Stan Getz Music

Stan Getz, who died about nine years ago, continues to be amazingly prolific!

Verve has triumphed yet again digging another West Coast Jazz Classic out of the vaults and cleaning it up with a 20-bit remix.

Sparkling, complex, mostly up-tempo arrangements. This late 50's CD sounds a lot like Stan's 80's work. Best tunes include "Smiles" (there are smiles that make you happy...), "Where or When".

Similar to "West Coast Jazz" and "The Steamer". Jazz's greatest saxophonist may be gone, but his legacy continues to astonish. Stan Levy, Getz drummer on this date is quoted as saying "He (Stan) had no limits; he could play anything. The horn was an extention of his head. There were no barriers, the music just came out".

So come hear Jazz's most beautiful sax sounds come pouring out of him like a bubbling happy waterfall. Warm, and up-beat. For best results, listen on vacuum tube equipment, as it was originally recorded.

by MY rating system, a clear Three & 1/2 stars, maybe four! END

Verve deserves high praise for this superb production: It is a model of what a re-release should look and--especially--sound like. The remastering of the songs (from a 1957 Getz quarter, including Leroy Vinnegar on bass, Stan Levey on drums, and Lou Levy on piano) is just right, neither over polished and cold nor timid. The photos, liner notes, commentary and alternate takes all enhance the enjoyment of the CD.

This is the pre-bossa nova Getz, and he's simply magnificentjust here: His beautifully resonant sax is smooth and lyrical, as expected, but hits the deeper shades of the spectrum as well. Excellent accompaniment by all, especially Lou Levy on piano. An all-around excellent production; you'll love this CD.

You get what you pay for with this inexpensive LaserLight set. For a jazz novice interested in a bargain, this might be worth buying, since none of the recordings are awful, and they span a range from the late 50s to (I assume) sometime in the 70s. Likewise for Getzophiles, this might be worthwhile to flesh out your collection, though be forewarned that the liner notes, especially for time and place of recording, are pitifully lacking. Disc 1 ("The Song is You") was recorded live in Europe with Stanley Cowell (p), Miroslav Vitous (b) and Jack DeJohnette (d). Typical late sixties drumming and piano styles. If you dig DeJohnette, this might be one to try. Disc 2 ("...with European Friends") sadly doesn't list who those friends are, and was recorded in 1958/1959. Disc 3 was recorded with several different European orchestras, and includes some nice tunes as well as a stinker or two with cheesy organ and pseudo-disco flavoring to at least one song. All in all, I sorta wish I had my $14 back, but with each listen I find a bit more to appreciate.

What is going on in the lowlands? This is the second of 2 recordings I have heard which feature great saxophonists in front of a Danish orchestral big band (the other being Ronnie Cuber's "Love For Sale"), and both of them are so cheesey they'd give Wallace & Gromit lactose intolerance. Stan Getz plays with his typical late-period eloquence and assuredness, and occasionally manages to lift the level of this music to acceptable. Most of the time, however, he is bogged down behind a barrage of synthesizers and violins that simply offend the senses. For those Getz completists out there, knock yourself out. Everybody else - run far, far away.