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Stan Getz

American tenor saxophonist known as The Sound, whose warm, lyrical tone ran from the Woody Herman band to the bossa nova albums Jazz Samba and Getz/Gilberto.

Origin
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Years active
1943-1991
Genres
jazz, bebop, cool jazz, bossa nova
Labels
Clef, Norgran, Verve, Columbia
Also known as
Stanley Gayetski

The Sound

Stan Getz was born Stanley Gayetski in Philadelphia on 2 February 1927 and grew up in New York. He was known as The Sound for his warm, lyrical tone on the tenor saxophone, and his idol was Lester Young. He joined Jack Teagarden's band at sixteen. From 1947 to 1949 he was a soloist with Woody Herman's Second Herd, one of the saxophonists known as the Four Brothers. The band's December 1947 recording of Early Autumn carried a notable eight-bar Getz solo, and the tune gave him a hit in 1948.

On his own he played on Johnny Smith's Moonlight in Vermont in 1952, a hit single that DownBeat readers voted the second best jazz record of the year. He signed with Norman Granz that year, and his records for Clef, Norgran and then Verve included Diz and Getz, West Coast Jazz and The Steamer. In 1958 he moved to Copenhagen, where he played at the Club Montmartre with the pianist Jan Johansson and the bassist Oscar Pettiford.

Strings and sambas

Back in the United States in 1961, Getz asked the arranger Eddie Sauter for a suite of original music and recorded Focus with a string orchestra. He later named it his favorite of his own records. Around then the guitarist Charlie Byrd, home from a State Department tour of Brazil, played him bossa nova. They recorded Jazz Samba in Washington on 13 February 1962. It reached number one on the Billboard album chart, and its single Desafinado reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The producer Creed Taylor kept the run going. Big Band Bossa Nova, arranged by Gary McFarland, was recorded in August 1962, and Jazz Samba Encore!, with the Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfá, followed in 1963 and sold more than a million copies by 1964. The Guardian's John Fordham credited the Jazz Samba sound to soft textures and an unobtrusive feel, with Getz's tone as seductive as a whisper.

Getz/Gilberto

On 18 and 19 March 1963 Getz went into A & R Studios in New York with the guitarist and singer João Gilberto and the composer and pianist Antônio Carlos Jobim. Gilberto's wife Astrud, who had not recorded before, sang the English lyrics on The Girl from Ipanema and Corcovado. The two leaders often disagreed about which take was best and left the choice to Taylor. Verve held the tapes for about a year, and Getz/Gilberto came out in March 1964.

The single reached number five in the United States, and the album climbed to number two. It won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1965, the first non-American album to do so. In 2004 the Library of Congress added the song to the National Recording Registry. Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die lists both Jazz Samba and Getz/Gilberto.

Later years

Getz kept a working quartet through the mid-1960s with the vibraphonist Gary Burton, and Getz Au Go Go was recorded live at the Cafe Au Go Go in New York with Astrud Gilberto. In June 1970 he hired the Hammond organist Eddy Louiss, the guitarist René Thomas and the drummer Bernard Lubat, and they recorded Dynasty live at Ronnie Scott's in London in March 1971. In 1972 he made Captain Marvel with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Airto Moreira and Tony Williams, though it came out only in 1975.

In the mid-1980s he worked in the San Francisco Bay area and taught at the Stanford Jazz Workshop until 1988. DownBeat inducted him into its Jazz Hall of Fame in 1986, and in 1988 he played the extended solo on the title track of Huey Lewis and the News' Small World. In March 1991 he recorded with the pianist Kenny Barron at the Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen, music issued as People Time. He died on 6 June 1991.

Records

Songs

Charlie Byrd, João Gilberto, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Astrud Gilberto, Chick Corea

Where to go next

Reference

  • Stan Getz A biography with a list of books and awards.
  • Jazz Samba Track listing, personnel and chart positions.
  • Getz/Gilberto Background, recording, track listing and awards.

Discography and data

  • People Time The March 1991 Copenhagen duets with Kenny Barron.

Writing and criticism

Live performance archives

Sources

  1. Stan Getz, Wikipedia
  2. Getz/Gilberto, Pitchfork (2025-10-19)
  3. Blame It on the Bossa Nova: Jazz Samba's 50th Birthday, HuffPost (2012-04-17)
  4. 50 great moments in jazz: Stan Getz's Jazz Samba, The Guardian (2010-08-17)
  5. Focus (Stan Getz album), Wikipedia
  6. Swiss Radio Days review, The Guardian (2012-08-23)
  7. People Time, Wikipedia