Stan Getz (1927-1991) was the inheritor of Lester Young’s saxophone mellowness. (Young is among my top five saxophonists, but so far I’ve been unable to find a good video of him on YouTube.) Getz was also Jewish, and much of his life was addicted to drugs—the occupational hazard of the jazz musician. I suspect that it was this addiction that led to his death from liver cancer, the same malady that killed John Coltrane.
Here are the two of them in a bouncing rendition of “Hackensack” performed live in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1960. The other personnel are the wonderful Oscar Peterson on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums.
There’s a great duo album between Getz and Kenny Baron I used to own (before someone decided the 2CDs were awesome and ‘inherited’ them).
This is fantastic … although I’m placing a prevenient request for Bix Beiderbecke next Thursday.
I second that. I’m really enjoying this theme.
he did trumpets already
There’s a sax player in Chicago, Greg Fishman, who is a real Stan Getz aficionado. He plays almost nothing but Getz arrangements, and has transcribed and published innumerable Getz solos. He plays with Judy Roberts all the time, and is worth checking out.
Unfortunately, my take on Getz is essentially “The Girl From Ipanema”.
I’d have to say you need to listen to Art Pepper as the natural successor to Lester Young.
I love me some Getz, to be sure, but Pepper’s the one with the real pain in every note.
Also, his autobiography is a must-read.
I love Pepper but can’t find any good YouTube stuff on him. My favorite, “But Beautiful,” which is simply one of the greatest sax pieces in jazz history, isn’t on there!
CSB:
Fun story about Getz: he was often getting into fights. He once got into a fight at a bar, got arrested, got bailed out by his manager/agent then went back to the bar to finish the fight.
Getz is ok, but sometimes his super breathy tone gets on my nerves. It’s the same reason I don’t like jazz singers. It just feels too melodramatic and forced.
Coltrane is reported to have said of Getz, “Let’s face it: we’d all sound like that if we could.”
The guy I’m making an album with right now loves Stan Getz. We sampled a Stan Getz song in one of our songs, even.
Whenever drugs are mentioned in the context of great musicians, one always wonders if they would have been as great if they didn’t use.
Christopher Hitchens — a great musician in his own right (of written words), personally testified to the mental “energy” he gains from a stiff drink and cigarettes.
Heroin and marijuana have played similar roles for many popular rock musicians, a case in point being Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, who in my opinion did his most spectacular song-writing while clearly under the influence of opiates.
I don’t believe there is a morality lesson here. Instead, we should simply marvel at the mysteries and complexities of brain function, and accept the fact that some people are willing to try anything, and even sacrifice everything, in the eternal search for artistic immortality.
Maybe some day these crude efforts at “tapping in” to the elusive musical muse in the human brain will become no more dangerous healthwise, than performing a file search on a huge, unexplored hard disk drive.
I expect a complete renaissance in music would occur at that juncture.
Drugs and heartache. I’m sure it’s possible to be a great artist and not be a stereotypically tortured soul, but from my limited experience, it doesn’t seem to be very common.
Maybe this weekend I will write a song while drinking Korean rice wine and looking at pictures of someone who broke my heart.
Prof, there is no lack of Lester Young tunes on Youtube. For video (which I don’t much care about when I’m listening to music) try “Pennies from Heaven”. Short but sweet.
Just saw the date. Coltrane was in Miles Davis’s quintet at the time, and they did a European tour for Norman Granz along with the usual JATP all-star group which this time included OP and Getz.
Apparently Miles didn’t show up for this Dusseldorf gig, which is probably why we have Getz and Peterson playing with 3/5 of the Davis band.
reference