As Though I Had Wings: The Lost Memoir

Chet Baker, poster child for West Coast Cool Jazz and patron saint of its notorious lush life, kept a diary. Published by his estate and introduced by his widow, his entries have been tailored to a memoir of his life from 1946 to 1963. These are the years of his rise to stardom in music and movies--and his tumble into the trenches of incarceration and drug abuse. The book is divided into 13 quick-reading chapters in which Baker writes of his life as a musician, all seasoned with tales of drugs, prison terms, and a laundry list of romances. Often, though, his writings are not spicy enough; births, deaths, pregnancies, and car chases are noted without much detail. What must have been extremely charged times are written about with a kind of academic disinterest: "Moving quickly toward the noise, as did everyone else, I saw Dick lying on the floor. He had passed out cold, and several people were trying to figure out what was wrong with him. We located a doctor and cleared the stage area. I should point out that Dick had always taken care of business; always at work on time and always playing exceptionally." While some readers may be disappointed by the lack of layered passion one hears in Baker's voice or in the smooth and solid sound of his horn, there is still considerable value in reading his own account of his story.