Stanley Getz (February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
saxophonist
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ...
. Playing primarily the
tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...
, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol,
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist.
Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most ...
. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his dea ...
's big band, Getz is described by critic
Scott Yanow as "one of the all-time great tenor saxophonists".
Getz performed in
bebop
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...
and
cool jazz
Cool jazz is a style of modern jazz music that arose in the United States after World War II. It is characterized by relaxed tempos and lighter tone, in contrast to the fast and complex bebop style. Cool jazz often employs formal arrangements an ...
groups. Influenced by
João Gilberto
João Gilberto (born João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira – ; 10 June 1931 – 6 July 2019) was a Brazilian guitarist, singer and composer who was a pioneer of the musical genre of bossa nova in the late 1950s. Around the world, he was of ...
and
Antônio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (25 January 1927 – 8 December 1994), also known as Tom Jobim (), was a Brazilian composer, pianist, guitarist, songwriter, arranger, and singer. Considered one of the great exponents of Brazilian mu ...
, he also helped popularize
bossa nova in the United States with the hit 1964 single "
The Girl from Ipanema
"Garota de Ipanema" ("The Girl from Ipanema") is a Brazilian bossa nova and jazz song. It was a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s and won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Por ...
".
Early life
Stan Getz was born on February 2, 1927, at St. Vincent's Hospital in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States.
Getz's father Alexander ("Al") was a
Ukrainian Jewish
The history of the Jews in Ukraine dates back over a thousand years; Jewish communities have existed in the territory of Ukraine from the time of the Kievan Rus' (late 9th to mid-13th century). Some of the most important Jewish religious and ...
immigrant who was born in
Mile End
Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...
, London, in 1904, while his mother Goldie (née Yampolsky) was born in Philadelphia in 1907. His paternal grandparents Harris and Beckie Gayetski were originally from
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Kyi ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
but had migrated to escape the anti-
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
pogroms to
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...
, in the
East End of London. While in England they owned the Harris Tailor Shop at 52
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and ...
for more than 13 years. In 1913, Harris and Beckie emigrated to the United States with their three sons Al, Phil, and Ben, following their son Louis Gayetski who had emigrated to the US the year before. Getz's original family name, "Gayetski", was changed to Getz upon arrival in America.
The Getz family first settled in Philadelphia, but during the
Great Depression the family moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, seeking better employment opportunities. Getz worked hard in school, receiving straight A's, and finished sixth grade close to the top of his class. Getz's major interest was in musical instruments and he played a number of them before his father bought him his first saxophone, a $35
alto saxophone, when he was 13. Even though his father also got him a clarinet, Getz instantly fell in love with the saxophone and began practicing eight hours a day. According to Getz, he only had about six months of lessons and never studied
music theory or
harmony.
Getz attended
James Monroe High School in
the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
. In 1941, he was accepted into the All-City High School Orchestra of New York City. This gave him a chance to receive private, free tutoring from the New York Philharmonic's
Simon Kovar
Simon Kovar (May 15, 1890 – January 17, 1970) was a 20th-century bassoonist and one of the most renowned teachers of the instrument.
Simon Kovar was born Simon Kovarski in Vilnius, Russian Empire, in 1890. He took up the bassoon at age 20 afte ...
, a
bassoon player. He also continued playing the saxophone. He eventually dropped out of school in order to pursue his musical career but was later sent back to the classroom by the school system's truancy officers.
Career
Beginnings
In 1943, at the age of 16,
[Pbs.org](_blank)
"Oxford University Press" PBS – ''Jazz'' – A film By Ken Burns he joined
Jack Teagarden's band and, because of his youth, he became Teagarden's ward.
Getz also played along with
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...
and
Lionel Hampton. A period based in Los Angeles with
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though K ...
was brief. Following a comment from Kenton that his main influence,
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist.
Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most ...
, was too simple, he quit.
After performing with
Jimmy Dorsey
James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards " I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary Peop ...
, and
Benny Goodman, Getz was a soloist with
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his dea ...
from 1947 to 1949
in "The Second Herd", and he first gained wide attention as one of the band's saxophonists, who were known collectively as "
The Four Brothers"; the others being
Serge Chaloff
Serge Chaloff (November 24, 1923 – July 16, 1957) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist. The first and greatest bebop baritonist, Chaloff has been described as 'the most expressive and openly emotive baritone saxophonist jazz has ever ...
,
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...
and
Herbie Steward
Herbert Bickford "Herbie" Steward (May 7, 1926 Los Angeles, California, United States – August 9, 2003 Clearlake, California) was an American jazz saxophonist. He was widely known for being one of the tenor saxophone players in Four Brother ...
.
With Herman, he had a hit with "
Early Autumn" in 1948.
After Getz left "The Second Herd", he was able to launch his solo career.
Horace Silver
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s.
After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sc ...
's trio was heard by Getz as the guest soloist at the Club Sundown in
Hartford
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...
, Connecticut, in 1950, and he hired them for touring gigs, gaining Silver his earliest national exposure. For an unknown period, Silver was not paid by Getz, who was using the money due the pianist to buy heroin. Silver finally left in June 1952. In the same period, Getz performed with pianists
Al Haig
Alan Warren Haig (July 19, 1922 – November 16, 1982) was an American jazz pianist, best known as one of the pioneers of bebop.
Biography
Haig was born in Newark, New Jersey and raised in nearby Nutley. In 1940, he majored in piano at Obe ...
and
Duke Jordan
Irving Sidney "Duke" Jordan (April 1, 1922 – August 8, 2006) was an American jazz pianist.
Biography
Jordan was born in New York and raised in Brooklyn where he attended Boys High School. An imaginative and gifted pianist, Jordan was a regul ...
and drummers
Roy Haynes
Roy Owen Haynes (born March 13, 1925) is an American jazz drummer. He is among the most recorded drummers in jazz. In a career lasting over 80 years, he has played swing, bebop, jazz fusion, avant-garde jazz and is considered a pioneer of jaz ...
and
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He work ...
, as well as bassist
Tommy Potter
Charles Thomas Potter (September 21, 1918 – March 1, 1988) was an American jazz double bass player, best known for having been a member of Charlie Parker's "classic quintet", with Miles Davis, between 1947 and 1950.
Born in Philadelphia, Penn ...
, all of whom had worked with Charlie Parker. Guitarists
Jimmy Raney
James Elbert Raney (August 20, 1927 – May 10, 1995) was an American jazz guitarist, born in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, known for his work from 1951 to 1952 and then from 1953 to 1954 with the Red Norvo trio (replacing Tal Farlow) and ...
and
Johnny Smith were also associated with the saxophonist in this period. His profile was enhanced by his featured performance on Johnny Smith's version of the song "
Moonlight in Vermont", recorded in 1952, which became a hit single and stayed on the charts for months. A ''
DownBeat'' readers' poll voted the single as the second best jazz record of 1952. The later album ''
Moonlight in Vermont'', reconfigured from two 10 inch LPs for a 12-inch release, was issued in 1956.
A 1953 line-up of the
Dizzy Gillespie/Stan Getz Sextet featured Gillespie, Getz,
Oscar Peterson,
Herb Ellis,
Ray Brown and
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He work ...
.
He moved to Copenhagen, Denmark in 1958.
Here he performed with pianist
Jan Johansson and bassist
Oscar Pettiford
Oscar Pettiford (September 30, 1922 – September 8, 1960) was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer. He was one of the earliest musicians to work in the bebop idiom.
Biography
Pettiford was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, United ...
, among others, at the
Club Montmartre.
Return to United States
Returning to the U.S. from Europe in 1961, Getz recorded the album ''
Focus
Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to:
Arts
* Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film
*''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore
* ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...
'' with arrangements by
Eddie Sauter, who created a strings backing for the saxophonist. In a March 2021 article for the
All About Jazz
''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...
website, Chris May wrote of it as "one of the great masterpieces of mid-twentieth century jazz" and compared it to the work of
Béla Bartók.
Getz became involved in introducing
bossa nova music to the American audience.
Teaming with guitarist
Charlie Byrd, who had just returned from a
U.S. State Department tour of Brazil, Getz recorded ''
Jazz Samba'' in 1962. Getz won the
Grammy for Best Jazz Performance of 1963 for his cover of
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular ma ...
's "
Desafinado
"Desafinado" (a Portuguese word, usually rendered into English as "Out of Tune", or as "Off Key") is a 1959 bossa nova song and jazz standard composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim with lyrics (in Portuguese) by Newton Mendonça.
Background
"Desafin ...
", from ''Jazz Samba''. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a
gold disc
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
.
His second bossa nova album, also recorded in 1962, was ''
Big Band Bossa Nova'' with composer and arranger
Gary McFarland
Gary Robert McFarland (October 23, 1933 – November 3, 1971) was an American composer, arranger, vibraphonist and vocalist. He recorded for the jazz imprints Verve and Impulse! Records during the 1960s. '' Down Beat magazine'' said he made "on ...
. As a follow-up, Getz recorded the album, ''
Jazz Samba Encore!'', with one of the originators of bossa nova, Brazilian guitarist
Luiz Bonfá
Luiz Floriano Bonfá (17 October 1922 – 12 January 2001) was a Brazilian guitarist and composer. He was best known for the music he composed for the film ''Black Orpheus''.
Biography
Luiz Floriano Bonfá was born on October 17, 1922, in ...
. It also sold more than a million copies by 1964, giving Getz his second gold disc.
He then recorded the album ''
Getz/Gilberto
''Getz/Gilberto'' is an album by American saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto, featuring pianist and composer Antônio Carlos Jobim (Tom Jobim), who also composed many of the tracks. It was released in March 1964 by Verv ...
'', in 1963,
[page 208 of "italic" The Latin Beat "italic" by Ed Morales] with
Antônio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (25 January 1927 – 8 December 1994), also known as Tom Jobim (), was a Brazilian composer, pianist, guitarist, songwriter, arranger, and singer. Considered one of the great exponents of Brazilian mu ...
,
João Gilberto
João Gilberto (born João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira – ; 10 June 1931 – 6 July 2019) was a Brazilian guitarist, singer and composer who was a pioneer of the musical genre of bossa nova in the late 1950s. Around the world, he was of ...
and his wife,
Astrud Gilberto. Their recording of "
The Girl from Ipanema
"Garota de Ipanema" ("The Girl from Ipanema") is a Brazilian bossa nova and jazz song. It was a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s and won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Por ...
" won a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...
. ''Getz/Gilberto'' won two Grammys (Best Album and Best Single). A live album, ''
Getz/Gilberto Vol. 2'', followed, as did ''
Getz Au Go Go'' (1964), a live recording at the
Cafe au Go Go
The Cafe Au Go Go was a Greenwich Village night club located in the basement of the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre building in the late 1960s, and located at 152 Bleecker Street in Manhattan, New York City. The club featured many musical groups, f ...
. While still working with the Gilbertos, he recorded the jazz album ''
Nobody Else But Me'' (1964), with a new quartet including
vibraphonist
The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...
Gary Burton
Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be he ...
, but
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Founded in 1956 by Norman Granz, the label is home to the world's largest jazz catalogue, which includes recordings by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simon ...
, wishing to continue building the Getz brand with bossa nova, refused to release it. It came out 30 years later, after Getz had died.
Later career
In 1972, Getz recorded the jazz fusion album ''
Captain Marvel'' with
Chick Corea,
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist, film composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first ja ...
and
Tony Williams, and in this period experimented with an
Echoplex
The Echoplex is a tape delay effect, first made in 1959. Designed by Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s—it is still regarded as "the standard by which everything else is measured." It was used by some of the ...
on his saxophone. He had a cameo in the film ''
The Exterminator
''The Exterminator'' is a 1980 American vigilante action film written and directed by James Glickenhaus. It stars Robert Ginty as Vietnam War veteran John Eastland, also known as "The Exterminator". When a group of thugs paralyze his friend, Ea ...
'' (1980).
In the mid-1980s, Getz worked regularly in the San Francisco Bay area and taught at
Stanford University as an artist-in-residence at the
Stanford Jazz Workshop
Stanford Jazz Workshop (SJW) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to jazz education and the annual concert series known as the Stanford Jazz Festival.
SJW was founded in 1972 by saxophonist and educator Jim Nadel. Though many of its activities a ...
until 1988. In 1986, he was inducted into the ''
DownBeat'' Jazz Hall of Fame. During 1988, Getz worked with
Huey Lewis and the News on their ''
Small World'' album. He played the extended solo on part 2 of the title track, which became a minor hit single.
His tenor saxophone of choice was the
Selmer Mark VI.
Personal life
Getz married Beverly Byrne, a vocalist with the
Gene Krupa
Eugene Bertram Krupa (January 15, 1909 – October 16, 1973), known as Gene Krupa, was an American jazz drummer, bandleader and composer who performed with energy and showmanship. His drum solo on Benny Goodman's 1937 recording of " Sing, Sing, ...
band, on November 7, 1946, in Los Angeles; the couple had three children, Steve, David and Beverly. As a teenager, Getz had become involved with drugs and alcohol. In 1954, he was arrested for attempting to rob a pharmacy for
morphine
Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a pain medication, and is also commonly used recreationally, or to make other illicit opioids. T ...
. As he was being processed in the prison ward of
Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center
Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, also known as County/USC, or by the abbreviation LAC+USC (and sometimes still referred to by its former name Los Angeles County General), is a 600-bed public teaching hospital located at 2051 Marengo Street in ...
, Beverly gave birth to their third child one floor below.
Getz was divorced from Byrne in Mexico in 1956, after which, due to Byrne's own addictions, she was unable to take care of the children. Eventually, the children were rescued and awarded by the Court to Getz's second wife, Monica Silfverskiöld, daughter of Swedish physician and former Olympic medalist
Nils Silfverskiöld and Swedish Countess
Mary von Rosen. Monica had insisted on raising the family together, as the children had been divided among family members, and eventually, they raised five children: Steven, David, Beverley, Pamela, and Nicolaus, the last two of which were from their own marriage. The couple lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, partly to escape the prevalence of drugs in America at the time. Monica would also become Stan's manager and a major influence in his life.
In 1962, Monica returned with the family to Sweden after having discovered Stan's recurring addictions. During the following period, as he was trying to persuade her to come back, he sent her two test pressings, one of which, ''Jazz Samba'' with
Charlie Byrd, was pivotal to her plans for the next record, ''Getz/Gilberto''. However, Getz's association with Byrd soured, due to a lawsuit initiated by Byrd.
After Getz promised to stay clean and sober, Monica returned from Sweden with the family. On November 21, 1962, Brazil sent scores of musicians to
Carnegie Hall as a result of the
bossa nova craze created by ''Jazz Samba''. After being told by Gilberto and Jobim that Getz had been an invisible partner in their creating of the Bossa Nova by superimposing Getz's Jazz harmonies and sound on the old Samba, Monica suggested a unification of the three.
Jobim and
Gilberto reacted with deference and enthusiasm. Getz was reluctant, at first, as he had heard the two were "difficult." Getz had reportedly said that he was convinced, when Monica retorted, "Well, don't ''you'' have a reputation for being difficult?" They would become very close friends during the recording of ''Getz/Gilberto'', and Gilberto would even move in with the Getzes, occasionally joined by the children of his own two marriages and his second wife,
Miúcha
Heloísa Maria Buarque de Hollanda (30 November 1937 – 27 December 2018), whose artistic name was Miúcha, was a Brazilian singer and composer.
Life and career
Heloisa Maria Buarque de Hollanda was born in Rio de Janeiro. She was the daughter ...
.
In the early 1980s, Getz again relapsed into his addictions, resulting in an arrest with an illegal gun in the home with Monica and some of the children. This resulted in an
Order of Protection, issued in her favor, which contained a clause that Getz must be sober to be allowed into the house and an
Order he go to treatment. As a countermove, Getz filed for divorce from Monica in 1981,
but the couple reconciled at his insistence in 1982 and signed a Reconciliation Agreement, in which they agreed to jointly buy a house they found in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. Soon after, however, Getz relapsed. After a second illegal gun/cocaine incident, Monica returned to their New York home. At this time, she discovered the need for the courts to learn about addictions and founded the National Coalition for Family Justice in 1988, around the time a divorce was finalized. In 1990, Monica Getz petitioned the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
to have their divorce verdict overturned, although they declined.
His ultimately terminal cancer was diagnosed in 1987; he died in June 1991.
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...
, who had known Getz since their time with Herman, once described him as "a nice bunch of guys", an allusion to his unpredictable personality.
Bob Brookmeyer
Robert Edward "Bob" Brookmeyer (December 19, 1929 – December 15, 2011) was an American jazz valve trombonist, pianist, arranger, and composer. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Brookmeyer first gained widespread public attention as a member of G ...
, another performing colleague, responded to speculation Getz had a heart operation with a query: “Did they put one in?”
Death
Getz died of
liver cancer on June 6, 1991. His ashes were poured from his saxophone case six miles off the coast of
Marina del Rey, California.
In 1998, the Stan Getz Media Center and Library at
Berklee College of Music was dedicated through a donation from the
Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the ...
Foundation.
Discography
Awards
* Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Soloist or Small Group (Instrumental) "Desafinado", 1962
* Grammy Award for Record of the Year, "The Girl from Ipanema", 1964
* Grammy Award for Album of the Year, ''Getz/Gilberto'', Stan Getz and João Gilberto (Verve) 1964
* Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Small Group or Soloist With Small Group, ''Getz/Gilberto'', Stan Getz 1964
* Grammy Award for Best Jazz Solo Performance, "I Remember You", 1991
Bibliography
*Astrup, Arne. ''The Stan Getz Discography'', 1978.
*Churchill, Nicholas. ''Stan Getz: An Annotated Bibliography and Filmography'', 2005.
*
Gelly, Dave. ''Stan Getz: Nobody Else But Me'', 2002.
*Kirkpatrick, Ron. ''Stan Getz: An Appreciation of His Recorded Work'', 1992.
*
*Palmer, Richard. ''Stan Getz'', 1988.
*Taylor, Dennis. ''Jazz Saxophone: An In-depth Look at the Styles of the Tenor Masters'', 2004.
References
External links
*
1986 InterviewGetz discography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Getz, Stan
1927 births
1991 deaths
American jazz saxophonists
American male saxophonists
Cool jazz saxophonists
Crossover jazz saxophonists
Hard bop saxophonists
Bebop saxophonists
Jazz fusion saxophonists
Jazz tenor saxophonists
Swing saxophonists
Jazz musicians from California
Jewish American musicians
Grammy Award winners
Musicians from New York City
Musicians from Philadelphia
People from the Bronx
People from Malibu, California
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Brazilian jazz (genre) saxophonists
Deaths from liver cancer
Custom Records artists
MGM Records artists
Savoy Records artists
SteepleChase Records artists
Verve Records artists
Jewish jazz musicians
20th-century American saxophonists
Jazz musicians from New York (state)
Jazz musicians from Pennsylvania
20th-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians
James Monroe High School (New York City) alumni
Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band members
20th-century American Jews