“Few who heard it could forget Baker’s version of “The Thrill Is Gone,” which he counted off at a tempo so slow that the music seemed to float in space. ‘This is the end, so why pretend . . . ,’ he sang, pulling listeners into the black hole of desolation where he seemed the happiest. Then came a trumpet chorus so drawn out and full of silence that it felt as though he were groping through the dark for the next one.”

—James Gavin, from Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, by James Gavin, 2002.