Although the world knows, loves, and respects the great John Coltrane, the tenor player they really know in their soul is Stan Getz, who exemplified the truism "Music speaks louder than words." A quiet man whose career spanned the greatest musical innovations in the history of the greatest American art form, Stan Getz never stopped playing, never stopped moving forward, and never, ever, screamed about it. He was a consummate gentleman, a jazz sessionman's preferred band leader, and all heart. The greatest and saddest fact about Stan Getz is that everyone knows him, even if they don't: he was responsible for recording the most famous bossa nova song ever, a song written by Antonio Carlos Jobim that, in 1964, stayed on the top of the American pop charts for
ninety-six weeks, only peaking at No. 2 because another group of popsters named The Beatles owned the No. 1 spot that entire year. That was okay though, because
Getz/Gilberto won a grammy for Best Album, beating
A Hard Day's NightYes folks. The Beatles were as popular as Jesus, and so was Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto, and his lovely wife, Astrud. Joao and Astrud sang the lyrics on a song you all know, even if you don't: "The Girl from Ipanema," a song that is as fresh today as it ever was, a song that never gets old, a song that still makes you want to lay on the beach and look at pretty girls, no matter your sex, and dream of that special crush who never noticed you, never cared, never even knew you were alive. Although Astrud's little-girl voice stole the show, it is Stan Getz' tone - his heart, his soul, coming straight out of his instrument - that anchors that song. Ah, but I'm going to tease you, because before you get that song, you must listen to another track from Getz' bossa years, while I give you a bit more history.Stan was born in 1927 in Philadelphia and his warm tone, a feat that anyone who has tried to pick up a reed instrument and blow into it, hearing breath and squawks coming out of the other end, knows requires an incredible amount of strength and control. Getz always cited Lester Young as his major influence, and later when he had become the in-demand player he was, Getz was known in jazz circles simply as "The Sound." His first gig was playing for Jack Teagarden, and he had his first hit with Woody Herman's band, a track called "Early Autumn."In the 1950s, Getz became a leader and never played for anyone else again. He was a pioneer of the cool jazz movement in the 50s, but he broke away in the 1960s, accusing the cool jazz guys of becoming stale and set in their ways, more interested in getting fixed than pushing their art form, something Getz knew all about. He moved to Denmark to try to clean up in 58, and when he came back in 61, he brought some Brazilian sounds he has picked up with Charlie Byrd on tour, and the bossa nova craze took hold in the U.S. Stan's first bossa hit was Gilberto's "One Note Samba," and it was a huge success. Getz recorded a total of seven bossa nova albums in the sixties. What made the bossa nova sound so popular? In 1984, Getz told Neil Tesser:
They took the traditional samba, which is hot music, and put in the harmonies that we used in cool jazz, and the languid approach we used, and out came the bossa nova.Tesser, in the liner notes to the stellar Verve collection
Getz Plays Jobim, sums up the power of Getz's sound:
His entire career . . . bears eloquent witness to the power of direct communication and expressive simplicity. But even so, the wedding of his unique sound and the simpatico rhythms and melodies of the bossa nova remains something remarkable: a high-water mark of his ability to play to a mass audience without playing down to them.Ladies and gentlemen: what the world needs, every day, is a little more of The Sound of Stan Getz. Coltrane knew it: "After all," John said, "If we could, we'd all sound like Stan Getz."
BiographyJesse Hamlin articleWiki on The Girl from Ipanema
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