Stan Getz Music

It's unusual to find Stan Getz recording on the Fantasy label in 1958, when these sides were made, getting second billing no less. He could thank his boss Norman Granz for that, though, who "loaned" Getz to Fantasy to record with Tjader "for a fee." Ah, well. It didn't seem to bother Stan, however, because he plays marvelously on the date. (Maybe having just heard that he won the Down Beat and Metronome polls again further inspired him.)

Tjader is an excellent vibes player who specialized in Latin jazz. He and Stan do some of their best playing on the up-tempo samba GINZA SAMBA. LIZ-ANNE, a Tjader composition, is a medium-up waltz that swings nicely, with good solos by Stan and Cal. Guitarist Eddie Duran has a well-developed solo on CROWS NEST, a medium-up blues, and Getz is at his prettiest on I'VE GROWN ACCUSTOMED TO HER FACE. The seldom heard MY BUDDY gets a nice relaxed treatment that makes you want to hear it more frequently. This is a great album, relaxed and swinging, and containing excellent tune choices. Definitely worth checking out.

[Whatever happened to the OJC CD issue of this album?]

Getz in the forties, Getz in the fifties - different, but always fabulous.

This is one of the best progressive/sinfonic music album's i've heard in my life and, in order to add some stuff about tihs guys this is the first album they released... It have powerfull changes of rihtm and timing and strange sclaes and , so they have nice ballads and very soft mellodies between power rithm guitar and basses... If you are lloking one of the MOST in prog. music THIS IS THE ALBUM THAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR ALL YOUR ENTIRE LIFE Enjoy!

This single CD is a compilation from Getz' early 50's recordings for the Roost label. I highly recommend the 3 CD set, which is marvelously assembled and packaged, but if for some reason you need a sampler this is a good one. The sound quality is a tad under par due to recording limitations of Roost apparently, but this collection and its big brother showcase one of the four brothers just as he broke out and began to come of age on his own. The chemistry with guitarist Jimmy Raney is sometimes breathtaking. Highly recommended.

Three CD's of the young Stan Getz cranking out gem after gem. He makes it look so easy.

Early Stan sound always has that pleasant glow of a dry martini or a glass of champagne!

Stan is a balm to this stressful world; warm, melodic, lyrical, never corny or syrupy. His playing is virtuosic without him seeming to break a sweat. The more I listen the more I want to listen, have it up loud for intense examination or down soft in the background, what could be better? Music for four centers: spirit, mind, emotions and body.

The wellsprings of early Stan Getz (early 1950's) often shows glimpses of his mature sound in the 80's. Cool and aloof playing, Stan avoids the harsh overblowing type be-bop and sets him apart from his contemporaries. Many ballads. Also fast Bebop. Warm, pleasant vacuum tube recordings.

This set is divided and parsed on many other CD's - the Europeans only recognize 50 years on copyrights. They now consider this public domain, hense the many duplicate or overlapping CD's available. But this set has most of, but not all of the best early stuff, without duplication.

Stan is sometimes playing with Al Haig, a marvellously lyrical pianist, the best accompanyist Getz ever had until Kenny Barron. Haig is somewhat hard to find on other CD's but well worth the effort. The songs with Raney on guitar are also noteworthy.

All recordings are monophonic, 2-3 minutes long and frequently better sounding than the early stereo "ping pong" recordings with the drums in the left and the sax on the right which came a few years later. Sound quality varies...a lot...

I wrote this years ago and am updating it. It deserves more than three stars - five, but I can't figure out how to change it. A favorite set of mine. Many "set" CD's are not worth the expense. This one is. This compendium takes you back to the sound and the feel of the early fifties. It made Stan Getz a household name after "Early Autumn".

Highly recommended.

An invaluable document of Stan Getz in his early prime. The light tone and hard-swinging attack are already abundantly evident. Here he plays with the likes of Al Haig, Horace Silver, guitarist Jimmy Raney, and on three tracks the Count Basie Orchestra. (!!) The vast majority of this collection is composed of quartet and quintet sessions though, the best of them recorded live at Storyville, Boston, on October 28, 1951. Raney and Getz seemed to have a real rapport going; the sparks fly when they play together. The one caveat is the sound; Roost was a small label, and as the producer warns, it was impossible to locate first-generation masters of most of these songs. But considering that, the sound isn't THAT bad----certainly the spirit and panache of the music easily shines through any audio flaws.

Finally, I very much appreciate how physically efficient the packaging of this compilation is----Michael Cuscuna had the consideration to house the CD's in extra-slim jewel boxes, which are in turn nested in a simple paper slip-case. The result is that this svelte 3-CD set takes up less shelf space than many another space-wasteful double-CD compilation. Yet liner notes, session info, and the whole nine yards are here. If only other companies would follow suit. All this and photos by William Claxton, too. This set's a keeper.

This 3-CD set brings together all the Roost recordings Getz made from 1950-52, including the sides he made with guitarist Johnny Smith; also thrown in for good measure are 3 live guest performances Getz made at Birdland with the Basie band in 1954. Taken as a whole these sides are among the very best Getz ever made, certainly during this early period. Included is a whole CD of material recorded live at Storyville in Boston in October 1951, with Jimmy Raney on guitar, that contains superb examples of Stan's swinging Lestorian approach (Raney is in top form as well). RUBBERNECK, SIGNAL, and MOSQUITO KNEES are timeless and can be listened to over and over again without loosing their freshness. JAGUAR from one of the Johnny Smith sessions reveals incredible technique from both musicians. I'm not sure how long this set is going to remain in print, so if you see it and don't have it, grab it before it's too late. These are essential recordings, not only for Getz fans, but for all jazz enthusiasts. A gotta-have set.

After years of playing Bossa Nova, his misadventures in Fusion, and flirtations with avant-garde in the 70's, Stan decided he was "willing to play what people wanted but he wasn't willing to wear costumes and silly paper party hats" or words to that effect. He returned to what he did best. Concord let him play what HE wanted.

This is the upbeat half of a live concert. (CD "Spring is Here" contains the ballads and swing songs half, although the songs are more evenly divided than on The other excellent Concord live releases "Pure Getz" and "Blue Sky").

A state-of-the-art recording, an excellent side group. Stan is in top form, free of drugs and booze. He is here more emotional and less cool. Mainstream straight ahead jazz (no bossa nova).

Stanley the Steamer cooks along.

Approved and released by Stan while he was alive.

This 1981 disc catches Getz entering his final phase, setting fusion and bossa largely behind him & concentrating on making lovely music out of the traditional tenor-plus-rhythm quartet. The title-track is a tune by Brazillian composer Luiz Eca, given a relaxed (almost 10-minute) reading; there are readings of two Johnny Mandel tunes, "A Time for Love" & "Close Enough for Love" (the latter my favourite track here), the old standard "My Old Flame", & a couple boppier numbers: Clifford Brown's "Joy Spring" & a reading of "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" which pays homage to Bud Powell (rather than Coltrane, whose version of the tune tends to weigh heavily on most covers of it I've heard). The hardworking, underrecognized pianist Lou Levy plays beautifully throughout the album, there's excellent support from bassist Monty Budwig & drummer Victor Lewis, & Getz's murmurous sound is well caught by the very good live recording. What's not to like?

"The Dolphin" was recorded at the Keystone Korner, a small club in San Francisco, which resulted in one of Getz' greatest live records. The intimate atmosphere of the club and the added benefit of a well rehearsed, highly imaginative quartet at his side let Getz excel on the six tunes that are collected here. "The Dolphin" is the inevitable reminder of his Bossa Nova days, but it sounds as fresh and lively as if Getz had begun his love affair with Brazilian music only yesterday. Pianist Lou Levy, who had worked with Getz for more than 30 years when they made the record, is one of the best pianists Getz ever had, and I was utterly absorbed by his solo on "The Dolphin". Ballads ("A Time for Love", "My Old Flame") and up tempo tunes ("Joy Spring", "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes") are both present on the record, and it is difficult not end up in stereotypes describing them. Let's say that it will be highly difficult not to like them. A good record for any occasion, but if you happen to have a beach and cool drink handy, sit down and relax with a superb record of an artist who "believes in the power of beauty, instead of finding beauty in power", as Leonard Feather put it.

this is not a beautiful recording but a great record if you know what i mean. stan in great shape and of course kenny barron........what a piano player....

The expression "a full Mastery of one's instrument" is arguably impossible to attain, but a handful of musicians (the likes of Getz, Tatum, Evans, Dizzy, and Bird) are often credited with having done just that. The Final Concert is proof positive that perfection, or near perfection, is possible. Getz, with the help of some of the world's most talented musicians, performs a variety of compositions in different tempos & genres, that most musicians can only dream of doing. Technically & Lyrically this CD is a masterpiece, and a must have for any lover of Jazz. We can only hope that the Getz estate has many more of these gems hiden away.
STAN LIVES ON!!!

I am always reluctant to buy 2 CD sets, especially when the artist has been dead for a decade! One would think to good stuff is already out. But Stan the Man, the greatest saxophonist of all time, continues to be amazingly prolific in death.

Despite the title, "People Time" is actually Stan Getz last known recording, silvered some three months before his death. This CD set is from a concert at the Munich Philharmonic, July 1990, 11 months before his death.

For a 63 year old guy who would be gone from us in a year, Stan sound amazingly sprightly and energetic here. Moreso than he does on "People Time"! He was on a Zen marcobiotic diet, excercised, and had discontinued his, umm, unheathful habits, and was feeling good here. He bops through a number of happy, upbeat songs, five from his latest album with Herb Alpert, "Apasionado".

Apasionado had a lot of New Age (NOT Smooth Jazz) influences, trying to be part of the latest thing in 1990. "Coba", the title track and "Espanira" have a strong classical Spanish influence like Miles Davis "Sketches of Spain". He plays a Miles Davis tune "Seven Steps to Heaven". The orchestra on the "Apasionado" CD is herein replayed by the song writer Eddie Del Barrio on synthesizer. In his later years, Stan liked to feature new music by lesser known people in his group.

Other tunes include numbers from "Anniversary" & "People Time". Also with him is Kenny Barron, clearly the best Jazz piano accompanyist in the business, then and now. Stan plays Barron's tune "Voyage".

Only four cuts are ballads and here Stan shines, as always. Especially on "People Time" & "Blood Count". I like disc two the best, should they ever become available seperately. Also "Amorous Cat", which I'd never heard elsewhere from Getz, sounds particularly sensual, like a cat rubbing itself on your leg!

The acoustic is a little echoy and bright, sometimes the drums and piano seem closer than the sax. Later in the concert he asks for, and gets, a more focused sound.

Steve Getz has said that his father's instantly recongizable music has a "healing quality". I believe that is true. May more of his music continue to be found!

Stan fans and collectors will enjoy this album, another good posthumous release. Four stars for a performance every bit as good as Stan in his prime, three stars for recording quality, under my extra tough grading system!