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Jazz and Bossa Nova - Gilberto, Jobim, Bonfa, Getz (1958 - 1963)

By Russell Perry

Fueled by the 1959 international release of the movie “Black Orpheus" and through reports from US jazz players returning from South American tours, the Brazilian music bossa nova (Portugese for “new trend" or “new wave") found its way into American jazz in the early 1960s, becoming a permanent part of the jazz fusion. Stan Getz, in particular, appreciated bossa nova as the interaction between cool jazz and samba and collaborated successfully with many of the pioneers of the new music, ...

Stan Getz: Getz At The Gate

By Chris May

Connoisseurs of Stan Getz continue to get lucky with newly discovered live recordings. The last was Moments In Time (Resonance, 2016), a single CD documenting parts of a week-long residency with a quartet including pianist JoAnne Brackeen in San Francisco in 1976. Getz At The Gate, recorded fifteen years earlier, is another substantial addition to Getz's catalogue. Over two CDs, or three LPs if you prefer, it includes all 139 minutes which Getz's band performed at New York's ...

Cool - Four Brothers After Woody Herman (1946 - 1961)

By Russell Perry

Bandleader Woody Herman created a distinctive sound around The Four Brothers -the three tenor plus baritone sax front line of Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Herbie Stewart (later Al Cohn) and Serge Chaloff--and the writing of clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre. In time, Getz, Sims, Chaloff, Cohn and Giuffre would all become distinctive soloists and all had a role in defining West Coast Jazz in the 1950s. Playlist Host Intro 0:00 Stan Getz Quartet. “Opus De Bop" from Bebop Story: Vol. ...

Stan Getz And The Oscar Peterson Trio

By Mark Barnett

Getting Started If you're new to jazz, go to our Getting Into Jazz primer for some hints on how to listen. CD Capsule Saxophonist Stan Getz shines in this disc, recorded early in his career with top-flight musicians who created a perfect setting for his skills and sensitivity. Give him an “A" in “Plays well with others." Background Like Zoot Sims (see If I'm Lucky in this “Getting Into Jazz" ...

Stan Getz

By Mark Barnett

The story of Stan Getz (1927-1991) has to begin with Lester Young. Before Young, tenor sax players seemed awash in testosterone. Their sound was full, rich, deep, blown hard out of the instrument's lower registers, with emotion pouring out in lavish swoops and honks. Then along came Lester. In the post-war 1940s, he invented a new way to play the tenor sax: softly, effortlessly, with no wasted notes, and above all, without drama. There was emotion, of course, but it ...

Stan Getz: Spring 1976

By C. Michael Bailey

The musical specter of John Coltrane is so massive and dense that its creative gravity often does not allow even a whiff of his contemporary saxophone players. While certainly acknowledged as an innovator in his own right, saxophonist Stan Getz rarely gets the attention he deserves as often as many of his contemporaries. That is what makes the magic in these two previously unissued releases from Resonance Records. Getz reminds us here what a commanding presence in jazz he was ...

Creed Taylor Productions, Part 2

By Creed Taylor

Part 1 | Part 2 The place in jazz history held by Creed Taylor is impeccable, stylish, and essential. He produced some of the best music for some of the best labels dedicated to jazz, then formed his own label and with meticulous preparation and his musician's ear kept on making great jazz records. Taylor began as a producer for Bethlehem Records, where his work with Charles Mingus stands among the label's best. In 1960, ...

Stan Getz: I'm Gonna Blow the Walls Down

By Bob Kenselaar

[The music that Stan Getz made over the years was consistently moving and powerful. But he was probably putting me on a little when he said he was going to “blow the walls down" in New York for a series of shows early in 1979. When someone gives you a headline like that, though, you go with it. He was a little more straightforward later in the interview when he said, “I'm a thoughtful player. I don't believe in blasting ...

Stan Getz Quintette: Jazz At Storyville

By Chris May

Stan Getz QuintetteJazz At StoryvilleRoyal Roost1951 For his casual listeners, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz peaked during the bossa nova craze of the early to mid 1960s. And as Verve's five-disc, 2008 box set, The Bossa Nova Albums, reminded casual and committed listeners alike, Getz and bossa nova were, indeed, made for each other. But anyone willing to rewind through the 1950s will find a cornucopia of less well ...

Stan Getz: Quintets - The Clef and Norgran Studio Albums

By Chris May

Stan GetzQuintets: The Clef & Norgran Studio AlbumsVerve/Hip-0 Select2011 A pleasure to handle and a thrill to play, this limited edition box set brings together all the quintet studio recordings made by tenor saxophonist Stan Getz for impresario Norman Granz's Clef and Norgran labels, soon to be rolled together as Verve, between December 1952 and January 1955. The three discs capture Getz's emergence as a small group bandleader newly at the ...

Stan Getz: Apasionado

By Chris May

Tenor saxophonist Stan Getz's neo-big band album Apasionado has been consigned to minor league status since its original release in 1990. It does, indeed, look unpromising: recorded in fall 1989, when Getz was undergoing treatment for the cancer which would kill him less than two years later; with a pair of synthesizers replicating a string section; and with the commercially astute but MOR focused Herb Alpert producing.

But 20 years on and rereleased, Apasionado rises way above expectations. ...

Stan Getz: Legacy

By Jack Bowers

Here's a pleasant surprise: “previously unissued material" by tenor sax giant Stan Getz that by and large deserves to be more widely disseminated and heard. Legacy is comprised of five sessions spanning the years 1980-86, including three numbers with the Woody Herman Herd and another with Getz and pianist Jimmy Rowles performing Rowles' “The Peacocks." The other seven tracks embody three quartet dates.

While the sound is uneven, as one would expect on such a compilation, the audio's not as ...