"Long Island Sound" finds Getz in a stronger mood, playing decisively in mid-register and improvising nicely on a tune that seems to be a first cousin to "Zing Go the Strings of My Heart." He brings the same satisfying approach to "Mar-CIA," which sounds very much like "When Your Lover Has Gone." Stan Getz Plays Verve Records, 1954 Getz goes to work on more jazz standards in this collection, recorded in 19. Some will hear quiet introspection in this piece, while others will hear musical doodling. In "You Stepped Out of a Dream," played in a very high register, Getz's tone is almost wispy, as though he's barely breathing into the horn. In "What's New?," he manages to stay fresh for six consecutive choruses, with no break for a piano solo. In some of these tracks, Getz shows that he's already a master improviser, creating new melodic lines on the fly and sustaining the inventiveness for chorus after chorus. But there's more than just that special Getz sound on display here. Stan Getz Quartets Original Jazz Classics, 1950 In this album of mainly jazz standards, recorded in 19, the 22 year old Getz demonstrates the light approach and velvety tone that he would return to for the rest of his career. ![]() In roughly chronological order, here are ten to explore. His final recordings had a heartbreaking simplicity, as though he were saying, "This is how it should have been all along." Stan Getz recorded over 150 albums in a span of four decades. Most importantly, he came back to his original focus on melody, which had been the core of his identity as a musician. After two decades of recording and performing, was he worried about being considered a dinosaur of the cool jazz era? In an effort to stay current, was he incorporating the aggressive musical approach of John Coltrane and other newly popular tenor sax players? Whatever might have driven him to the avant-garde, Getz eventually returned to playing straight-ahead jazz, with straight-ahead rhythm sections. This seems to have been a restless period for Getz. He tried other jazz genres, including jazz-rock fusion, and played with like-minded musicians who encouraged his experimentation. In the post-bossa nova period, Getz's playing took on a somewhat harder edgeno longer unrelievedly mellow, with less reliance on melodic improvisation, more on pyrotechnical display. Getz seems truly inspired by these Brazilian composers and musicians, and they bring out in him an open display of passion that's antithetical to "cool." Depending on where your own passions lie, you may find the best of the bossa nova albums among the best of Getz's career. His bossa nova albums were immensely popular "crossover" hits (huge sales, two gold discs, four Grammys), but that doesn't detract from the artistic value of these recordings. In the early 1960's, Getz became a leading light in the bossa nova movement, a blending of American jazz with Brazilian rhythms and sensibilities. ![]() The rhythm section is supportive but discrete, never intrusive. There's a lightness, a gentleness, even in the up-tempo numbers. They're mainly improvisations on jazz standards, in which he concentrates on melody, on weaving countless variants on familiar themes. Getz's early recordings, largely from the 1950s, are lyrical, beautifully simple. Eliot described this kind of personal journey in his "Four Quartets": "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." He could have been describing the arc of Getz's career. His music changed and changed and changed again over the years, until, near the end of his life, he came nearly full circle. And with the remarkable sales of his Grammy-winning bossa nova albums, he achieved a level of commercial success seldom experienced by jazz musicians. Getz's warm, pure tone, and the lightness of his touch, set him apart early. After honing his skills with the Stan Kenton and Woody Herman bands, it didn't take long for him to achieve fame as a tenor sax phenomenon. Getz had a long and remarkably successful career, stretching from the very early 1950s to 1991, the year he died. He became the musical role model for Getz and a generation of tenor sax players who aspired to coolness. And this approach didn't end with Lester. There was emotion, of course, but it was kept under wraps. 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. ![]() Their sound was full, rich, deep, blown hard out of the instrument's lower registers, with emotion pouring out in lavish swoops and honks. Before Young, tenor sax players seemed awash in testosterone. The story of Stan Getz (1927-1991) has to begin with Lester Young.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |