Chet Baker in Murakami's World: 'I Fall in Love Too Easily'

Some songs sound like a late night with a glass of wine, and Chet Baker's I Fall in Love Too Easily is surely one of them. Today in the Music Room we are playing it, and talking about why Chet Baker sits so comfortably inside Haruki Murakami's world.

A song that falls in love for you

The title does half the work. I Fall in Love Too Easily is a ballad written for the 1944 film Anchors Aweigh, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Sammy Cahn, and it later became a Chet Baker signature. Baker's version, with his soft, almost whispering vocal and a muted trumpet that never pushes, is romantic, sad and a little bit hopeless all at once. It is the sound of someone who knows better and does it anyway.

We find it addictive in the best sense. You put it on once, and suddenly it is an hour later and you are still sitting in the dark.

What Murakami said about Chet Baker

Murakami, who ran a jazz bar in Tokyo before he became a novelist, has written about jazz at length, and Chet Baker is one of the musicians he returns to. The line we know and love is that Chet Baker's playing "smells of youth". We are working from a translated fragment of that comment, so we will not claim to know its exact wording or where it first appeared, but the sentiment is clear and it fits everything we know about how Murakami hears the trumpeter.

It makes sense. Baker was a handsome young man with a James Dean look, famous in the 1950s for a playing style that was restrained, lyrical and unshowy. Many fans, Murakami among them, remember that early Chet: the pure tone, the delicate phrasing, the feeling that the music could vanish at any moment. Baker's later life was much harder, and his face changed with it, which only makes the early recordings feel more precious.

Why he suits a Murakami novel

Murakami's characters are often lonely, a little adrift, and drawn to music that says the unsayable. A Chet Baker record would not be out of place in any of those quiet apartments or late-night bars, playing while someone cooks spaghetti or waits for a phone call. His restraint is very close to Murakami's own prose: calm on the surface, with something wistful underneath.

If you enjoy that kind of listening, you may also like our post on Billie Holiday, Murakami's favourite vocal jazz artist, which is another example of a voice that hurts and soothes at the same time.

There is also something touching in the way Baker sang. He never oversold a lyric, and that understatement makes a line like the title feel true rather than theatrical. It is the same reason his trumpet works so well: he leaves room for the listener to bring their own heartbreak along.

How to listen

Our suggestion: evening, low light, a glass of something (red or white, your call), and no phone. Let the trumpet and the voice do their slow work. Then notice how long you stay in that mood after the song ends.

FAQ

Who wrote 'I Fall in Love Too Easily'?

Jule Styne composed it and Sammy Cahn wrote the lyrics, for the 1944 film Anchors Aweigh. Chet Baker made it one of his best-loved ballads.

Did Haruki Murakami write about Chet Baker?

Yes, he has discussed Chet Baker in his writing about jazz, and the idea that Baker's playing carries the scent of youth is often attributed to him.

Which Chet Baker album should I start with?

Many listeners begin with Chet Baker Sings from the 1950s, which captures the young, tender Baker that Murakami fans tend to love.

Do you have a Chet Baker song that goes with a certain night in your life? Share it with us, Harukists.