THE MAN THEY CALLED THE SOUND: Stan Getz - Verve Records - TopicsExpress

THE MAN THEY CALLED THE SOUND: Stan Getz - Verve Records (Chapter I) In describing his love of Lester Young’s playing as “Classical in a warm way”, Stan Getz could just as easily have been describing what made his own playing so appealing to so many. If casual music fans have heard of just one jazz saxophonist, or even musician, it is most likely to be Stan Getz. His playing was rich and varied and always encouraged people to listen, none more so than to his mellifluous playing on the early 1960s albums with a bossa nova beat. He acquired the nickname ‘The Sound’ – it is not difficult to hear why. “There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. they are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence.” – Stan Getz Born Stanley Gayetzky, his family emigrated to the West Philadelphia from Kiev in 1903 to escape the Ukrainian Pogroms; Stan Getz was born in Philadelphia twenty-four years later. His father, in search of employment, moved the family to New York City. Despite working hard at school, young Stan’s attention soon turned to music and he tried out as many instruments as possible – piano, harmonica, bassoon in the school band – and displayed a photographic memory along with an uncanny ability to play tunes by ear and hum Benny Goodman’s solos. Lessons and practise – up to eight hours a day – taught him good sight-reading skills as well as developing his instinctive sense of pitch and rhythm. When Getz was thirteen years old, his father bought him a $35 alto saxophone, and he was soon playing other saxophones and clarinets, but favoured the sound of the tenor saxophone, which he saved up to buy from working a series of jobs and by playing low-paid gigs. In 1941, he entered the All-City High School Orchestra of New York City, which provided a free private tutor from the New York Philharmonic, but his studies began to compete for time with his evening engagements and late night jam sessions. Dropping out of school in 1942, he was hired by bandleader Dick ‘Stinky’ Rogers to play at the Roseland Ballroom for $35 a week, joined the musicians’ union and a year later was offered a place with Jack Teagarden’s band at $70 a week. Encouraged by his father, Getz went on tour, having to become Teagarden’s ward because he was under sixteen years old. However, unlike many other musicians playing with the big bands, it meant that he was too young for the draft, and therefore played with Stan Kenton (1944–1945), Jimmy Dorsey (1945) and Benny Goodman (1945–1946). While he was touring with Kenton, Getz developed a heroin habit – ironically in an attempt to cut down on how much he was drinking. The Pres was a major influence on Getz’s early sound; he was especially fond of Count Basie’s ‘Song Of The Islands’ from 1939. youtube/watch?v=jb2IKbLZsng