Draxl to present Baker tribute

In the ’50s he was called the “James Dean of Jazz”.  For good reason.  The American jazz trumpeter and singer Chet Baker looked like an angel and sang and played trumpet with a magical sway over people’s souls.

In the ’50s he was called the “James Dean of Jazz”.  For good reason.  The American jazz trumpeter and singer Chet Baker looked like an angel and sang and played trumpet with a magical sway over people’s souls.

Chet Baker’s music had the power to weave beauty out of ruin, the fragility of his voice, at any tempo, both heartbreaking and true.  Baker’s renditions of ‘My Funny Valentine’, ‘Look For the Silver Lining’, ‘Time After Time’, ‘Let’s Get Lost’ and ‘There Will Never Be Another You’ will all feature in Tim Draxl’s celebration of Chet Baker.

Chet Baker died in Amsterdam in 1988.  His rollercoaster journey from the unbridled promise of his golden youth to his demise reflected America’s fall from innocence and a society clinging to its idols and dreams.

Taking centre stage in Freeway is Tim Draxl, one of Australia’s most acclaimed cabaret artists and actors who divides his time between Los Angeles and Sydney. His films include Swimming Upstream, The Shark Net, In My Sleep and Red Canyon. He has performed dramatic roles for Company B Belvoir and Griffin Theatre Company.  Tim also won the prestigious MAC award in New York for his cabaret work in 2001.

Freeway has been devised as a vehicle to further showcase the talents of Tim Draxl, who has long admired Chet Baker.

“It was his rendition of ‘My Funny Valentine’ that first caught my attention and which began my adoration and intrigue 12 years ago,” Draxl said.

“That haunting, melancholic tone of his voice in that song resonated with me at a time in my life when I was not only at the beginning of the unending path of discovering myself as an artist and also who I was as a person.”

Draxl’s collaborator Bryce Hallett, arts writer for the Sydney Morning Herald, is equally drawn to the music and mystique of Chet Baker.

“He looked like a matinee idol and played trumpet by instinct and ear, much to the chagrin of well-established jazz greats at the time, including Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis,” he said. 

“Baker’s hushed renditions of ‘Time After Time’, ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ and ‘There Will Never Be Another You’ are all the more effective for their economy and restraint.  He was a natural storyteller.”
 
Freeway is presented in association with Lambert House Enterprises.

The show will be at the El Rocco Room from September 22. Bookings: www.moshtix.com.au.