Fresh from the sudden success of Jazz Samba and "Desafinado," Stan Getz asked the 28-year-old, strikingly gifted Gary McFarland to arrange a bossa nova album for big band as a follow-up. Getz is always his debonair, wistful, freely-floating self, completely at home in the Brazilian idiom that he'd adopted only a few months before. McFarland usually keeps things nice and spare (although "One Note Samba" is uncharacteristically cluttered and a bit too discordant for the material), letting his pungent voicings stab the air now and then, while allowing the soloists all the room they want within the confines of producer Creed Taylor's tight timings. Four of the eight songs are by McFarland (none of which would become standards), and Getz makes relaxed impressions with "Manha de Carnival" and "Chega de Saudade." Jim Hall takes the role of acoustic guitarist from Charlie Byrd with his usual fluidity…
In one of those fascinating twists that add to the magic of jazz, it was a mild-mannered, non-exotic. Virginia-born wizard of (primarily) the acoustic guitar who spearheaded the early-Sixties onslaught of bossa nova on the music scene of this country. Charlie Byrd, fascinated by this Brazilian music while on a South American tour, became its most ardent advocate here. He first joined with Stan Getz for a trend-setting LP and then moved on to his own big hit with this Riverside album, highlighted by the best-selling, with-strings version of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Meditation."
From the liner notes: Byrd, in this album, has taken a rather wider view in exploring the guitar's possibilities in jazz. His use of finger style on the unamplified Spanish guitar reveals all the delicacy of shade and colour to be wrought from the instrument and the way Byrd infuses a rich jazz flavour into his playing makes really beautiful listening. In the years since this LP was recorded, Byrd has passed through several important phases – he was one of the main contributors to the bossa nova explosion of the early '60ies when he partnered Stan Getz on the million-selling Desafinado – and his musical presence has continued to make itself felt in many diverse areas of music, yet "Blues for Night People" remains the high spot of this recording career. In short, one of the great jazz guitar records of our time.
Tasteful, low-key, and ingratiatingly melodic, Charlie Byrd had two notable accomplishments to his credit applying acoustic classical guitar techniques to jazz and popular music and helping to introduce Brazilian music to mass North American audiences. Born into a musical family, Byrd experienced his first brush with greatness while a teenager in France during World War II, playing with his idol Django Reinhardt. After some postwar gigs with Sol Yaged, Joe Marsala and Freddie Slack, Byrd temporarily abandoned jazz to study classical guitar with Sophocles Papas in 1950 and Andrés Segovia in 1954.
One of the all-time great tenor saxophonists, Stan Getz was known as "The Sound" because he had one of the most beautiful tones ever heard. Getz, whose main early influence was Lester Young, grew to be a major influence himself and to his credit he never stopped evolving. Getz had the opportunity to play in a variety of major swing big bands while a teenager due to the World War II draft.
Tasteful, low-key, and ingratiatingly melodic, Charlie Byrd had two notable accomplishments to his credit applying acoustic classical guitar techniques to jazz and popular music and helping to introduce Brazilian music to mass North American audiences.
German two CD compilation packaged in a digipak with 20 page booklet.
One of the all-time great tenor saxophonists, Stan Getz was known as "The Sound" because he had one of the most beautiful tones ever heard. Getz, whose main early influence was Lester Young, grew to be a major influence himself, and to his credit he never stopped evolving…
One of the all-time great tenor saxophonists, Stan Getz was known as "The Sound" because he had one of the most beautiful tones ever heard. Getz, whose main early influence was Lester Young, grew to be a major influence himself and to his credit he never stopped evolving. Getz had the opportunity to play in a variety of major swing big bands while a teenager due to the World War II draft. He was with Jack Teagarden (1943) when he was just 16, followed by stints with Stan Kenton (1944-1945), Jimmy Dorsey (1945), and Benny Goodman (1945-1946); he soloed on a few records with Goodman.