"These last words are important. Chet didn't 'lose all his front teeth,' as some journalists have claimed, or even just one tooth -- but only a part of one tooth. Not a pleasant thing to have happen, but it doesn't seem to have hampered his playing too much at the time. Baker went on performing and recording until the condition of his teeth deteriorated to the point where -- probably in the second half of 1968 or early 1969 -- he was forced to have them all removed and was fitted with a denture. This is a big change for any trumpet player....

"Chet stops playing completely at this point [and is arrested for forging prescriptions, his second U.S. arrest]. The judge is a former trumpet player and releases Chet after five month's detention on condition that he enter a methadone program....

"When Chet is released at the end of 1969, he takes stock and makes some levelheaded decisions. Since singing and playing the trumpet are the only things he knows how to do, he has to devote himself to them again. He must relearn how to play the trumpet.... With great effort (and it shows), he manages to make the records 'Albert's House' and 'Blood, Chet and Tears' [in 1969 and, possibly, 1970]. For four or five years, he makes no public appearances.... In 1973, Chet felt confident enough to attempt a comeback." Etc.

Some "Rashomon" aspects here, but it's a fact that Chet's chops are in ghastly shape on 'Albert's House' and 'Blood, Chet and Tears,' and that he attempted a comeback in '73, which led to his CTI recordings in '74 and '75 and all that followed.

Edited August 16, 2007 by Larry Kart

[Jim Alfredson]

Certain drugs will fuck up your teeth pretty quick.

[Bright Moments]

thanks larry.

in "lets get lost," the baker documentary, chet gives the five black guys story.

but in the same movie chet's girlfriend (singer?) Ruth Young says the five black guys story is pure B.S.

also in the documentary is film footage of chet playing with just one missing tooth.

[Larry Kart]

thanks larry.

in "lets get lost," the baker documentary, chet gives the five black guys story.

but in the same movie chet's girlfriend (singer?) Ruth Young says the five black guys story is pure B.S.

also in the documentary is film footage of chet playing with just one missing tooth.

Given the date of that footage, the "one missing tooth" would fit De Valk's "Chet didn't 'lose all his front teeth,' as some journalists have claimed, or even just one tooth -- but only a part of one tooth," if that partial broken off tooth later led to the loss of the whole tooth, then to the eventual removal of the whole deteriorating mess.

[alocispepraluger102]

thanks larry.

in "lets get lost," the baker documentary, chet gives the five black guys story.

but in the same movie chet's girlfriend (singer?) Ruth Young says the five black guys story is pure B.S.

also in the documentary is film footage of chet playing with just one missing tooth.

Given the date of that footage, the "one missing tooth" would fit De Valk's "Chet didn't 'lose all his front teeth,' as some journalists have claimed, or even just one tooth -- but only a part of one tooth," if that partial broken off tooth later led to the loss of the whole tooth, then to the eventual removal of the whole deteriorating mess.

has mosaic included dental exrays in any releases?

Edited August 16, 2007 by alocispepraluger102

[AndrewHill]

Maybe it was the same dudes that pushed him out of his hotel window later on

[Christiern]

I bet thorough research will indicate that Phil Schaap snatched them.

[Larry Kart]

Maybe it was the same dudes that pushed him out of his hotel window later on

The De Valk biography establishes quite clearly, based on lots of physical evidence, that no one did or even could have pushed Baker out of that window; rather, he fell from it all by himself. Also, De Valk provided James Gavin with all of this information and Gavin chose to perpetuate the pushed out the window story in his "Deep In A Dream" because it was more dramatic.

[AndrewHill]

Maybe it was the same dudes that pushed him out of his hotel window later on

The De Valk biography establishes quite clearly, based on lots of physical evidence, that no one did or even could have pushed Baker out of that window; rather, he fell from it all by himself. Also, De Valk provided James Gavin with all of this information and Gavin chose to perpetuate the pushed out the window story in his "Deep In A Dream" because it was more dramatic.

Yeah, the being pushed out the window theory sounds a lot better than just falling out of it; kind of like that pet gator in Russia

[JSngry]

Certain drugs will fuck up your teeth pretty quick.

Especially if you're in the habbit of rubbing it on your gums...

Edited August 17, 2007 by JSngry

[Van Basten II]

When i saw the title, i was scared at the idea that this could be in the Offering and looking for section