Stan Getz Music

Between Stan and Dexter, I would definitely go with Dexter over Stan on this; put me more in the mood for relaxing (not a bad thing) as opposed to making love.

Between Stan and Dexter, I would definitely go with Dexter over Stan on this; put me more in the mood for relaxing (not a bad thing) as opposed to making love.

I first heard this music on a mono MGM lp, maybe around 1967...when I was seventeen playing on a fine portable stereo with take off speakers and tip down turntable. Even then, very inexperienced as I was, (No MIngus or Bitches Brew yet) this album struck me as extraordinary. This music is the most exciting and brilliant music that I have on any album or CD since then....it smoothly starts kinda Bossa, then moves right into power story telling with no holds barred. The sheer variety of sound that Eddie Sauter pulls out of his orchestra with Getz is staggering, and even when he let a polka emit out of the blitz, it bristles with a raw power...(WHen I first heard the polka which only last about a minute or so, as a 17 year old, I blew it off. ) What strikes you about this material is the dynamics...if you know the live Mingus, it approaches it, but Mingus never worked ideas like these....with that singular Getz voice becoming the interior of the Warren Beatty character always panicked....and never free. There's an early section where Getz plays three different solos over each other..all parts of the confused mind of the lead character....There are so many moments that move from sheer agony and fear into triumph and bliss, that it's almost too much to give yourself over to. Trust me, you've never heard anything like this album....and the previous collaberation between Eddie Sauter and Getz (Focus) doesn't come anywhere near this. This isn't just some avante-garde music that riffs along....this is some nailed grandeur singing in the streets. If you are a seeker of the extraordinary in music....this is at the top. Here's something else that's very unusual about this date. If you watch the film Mickey One in a theatre revival or on video, it seems that the soundtrack is a lesser, more subdued version the LP. It is. For the first time I've ever heard it, the version on the LP and CD is a redone full blown version done after the film version, with everyone now certain of the direction and power inherant in the structure. However on the CD, after this version, they add the film's quieter version, much less dynamics and simply not memorable as such. After that they even have various takes on sections, with studio conversations being heard...ala the Carl Stalling cartoon CD's. Speaking of Stalling, when he is at his most brilliant, it is very reminiscent of this score in it's imagination. What else do I think is amazing so you can have an idea where I come from? Well, Tom Waits Small Change still holds up as a masterpiece, along with a great deal of his later work...(I have a ton of video of the '80s stuff). I was a big nut over the Miles Electric period when that stuff came out, and still think Bitches Brew is as smooth as butta...I think what Paul Morelenbaum is doing is very hip....I think Joanna Newson is more talented than just about everybody.....I love Paul Bowles music by the EOS orchestra....Eric Satie, both Bernsteins, Bjork, Louis Jordan, and Henry Mancini's hard and experimental side. Whenever I hear that player piano from Touch Of Evil....the whole world just stops for me.
Get this Mickey One CD, don't play it as background...just hear the main version and just sit there....read the booklet. Or Krishnamurti. Andre in San Francisco

The soundtrack to Arthur Penn's Paranoid, neurotic "Mickey One" is a big, splendid failure, a score more concerned with defending a musical position than with being a cohesive soundtrack.

First, "Mickey One" tries to prove that Getz and Sauter's incomparable "Focus" was not a beautiful cul-de-sac but a valid and accessible musical tangent that could have been explored long into the future. "Mickey One" is highly listenable, masterful in places, but the shape of the film dictates that the tone of the music lunge around much too quickly to really be a kind of jazz 'tone poem' on the level of "Focus". Had Getz and Sauter worked on a slower, more meditative film, the discoveries of "Focus" might have found easier real world applications.

Second, the modish attempts to tweak the score to the film are not always successful. When Getz tries to infuse his playing with Mickey's paranoia, it just sounds like bad saxophone playing. But for the most part, the sharpened, knifelike quality to the recording does work. In places it sounds like Stan had been keeping his reeds in the freezer; but even so, he comes out sounding very good -- very "startlingly cinematic".

"Mickey One" is not a great score, but Getz is in fine form, there is some strong and lovely music here ... as well as some frantically overambitious scoring. This is a great disc to have on when you are trying to do nineteen things at once, because it's music that understands your dilemma.

Not a classic but a must for any Getz fan.

Stan Getz worked with Eddie Sauter on "Focus" (Verve), one of Stan's best efforts and the record he was proudest of. Throughout his life he again tried to improvise with Sauter's arrangements and an orchestra with a score.

This time it didn't work. the music is very episodic (as most soundtracks are); only in the longer, lonely ballads does Stan show his stuff and establish an effective mood. The rest is full of fits and starts. Nervous, anxious music, spikey , dissonant, and experimental avante garde like the introduction to West Side story or Bernstein on a bad day .

Recording quality is quite bright and harsh.

Getz, popularly known for his forays into Bossa Nova, shows his true strength as a straight ahead improvisor on this gem. Considering it was recorded on a small tape recorder and the tapes sat in storage until 2000 the sound quality is remarkable. The soundstage is quite acceptable through my high-end system. The bass is rendered clearly and without any sloppy overemphasis added in the mastering. DeJohnette's energized drums are rendered center/left but it doesn't distract from the listening experience. The piano has very nice impact and clarity, stage right. The previous reviewer's comment that it's really Corea on piano is plausible - sounds like him. The crowd sounds add a nice ambiance but aren't overbearing. Getz sounds as good here as I've ever heard him, perhaps energized by the live setting. Rated four stars for the slight shortcomings in the recording and five stars for the performance. This is a mature master of the tenor saxophone in full voice.

The pianist on this recording is Chick Corea. Just wanted to clear that up. "Litha" is a classic, a great version here.

This is another posthumous discovery by the greatest Sax player who ever lived.

A "live" recording done at the Baltimore Left Bank Jazz Society, May '75. As such, it contains the energy of a live recording, and some of the technical drawbacks of a live recording. The piano, drums and bass are in the left channel and Stan the Man, is in both, which is somewhat disconcerting. As you might guess, the ballads, "Spring is Here" and "My Foolish Heart" are the best tunes along with "Invitation" which is swing tempo.

The other lesser known pieces are of much faster tempo including one of unknown title (a small reward is offered to whoever can identify it). They are listenable, and show that Stan could play anything, he was not featherlight, but a "stompin' tenor man", as has been said elsewhere, ad-infinitum. But these fast songs are not engaging. The recording is somewhat bright and ragged when they all start cooking hard.

2 1/2 stars for an OK live recording, 2 for technical recording quality from Stan Getz Fusion period under my tough grading system. But I'm hard to please.

This is CD is a must for any Stan Getz fan. In fact, its a must for any jazz fan. Getz pulls the most gorgeous phrases out of thin air, over and over and over. His rhythm section with Jack Dejohnette and Bill Holland is like a four armed elastic man. Nobody plays this good anymore. I love Getz and this disc is a good as I've heard him live!!!!!

Let me start by saying I'm not old enough to have seen Stan Getz live. I have, however, discovered his music, and am undoubtedly thankful for it. My first encounter was what I'd venture to guess the typical initial experience with Getz. The sweet, breezy sounds of Getz/Gilberto. Since then I have picked up Captain Marvel, Quiet Now and a few others. My most recent purchase being My Foolish Heart, a "live" recording made in the mid-70s and just recently issued for the first time. All I have to say is I'm damn blown away. Getz has never sounded this alive to me before. It's as if I jumped aboard a time machine and was sitting four tables back from the stage. "Invitation" and "Lucifer's Fall" soar and swoop with harmonic dynamics that I've rarely heard in Stan's playing. "Spring Is Here" and "My Foolish Heart" are two gorgeous versions of well-worn standards, so good that the hair on the back of my neck stands up. While that big fat tone is right on the mark, it's forgoes the laid back, west coast tag that's often associated with Getz. It's visceral this time around.

I could only imagine what it would have been like to see this master at work, and this disc goes along way in sparking my imagination.