Thursday, August 7, 2014

Chet Baker - You Don't Know What Love Is

I'm just watching an Asian "American Idol" type show called "Academy Fantasia."  The singers are terrible.  Most of them are very attractive but they couldn't carry a tune in a fucking bushel basket; they couldn't find the notes with a GPS. 

I was reminded that finding the notes isn't everything in the singing game.  Another jazzbo, maybe Ornette Coleman or somebody, once said of Chet, "you know, sometimes you hear a guy, he can't sing for shit, but he sings the song and it makes you cry."  (I paraphrase, lavishly.) 

So sometimes maybe it's all about the sincerity.  Chet's got that going on.  He loves these songs, and he sings them with great reverence, and he is a real musician, after all.  I've listened to this cut a hundred times, and it still affects me. 

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