Stan Getz

In November 1961, tenor sax titan Stan Getz was leading one of his best yet shortest-lived lineups, with pianist Steve Kuhn, bassist John Neves, and drummer Roy Haynes. The previously unreleased Getz at the Gate showcases this group at peak power on the bandstand. In sound quality, it far exceeds Live at Birdland 1961, which captures nearly the same band (with Jimmy Garrison on bass) on many of the same tunes, earlier in the same month.

Stan Getz - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (2012) {8CD Set, Columbia–Legacy88697880582 rec 1972-1979}
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© 1972-79, 2011 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | 88697880582
Jazz / Cool / Post Bop / Fusion / Saxophone

This wonderful set includes the albums he recorded for Columbia Records between 1972 and 1979 (most of which he produced himself), as well as the soundtrack LP to a Dutch film called Forest Eyes from 1979, and a bonus disc of Getz at Carnegie Hall for the 40th anniversary of the Woody Herman band that also includes live sets from the 1977 Montreux Jazz and the 1979 Havana Jam festivals. It's beautifully packaged, and Getz is Getz throughout.

Tenor saxophonist Stan Getz's neo-big band album Apasionado has been consigned to minor league status since its original release in 1990. It does, indeed, look unpromising: recorded in fall 1989, when Getz was undergoing treatment for the cancer which would kill him less than two years later; with a pair of synthesizers replicating a string section; and with the commercially astute but MOR focused Herb Alpert producing. But 20 years on and rereleased, Apasionado rises way above expectations. Getz is in soaring form, commanding attention so completely that the ersatz strings, and Alpert's slight arrangements, become irrelevant, barely emerging from the distant background where they belong. Apasionado, despite the received wisdom, is actually a very fine Getz album. The album's structure was modeled, in large part, on Getz's masterpiece Focus (Verve, 1961), on which the saxophonist improvised, with practically no rehearsal and without prewritten melodies, over a suite played by a string orchestra arranged by Eddie Sauter.

Stan Getz was such a consistent performer and had such a beautiful tone that nearly all of his recordings are well worth getting. The two radio appearances heard on this 1997 CD are even on a higher level than normal. Joined by pianist Kenny Barron, either Ray Drummond or Yashuito Mori on bass, and drummer Ben Riley, Getz is heard at the peak of his powers on a pair of obscurities (Kenny Barron's "Feijada" and Gigi Gryce's "Stan's Blues") and six numbers (including "Voyage," "Blood Count" and "Warm Valley") that he recorded numerous times. To hear Getz adding even more beauty to Mal Waldron's already gorgeous "Soul Eyes" is a memorable experience.

This 10 CD box contains around 500 minutes of recordings featuring Stan Getz from between 1946 and 1957. Most of those were originally released under his own name, but there is also stuff lead by (or cooperations with) Terry Gibbs, Al Haig, Jimmy Raney, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Oscar Peterson and J. J. Johnson. After browsing some of the albums included here, it's safe to say that there are quite a few recordings that were most probably not released on CD before. Unlike most other documents wallet boxes this one comes with band names, recording locations and recording dates for all tracks.

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.