Chet Baker - Amsterdam, Netherlands
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Metro2
N 52° 22.597 E 004° 53.974
31U E 629303 N 5804625
This plaque is located at the entrance to the Prins Hendrik Hotel in Amsterdam.
Waymark Code: WMHGNC
Location: Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Date Posted: 07/09/2013
Views: 9
The address is:
Prins Hendrikkade 53
1012 AC Amsterdam, Netherlands
The bronze plauqe has a relief depiction of Chet Baker playing a trumpet and reads:
"Trumpet player and singer
CHET BAKER
died here on May 13th, 1988
He will live on in his music
for anyone willing
to listen and feel."
Wikipedia (
visit link) adds:
"Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and vocalist.
Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s, particularly for albums featuring his vocals (Chet Baker Sings, It Could Happen to You). Jazz historian David Gelly described the promise of Baker's early career as "James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one." His "well-publicized drug habit" also drove his notoriety and fame; Baker was in and out of jail regularly before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and '80s...
Death
At about 3 am on May 13, 1988, Baker was found dead on the Prins Hendrikkade, near the Zeedijk, the street below his second-story room (Room 210) of Hotel Prins Hendrik in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with serious wounds to his head. Heroin and cocaine were found in his hotel room, and an autopsy also found these drugs in his body. There was no evidence of a struggle, and the death was ruled an accident.
Baker's body was brought home for interment in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California, USA. A plaque outside the Hotel Prins Hendrik now memorializes him."