Grippingly written and meticulously researched, Matthew Ruddick's 828-page opus is the definitive biography of trumpeter and singer Chet Baker. More than that, it is a vivid account of the junkie ...

Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince ...

When Ethan Hawke turned 40 a few years ago, he did a couple of things. “One is I got my motorcycle license,” Hawke says, splayed out in the corner booth of a Manhattan cafe. “I had it before, but I ...

Most biopics of musicians try to cover too much ground, telling artists’ stories from birth to death while focusing more on their weaknesses than their work. In “Born to Be Blue,” writer-director ...

If trumpeter Chet Baker had died in 1955, in his mid-20s, he would be remembered as a golden boy cut down in his prime, a player of much promise, unfulfilled. Musically, he would be pegged as an adept ...

When Yale professor Harold Bloom was interviewed by NPR shortly after publication of Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine (Riverhead, 2005), he was quite candid about his relationship with his own ...

The long-standing problem plaguing biopics can be best encapsulated by a single question: How do you tell someone’s life story, which likely spans decades, within 120 minutes? To omit vital events in ...

In 1952, a 21-year-old trumpeter from Oklahoma named Chet Baker established himself as one the few real superstars of contemporary jazz by both playing and singing with an unmistakable lyricism and at ...

Terrible people often make gorgeous music, a quandary when we want to believe that true beauty shines from within. Shouldn’t artists who spin out transcendent sounds also be nice to their wives, their ...