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Stan Getz - Your Favorite Albums


Guest bluenote82

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My favorite Stan Getz albums are:

1) Whatever is now available to cover his work in 1950-52 with Jimmy Raney, Tommy Potter, Roy Haynes and Al Haig or Horace Silver. (I have this on vinyl).

2) East of the Sun/West Coast Sessions (Verve). 1955-56 sessions with Lou Levy, Leroy Vinnegar, Conte Candoli and Shelly Manne or Stan Levey.

3) Stan Getz and J. J. Johnson at the Opera House (Verve). 1957 session with the Oscar Peterson trio and Connie Kay in which everyone blows up a storm!

Edited by BillF
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I like earlier Getz, but still prefer the later recordings. My favorites include Spring is Here, Yours and Mine (Glasgow '89), Serenity, and Live in Paris (New Morning, 1981).

Yep.

REALLY like Captain Marvel, after years of preferring Sweet Rain and finding the later album a little "corny" (mostly all because of Getz' playing). Now, my opinion has reversed, Sweet Rain has a little kernelized patina on it these days. Sure didn't see that one coming... But Belden's idiosyncratic choice to dry the Columbia side up/out really lifted the music out for me, and now, WHOA!

The later (i.e. - the final few years) sides, I think are just beyond beauty. Not often do you get to hear somebody confront death (and life) at such length and so majestically and poetically and....triumphantly. There's a depth of soul there that very few artists, even Getz himself earlier on, get to in their life. The ones that do are blessed far beyond the norm, as are we with whom they share.

Getz, perhaps against all odds (or not...) was one of them.

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For me it's those Roost sessions with Al Haig and co. (as BillF mentioned), they summ up everything that a tenor player should have --- a heart full of swing and a head full of bop --- as someone famously said (can't remember who though!)

Next up it's The Steamer with Lou Levy and Stan Levey --- great band, swinging like mad.

I obviously love the Gilberto stuff and Jazz Samba Encore is one I keep going back to.

Although I like his later Concord and Emarcy discs, I haven't grown to love them.

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For me it's those Roost sessions with Al Haig and co. (as BillF mentioned), they summ up everything that a tenor player should have --- a heart full of swing and a head full of bop --- as someone famously said (can't remember who though!)

Next up it's The Steamer with Lou Levy and Stan Levey --- great band, swinging like mad.

I obviously love the Gilberto stuff and Jazz Samba Encore is one I keep going back to.

Although I like his later Concord and Emarcy discs, I haven't grown to love them.

Incidentally, as well as agreeing on the Haig and co. sessions, I'm also with you on The Steamer, which is part of the 3CD set which I name as item no. 2.

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Wow. Getz is someone I really like but don't really think that much in terms of "albums."

I was thinking along the same lines. Getz is someone I like a lot and his work is so routinely excellent that I don't think of him in terms of "albums" but more as an artist whose body of work is outstanding and one I enjoy in all phases of his career. I could reach into my Getz collection blindfolded and would be happy listening to whatever I might happen to choose. I think the ones I've played the most are Stan Getz Plays or the (3-CD) East Of The Sun: The West Coast Sessions. I'd have a real hard time picking my favorites among his 80's Concord and Emarcy sessions. They're all excellent.

Edited by mikelz777
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There's one Stan Getz track that will always be my favorite, and it has almost nothing to do with his main body of work. As a progressive rock fan in the seventies just beginning to explore jazz, I heard the title track to Another World on Columbia. In a blindfold test I did, many people mistook it for John Klemmer, because it was solo saxophone with a digital delay creating unusual effects. (JSngry nailed it). Getz tried it out as a lark and enough people recognized its beauty that it did get released. It's astonishing, other-worldly. It carries the competent plus "smooth" acoustic jazz with tiny synthesizer enhancements along for the ride. I like the album, but the title track is the killer.

Second choice would be the Live at Montmartre album he did with Joanne Brackeen around that time. It was initially on Inner City in the US, CD issued later by Steeplechase.

If it's a tenor, and I think it's an alto, it's often Stan Getz. If it's an alto, and I think it's a tenor, it's often Jackie McLean.

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I think this was my first Getz record and it's still a favourite. With Joanne Brackeen on both electric and acoustic piano. 4 sides of long, stretched out playing. Great versions of 'Lush Life' and 'Infant Eyes'.

Edit: Sorry! Just noticed this got mentioned in the last couple of posts!

Edited by Bev Stapleton
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One of my favorites, sadly not in print in the U.S. now, is "The Soft Swing," though it may be available in MP3 form. Unbelievably relaxed and lyrical, and Stan, while typically lyrical of course, wasn't always that rhythmically relaxed IMO. I'm also very fond of "Hamp and Getz," a very excited and exciting record all around. A celebrated one that I find a bit hard to take is "Focus." Have no problem with Sauter's writing for strings; it's that Stan was into his "moo-ing"/"oy-vey" bag at the time.

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One of my favorites, sadly not in print in the U.S. now, is "The Soft Swing," though it may be available in MP3 form. Unbelievably relaxed and lyrical, and Stan, while typically lyrical of course, wasn't always that rhythmically relaxed IMO. I'm also very fond of "Hamp and Getz," a very excited and exciting record all around. A celebrated one that I find a bit hard to take is "Focus." Have no problem with Sauter's writing for strings; it's that Stan was into his "moo-ing"/"oy-vey" bag at the time.

The Soft Swing was available on CD from Japan in mini-CD format recently.

I have it.

Don't know if it's still available.

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diz & getz was one of my first jazz albums!

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:wub:

Just recently picked that one up and it smokes! Diz & Getz both playing their asses off!

Getz/Gilberto will always be my favorite. But those "West Coast" albums (West Coast Jazz, The Steamer, and Award Winner) are not far behind. What a killer band on those albums, with Getz defining cool heat with his playing. Smooth, but in a good way. It's a pity Conte Candoli is only on the one album, but it's better than nothing.

I also really dig Getz's work with Johnny Smith.

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A third vote for Getz and Diz! Back when I was first getting into jazz I picked up a two disc best of Stan Getz collection, and their version of "It Don't Mean A Thing" taken at an insane pace was one of the first jazz pieces to blow my mind. I've since mellowed on Getz considerably after discovering a lot more jazz, but that Diz and Getz album still gets a lot of plays.

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