[sandster]

Just listening some. This isolation has started to give my wife and I a chance to listen to my jazz cd collection, something we rarely do; we're tiring of TV, still doing more reading, but moving to the ear. Something we haven't done enough of. Right now, I'm listening to Verve album, "Hamp and Getz". The speed these guys are capable of is incredible! Getz is the master of this genre. The ideas just flow, one to another. I'm in total awe.

 

[whaler]

Your wife must be really bored if she's listening to jazz.
I've always like this drummerless record with Oscar Peterson. Stan had an incredible time feel.

 

[sandster]

yes! Not many horn blowers could keep up with Oscar.

 

[LiAm84]

Great version of Cherokee on that album.

 

[Eulipion2]

I recently picked up Getz at the Gate and Bossas and Ballads: The Lost Sessions. Killer! Especially Gate. Recommended! I also picked up Anniversary and Serenity, which are also quite good, but the first two really did it for me.

 

[10mfan]

Getz in all the different decades, was just a complete joy!

A true LEGEND!

 

[Jazzoetry]

Stan Getz played all that great Tenor Sax with a "Double Lip Embouchure"...amazing.

 

[joebas]

Stan Getz played all that great Tenor Sax with a "Double Lip Embouchure"...amazing.

I've noticed he curls his lower lip over his teeth. Not very common for jazz horn players.

 

[datsaxman]

The upper lip is the unusual part.

 

[Isle of Jazz]

How to sound like Stan Getz

 

[whaler]

Stan Getz played all that great Tenor Sax with a "Double Lip Embouchure"...amazing.

It looks more like a clarinet embouchure than double lip to me.

 

[notes_norton]

Whether he played bop, bossas, ballads or anything else, what defines Getz to me most is melody. Sometimes melody so sublime that you don't notice the awesome chops he used to make that melody.

Insights and incites by Notes

 

[Grumps]

I've adopted his practice regimen.

 

[LiAm84]

It looks more like a clarinet embouchure than double lip to me.

He started on bassoon so that might be something to do with it?

 

[dexdex]

Whether he played bop, bossas, ballads or anything else, what defines Getz to me most is melody. Sometimes melody so sublime that you don't notice the awesome chops he used to make that melody.

Insights and incites by Notes

Agreed. He had that talent to please outside the jazz community. My Mom (turning 88 soon) is a good example. Melody is probably a big component of that.

 

[LateNiteSax]

I"m always ready to chime in on any thread about Stan Getz being the proudly obsessed fan that I am.

He was the Michael Brecker of his day. Both:
A child prodigy.
Jewish.
Born in Philadelphia PA (something in the water perhaps?)

Both stood out way above all of their contemporaries to dominate.

Nobody could keep up with Getz, only the likes of Ben Webster, Prez etc. could match him for ballad playing and absolutely nobody could keep up with him at blazing tempi. Perfect pitch and a photographic memory and a freakishly perfect sense of time all helped make him the Terminator of the tenor saxophone.

He completely dominated the tenor saxophone in the early 50s, up until this kid named Sonny Rollins came along to give him some real competition, and then of course the Trane arrive and that was the end of THAT...

 

[dexdex]

I"m always ready to chime in on any thread about Stan Getz being the proudly obsessed fan that I am.

He was the Michael Brecker of his day. Both:
A child prodigy.
Jewish.
Born in Philadelphia PA (something in the water perhaps?)

Both stood out way above all of their contemporaries to dominate.

Nobody could keep up with Getz, only the likes of Ben Webster, Prez etc. could match him for ballad playing and absolutely nobody could keep up with him at blazing tempi. Perfect pitch and a photographic memory and a freakishly perfect sense of time all helped make him the Terminator of the tenor saxophone.

He completely dominated the tenor saxophone in the early 50s, up until this kid named Sonny Rollins came along to give him some real competition, and then of course the Trane arrive and that was the end of THAT...

Cool analogy, never really thought about it.

On the other hand, Getz hit another great stroke with the bossas, ways in the 60s, while the hardcore jazz was fading more then ever out of the general public's ears. Again, that talent which allowed him to speak to everyone's soul is quite rare.

It took.... Michael Brecker to move the sax back into all those pop sessions. Smart analogy.

 

[LateNiteSax]

Yes for sure! I would say in the 60s, it is safe to assume that with his massive Bossanova craze success, no other jazz musician was earning even close to the kind of money Getz was pulling in. Probably Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, And jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald were in that ballpark.

Brecker and Getz, exactly 20 years apart, and both very cutting-edge and modern players stylistically in their days. Have you heard the early recordings of Getz from the late 40s? He had a harder tone, playing a metal Berg, and playing in the transitional swing to bebop style, I feel more influenced by Dexter Gordon and Flip Phillips than anyone else then anyone else.
By 1951, he had completely changed up his style and adopted a much more cool and West Coast vibe.

 

[Roundmidnite]

Supposedly this was his setup (not sure how accurate): Hard reeds- 5s, for smooth, controlled articulation and airstream. 5* rubber mouthpieces a lot (which in saxophone terms means conservatively moderate openings). Together with harder reeds = good control of the airstream and uniform tone Also- attacks the reed with soft Ds, not with crisp Ts- he slides in the mouthpiece, leaning it more on the lower lip, so that soft Ds (and soft ghost notes) are easier to articulate. He does not move much, because sudden moves lose control of the precise airflow, articulation and ghost notes.

With Huey Lewis and Tower of Power at about 2:50:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=37006421673

 

[LateNiteSax]

I met Monica Getz at Shadowbrook in the early 90s at a fundraiser for battered womens shelter. My friend was doing the gig with a jazz quartet and I begged him to let me tagalong as “the roadie.”

So I to chat with her, and she graciously invited me to see Stan‘s practice room. According to her it was exactly as he last left it. There were about a dozen La Voz hard reeds still sitting there on the wooden table.