Stan Getz Overview

Legendary musicians create standards, open minds, elevate hearts. Stan Getz did all three over the course of his career, bending the world's ears to debonair sax wails and tropical beats. He could play with romantic passion but always managed to keep... [more]

Legendary musicians create standards, open minds, elevate hearts. Stan Getz did all three over the course of his career, bending the world's ears to debonair sax wails and tropical beats. He could play with romantic passion but always managed to keep things smooth. Until the day he died, Stan Getz was the last word in cool. By the age of 15, Getz was working as a professional musician, already sounding his saxophone like he'd been born to play. The brilliant rumblings of his tenor sax got him gigs with big shots like Benny Goodman and Woody Herman's Four Brothers band. During the '40s and '50s, Getz established the suave elegance and light, airy tone that was his trademark. (Lester Young stands as one of Getz's early influences.) But his work truly bloomed in the '60s with the release of "Focus" (1961). Performing songs composed by Eddie Sauter, Getz played sax melodies that seem to float just above the sound of the orchestra. When Getz played, his sound was weightless. Getz soon applied his slick, blue style to the melancholic rhythms of samba. With albums like "Jazz Samba" (1962) and "Big Band Bossa Nova" (1962), Getz created an eternal partnership between American jazz and Brazilian samba. The languid bossa nova more fully brought out the wistfulness in Getz's earlier work; his smooth rendition of "The Girl from Ipanema" remains a bossa nova classic. Rather than stick to bossa nova, however, Getz branched out into more radical jazz as the decades moved on. He retained his trademark floating, but added structural complexity and greater melodic freedom to his playing. (Some critics maintain that Getz intentionally kept his early work light to fit contemporary tastes.) Albums like "Dynasty" (1971) showcase Getz's advanced improvisational skills and betray added soul. Getz's work carried more emotional urgency in his later years. In the '80s, he learned he was dying of cancer and began playing with unprecedented depth. The elongated, communicative solos of "Serenity" (recorded in 1987, just four years before his death) bursts with fiery romanticism. But even through the fire, Getz played it smooth till the end. He made a mark for himself as the man who gave a smooth, tropical sound to modern jazz. Not bad for a guy who just wanted to play the sax. [show less]