Let’s Get Lost

with Chet Baker, Carol Baker, Vera Baker
Directed by Bruce Weber
(Novus, 1989)
by Reggie Kray

When Chet Baker sang or played, it brought to mind a smoky landscape that was the canvas for all his trials and heartache and remains the significant factor in his music today. In the documentary Let’s Get Lost, shot in beautiful black and white by the elusive Bruce Weber, we follow the saint of the jazz scene through his biggest fears and most elaborate dreams. Baker played and sang as sweet as candy on Halloween, and was the preeminent crooner of the hip scene that germinated in the mid-fifties and early sixties. He had the look, the attitude and the style to fit the times – young, cool, and talented enough to fit in amongst the likes of Coltrane, Davis, and Blakey. Weber guides us through Chet’s declining years of heroin addiction and general dissipation like a thief, all quiet and dark, only shining light on the man when he has something to say or play. I suggest not only checking this film out, but also soaking in some of Chet’s canon, like the soundtrack to this picture or Chet Baker: My Funny Valentine.