ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the story of the tragic death of the trumpet player and singer Chet Baker, who often is considered a controversial musician. His death after falling from an Amsterdam hotel window has led to an ongoing stream of books, films, songs, and poetry that seem inconsistent with the attention to his music in dominant jazz histories. In those, he tends to get only passing reference, typically with the disclaimer that many commentators have deemed his music derivative and inauthentic and that his success is undeserved. Baker's gruesome and sudden death somehow reflects that dubious reputation, it seems. Yet, in the final decade of his life, Baker's career mainly took place in Europe, where he played numerous concerts with local musicians of note and recorded for local labels. European aficionados and colleagues viewed Baker differently, and they were shocked and saddened by his violent death. This chapter looks at the local histories around Baker's death and efforts to honor him with a monument at the accident site. It unpacks how US-centric jazz histories judge American musicians who “go missing,” i.e., have careers outside America.
