Stan getz biography tenor sax

Getz, mostly by paying close attention to what avant-garde musicians were doing, mastered the new style in a matter of months. The main influence on Getz, however, was the style of swing tenor saxophonist Lester Young, a performer whose relaxed, lyrical style offered a contrast to those of saxophone players who cultivated the instrument's potential for rough sounds and sharp attacks.

Getz worked at updating Young's sound with the speed and harmonic experimentation of bebop, creating a new and highly appealing style—lyrical, elegant, and yielding to no one in sheer dexterity. In Getz joined the incarnation of Woody Herman 's Thundering Herd big band known as the Second Herd, honing his skills as part of the band's formidable "Four Brothers" quartet of saxophones the others were Sims, Herbie Steward, and Serge Chaloff.

The year before he had married jazz singer Beverly Byrne, and the pair, though troubled in their relationship, raised three children. Getz severed his ties with the Herman band in and , partly because he was disturbed by the grind of the road, and partly by a specific incident in which a railroad brakeman had been decapitated by a train on which he was riding.

He began performing and recording, mostly in New York, with small groups. The timing was perfect, as so-called "cool jazz" began to supplant bebop and audiences flocked to the charismatic young saxophonist whom many called romantic. Getz resisted the identification with cool jazz, saying in a interview quoted by Maggin that "I'm not trying to shove any style or sound down people's throats.

It's fun swingin' and getting 'hot' for a change instead of trying to be cool. I don't want to become stagnant. I can be a real stompin' tenor man. Numerous Stan Getz Quintet LPs appeared on a variety of jazz labels and inaugurated a run of more than albums Getz would make over the course of his career. Getz's heroin addiction caused a major interruption to his jazz career in After several skirmishes with the law, he tried to ease himself off the drug with the equally dangerous combination of alcohol and barbiturates, but in February he found himself in Seattle, Washington, desperate for heroin and with no ready source of the drug.

He entered a drugstore near his hotel and made a clumsy attempt to rob it no weapon was involved, only a pointed finger under his coat , demanding morphine, a chemical relative of heroin. He was arrested and jailed in southern California, where he had faced earlier charges, for six months. Soon after this episode Getz stopped taking morphine for good, although he began to abuse alcohol.

Immediately after his divorce from Beverly Byrne in , Getz married Swedish-born Monica Silfverskiold; with her he had two more children. Partly to escape Getz's legal problems, the pair lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the late s, but wherever he was, Getz recorded prolifically, mostly for the Verve label started in by the indefatigable jazz promoter Norman Granz.

In alone Getz released six albums, all with star collaborators, and he nurtured the careers of young players in Scandinavia's vigorous jazz scene. By the early s Getz had been on top of the jazz world for more than a decade, and fashions were inevitably changing; the extreme playing of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman , pushing at the edges of established jazz procedures, attracted the attention of jazz audiences and writers.

But Getz found a new and congenial stylistic home for his smooth playing, first with a widely hailed recording with string orchestra called Focus in , and then later that year with a then-little-known Brazilian style called bossa nova. Jazz Samba rose to the top spot on Billboard 's album sales chart, the first jazz LP to do so. It missed the top spot on the Billboard chart only because it appeared simultaneously with the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night.

Getz remained financially comfortable for the rest of his life as a result of these recordings, and though he eventually tired of playing his big bossa nova hits, he established the Brazilian influence as a permanent part of the jazz vocabulary—one of his most significant accomplishments. The jazz-rock fusion trends of the s were not really congenial ones for Getz, although he did experiment with the use of electronic instruments from time to time.

Recording for the Columbia label he assembled a series of bands that contained the future stars of jazz; one of these was pianist Chick Corea, whose composition "La Fiesta" appeared on Getz's Captain Marvel LP of Getz had a solid core of admirers, many of them in Europe, who contin-ued to support his straight-ahead acoustic jazz concerts and recordings.

Getz's personal life continued to trouble him in the s; a combination of alcohol abuse and depression over the years had left him prone to sprees of rage, and his marriage to Monica dissolved in in an acrimonious divorce proceeding that eventually reached the U. Supreme Court. No matter what demons might beset him, however, Getz was recognized over his entire career for delivering performances of consistently high quality.

His releases Serenity and Anniversary were critically acclaimed, and 's Apasionado returned the saxophonist to a Brazilian zone of influence. In his last years, Getz finally achieved total sobriety. Looking toward a third marriage and new musical projects near the end of the s, Getz was diagnosed with liver cancer. He kept performing, and the disease remained stable for several years.

One of the most beautiful vocal collaborations of his entire career was You Gotta Pay the Band , recorded in with singer Abbey Lincoln. Getz remained active until his death on June 6, The legacy of musicians he had directly inspired included Arkansas governor Bill Clinton , soon to be elected president of the United States. Getz was one of those rare figures in jazz who manages to achieve huge commercial successes without compromising considerable artistic abilities.

Like his first major influence, Lester Young , he had a light yet huge sound and a natural sense of swing. He was one of jazz's great ballad players and a superb melodist. Of the latter skill he once said, "The saxophone is actually a translation of the human voice, in my conception. All you can do is play melody. No matter how complicated it gets, it's still a melody.

He recalled, "I was a withdrawn, hypersensitive kid. I would practice the saxophone in the bathroom, and the tenements were so close together that someone from across the alleyways would yell, 'Shut that kid up,' and my mother would say, 'Play louder Stanley, play louder. Shortly after, he moved to Los Angeles , where he quickly found work in the Stan Kenton Orchestra, but he quit when Kenton made disparaging remarks about Lester Young.

Getz had reportedly said that he was convinced, when Monica retorted: "Well, don't you have a reputation for being difficult? In the early s, 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 to go to treatment.

As a countermove, Getz filed for divorce from Monica in , [ 23 ] but the couple reconciled at his insistence in and signed a Reconciliation Agreement in which they agreed to jointly buy a house they had found in San Francisco. Soon after, however, Getz relapsed. After a second illegal gun and cocaine incident, Monica returned to their New York home.

At this time, she discovered the need for the courts to learn about addiction and founded the National Coalition for Family Justice [ 24 ] in , around the time a divorce was finalized. In , Monica Getz petitioned the United States Supreme Court to have their divorce verdict overturned, which it declined. Zoot Sims , who had known Getz since their time with Herman, once described him as "a nice bunch of guys", an allusion to his unpredictable personality.

Getz died of liver cancer on June 6, Media related to Stan Getz at Wikimedia Commons. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. American jazz saxophonist — Cool jazz bossa nova bebop. Prestige Verve Columbia. Musical artist.

Early life [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Beginnings [ edit ]. Return to United States [ edit ]. Later career [ edit ].

Stan getz biography tenor sax

Personal life [ edit ]. Death and legacy [ edit ]. Discography [ edit ]. In his later years, he de-emphasized bossa as his style of choice, opting for more challenging, and perhaps less mainstream jazz. Artists Getz Biography. Biographies Letter G Getz biography. In he quit school and joined the band of trombonist Jack Teagarden which broke up in southern California where Getz settled.

In he joined the Stan Kenton band and, at eighteen, became its premiere soloist. He left the following year to join first Jimmy Dorsey and then Benny Goodman , who fired him for missing performances while he was scuffling for heroin. Getz left the Herd in while he was number one tenor saxophonist in Metronome magazine and second in the Down Beat poll.

He was 22 years old, addicted to alcohol and heroin, married and a father. Still he toured internationally, recorded prolifically as a leader, and maintained his popularity in the jazz polls. In he was arrested on a narcotics charge and spent a few months in jail. But he continued to maintain an impressive musical career. In he moved to Copenhagen, returning to the U.

He recorded a critically acclaimed album, Focus , with the orchestra of arranger Eddie Sauter and was introduced to Brazilian music by guitarist Charlie Byrd with whom he recorded Jazz Samba. The album rose to number one on the charts in and earned Getz a Grammy for best jazz solo.