Wednesday, March 4, 2015

#28: Stan Getz: A Life In Jazz: A Musical Biography

Details: Stan Getz (1927-1991), A Life In Jazz: A Musical Biography.  Verve, 1996 (compilation).Total time: 67:33.

Stan Getz was a saxophonist whose peak was in the 1950s and 1960s although he played before then with big bands and performed up to his death.

Getz's saxophone playing had a smooth singing sound and he experimented with different styles including strings on a much respected 1961 album,  Focus, and later that decade popularized Latin jazz, particularly  bossa nova.

The first track on this compilation is a piece with strings which is quite good. From the bossa nova period there is a great performance of Quiet Nights (more recently recorded by Diana Krall) and other tracks include a nice version of Summertime (unreleased until after his death) and a collaboration with the great Ella Fitzgerald.

This album apparently was a companion to a book, a biography of Getz. Not sure what happened to the book but once again this CD comes from my dad's collection. 



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