Chet Baker Quotations

People said I'd never make 35, then I'd never make 40, 45; now I'm almost 50, so Im beginning to think maybe they might be wrong.

The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.

I like to play in the deep register. I was never a high-note specialist. My range goes from the bottom of the horn up to around C or D. High D is about it for me ... about two-and-a-half octaves, I think. But in these two-and-a-half octaves, I can say everything I have to say.

Artt Frank is my all-time favorite drummer. He always seems to know where I'm going.

It takes a pretty good drummer to be better than no drummer at all.

Well if I could play like Wynton, I wouldn't play like Wynton.

In Europe they look upon jazz as art. In America it's a diversion. Somebody opens a restaurant and installs another band off to the side. People don't listen.

I soon became aware that there wasn't enough time or opportunity to kiss all the girls in the world. The best thing is to stay cool - just be choosy and wait for the right opportunity.

I don't believe that jazz will ever really die. It's a nice way to express yourself.

Your looks are laughable, unphotographable, yet you're my favorite work of art. Is your figure less than Greek, is your mouth a little weak? When you open it to speak, are you smart?

It seems to me that most people are impressed with just three things: how fast you can play, how high you can play, and how loud you can play.

You don't know what love is, until you've learned the meaning of the blues, until you've loved a love you've had to lose.

I'm definitely a romantic, I don't think life is really worth all the pain and effort and struggling if you don't have somebody that you love very much

Well, if I could play like Wynton (Marsalis), I wouldn't play like Wynton.

The one thing that did stand out in my memory was the fact that he had a well documented association with Heroin. Growing up with a somewhat myopic view of the world, I could not understand how it was that people could put a drug user on such a high pedestal (If you will pardon the pun).

He almost adds a Chet-like sound to it,