Chet Baker discusses his first encounter with the trumpet.

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Chet Baker discusses his leadership abilities.

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Chet Baker discusses the pressures that lead to his drug addiction.

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Q: “Starting as late as you did at thirteen, did you start right away on trumpet?”

A: “No, my father, he love Jack "Tea Garden". That was his favorite jazz musician, and as far as I was concerned, it’s really good idea because I think the man was wonderful. And he used to tell me about going to see Jack many years ago, you know. And Jack was being loaded, you know and really playing some beautiful far out things. Things that you'd never expect to hear anyone play on a trombone, you know. So he brought home a trombone, but I was so small for my age, I didn’t start really going until I was about sixteen. I couldn’t reach the bottom positions on the slide, you know. And after a couple of weeks, he took it away and couple of days later, he brought home a trumpet. And that was more my size, you know. At least I can reach I can reach the pistons and I could get a sound easier because the mouthpiece wasn’t so big. I started to playing it in the instrument training in school but I had ... I relied so much on my ear that I had a great difficulty in learning to read, you know.”