Stan Getz: Live At The Left Bank

The story behind how this session came to be is almost as exciting as the recording itself. Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society was formed in 1964 by a group devoted to promoting and preserving jazz in the city. Soon the organization was hosting weekly concerts featuring outstanding local, national, and international jazz performers. In the mid-eighties noted jazz producer Joel Dorn began to follow-up on rumours that these Sunday afternoon concerts had been taped. Well, the rumours were true! Mr. Dorn spent the next 14 years trying to secure the rights to this bonanza. Stan Getz: “Live” At The Left Bank is the first of many historic sessions Mr. Dorn’s new Label M will release over the next three or four years. “Live” At The Left Bank was recorded with amazing clarity by Vernon Welsh on a home tape recorder at the Famous Ballroom, May 20, 1975. It preserves for all time what the lyrical tenor saxophonist sounded like performing at a “typical” one-nighter. Listeners who know Getz only from his Girl From Ipanema days will be surprised to hear that Stan could not only play ballads that would break your heart, but he could also wail with the best. Check out Invitation and Fiesta for the proof. Mr. Dorn states in his liner notes, “Stan Getz is the baddest white guy to ever play the saxophone.” I couldn’t agree with him more. ####

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