By Alex Henderson
Since Stan Getz's death from cancer in 1991, a fair amount of previously
unreleased material (both live and studio recordings) has come out
posthumously--and that's in addition to the countless Getz reissues that
labels have provided in the 1990s. The amazing thing about the abundance of
Getz recordings available on CD is that very few of them are disappointing.
One of the finest and most celebrated tenor saxophonists of all time, Getz
was remarkably consistent. From the late 1940s to the early 90s, the
caressing, Lester Young-influenced saxman (who was nicknamed "The Sound")
seldom let us down.
A companion CD to Concord's 1996 Getz release, Your's And Mine: Live At the
1989 Glasgow Jazz Festival, Soul Eyes boasts five more previously unreleased
songs from that Scotland festival as well as three selections recorded live
at Musikhusit Aarhus in Copenhagen, Denmark only three weeks later. Getz, who
commanded a loyal, appreciative following in Europe, brings his recognizable
and ever appealing tone to pieces by pianist Kenny Barron ("Voyage" and
"Fijada") and alto sax legend Gigi Gryce ("Stan's Blues") as well as the
title song, a gorgeous ballad that pianist Mal Waldron wrote in the 1950s.
Getz's performance on Billy Strayhorn's "Blood Count" is especially
poignant. Duke Ellington's partner and soulmate wrote the haunting standard
when his health was failing, and similarly, Getz was only two years from his
deathbed when the recordings on this CD were made. Having been battling
cancer, Getz plays "Blood Count" like he truly relates to what Strayhorn was
going through--like someone who's reflecting on his own mortality. And yet,
the agony of cancer hadn't robbed Getz of his enviable technique. His chops
and tone are still quite enviable on the Glasgow material as well as on three
songs recorded in Copenhagen: Duke Ellington's "Warm Valley," the pop classic
"Hush-A-Bye" and the standard "Slow Boat To China." In Glasgow, he is joined
by Barron (one of the finest pianists of the last 30 years) drummer Ben Riley
and bassist Ray Drummond, who is replaced by Yashuito Mori in Copenhagen.
Born in Philadelphia on February 2, 1927, Getz wasn't even old enough to
vote when he played with trombonist Jack Teagarden in 1943 and when he joined
Stan Kenton's big band in 1944. Getz played with Jimmy Dorsey in 1945 and
Benny Goodman in 1945 and 1946, but it was when he was in Woody Herman's
Second Herd from 1947-49 that he really started to become well known. Along
with Zoot Sims, Serge Chaloff and Herbie Steward, Getz made history as part
of the first edition of The Herd's sax section The Four Brothers. It was Getz
who contributed the lovely "Early Autumn" to Herman's repertoire.
Both Getz's work with Herman and his early small group recordings on his own
in the late 1940s made it clear that his style was deeply indebted to Lester
"The Prez" Young, whose breathy tenor offered a subtle alternative to Coleman
Hawkins' hard-edged aggression. But like fellow Young disciples Zoot Sims
and Al Cohn, Young developed an attractive sound of his own and became quite
distinctive himself.
The type of softness that characterized Getz, Sims, Paul Desmond, Gerry
Mulligan and Chet Baker (not to mention Miles Davis!) was labeled "cool jazz"
in the early 1950s. Essentially, "cool" was bebop--but played with restraint
and subtlety (although one could argue that swing giant Young was the
godfather of "cool.") Getz was one of the most popular jazzmen of the 1950s,
when he recorded numerous albums and played with a long list of greats that
includes Mulligan, Lionel Hampton, Horace Silver, Jimmy Raney, Harry "Sweets"
Edison, Jimmy Rowles and Oscar Peterson.
It was in the early 1960s that Getz joined forces with Brazilian greats
like composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and singers Joao & Astrud Gilberto and
helped popularize bossa nova--a fusion of "cool jazz" and samba. Getz may
not have single-handedly invented Brazilian jazz (alto saxman Bud Shank and
guitarist Laurindo Almeida had first combined jazz and Brazilian music in
1953), but he certainly did more than anyone to popularize bossa nova. At a
time when jazz was losing more and more of its popularity, Getz and the
Gilberto Siblings had major hits with "The Girl From Ipanema" and
"Desafinado."
But when the recording industry milked bossa nova for all it was worth (much
as it would later milk everything from disco to gangster rap), Getz rebelled
in the mid-1960s and got away from recording so much Brazilian-oriented jazz.
Getz acknowledged modal post-bop in the 1960s and fusion in the early 70, but
he did so on his own terms and usually sounded like he was being true to
himself. Through it all, The Sound never lost his love of melodic playing.
Getz first recorded for Concord in 1981, when he united with pianist Lou
Levy, bassist Monty Budwig and drummer Victor Lewis for the session that gave
us The Dolphin and Spring is Here. These albums found the tenor man in an
entirely acoustic setting after a lot of electric experimentation in the
1970s. 1981 was also the year in which the live Keystone Corner performances
heard on the Concord CD "Spring Is Here" were recorded. That CD, released
posthumously in 1992, finds that same quartet embracing such time-honored
standards as "Sweet Lorraine" and "Old Devil Moon" at the famous San
Francisco club. When The Sound caresses "Easy Living" and "You're Blase,"
we're reminded that no one played ballads more seductively.
Getz recorded frequently in the 1980s, and he continued to record right up
until three months before his death--when Verve recorded the sessions heard
on People Time. Getz's playing is surprisingly convincing on that two-CD set,
and an occasional shortness of breath doesn't prevent him from achieving the
type of excellence he was known for.
Getz was 64 when he finally lost his battle with cancer on June 6, 1991. It
was a tremendous loss for the jazz world, but thankfully, he was more than
well documented during his long career. And with Soul Eyes, Concord Jazz
offers yet another reminder of just how great he was.
August 1997
Alex Henderson has written about Stan Getz extensively and presently
contributes to Jazziz, The All Music Guide, All That Jazz and many other
national publications.
