Stan Getz

Stan Getz was born Stanley Gayetski on February 2, 1927, in Philadelphia. His warm, lyrical tenor saxophone tone earned him the nickname “The Sound.” Influenced by Lester Young’s melodic approach, Getz became one of jazz’s most skilled improvisers and the central figure in bringing bossa nova to American audiences. He discovered music at age six while listening to radio and imitating arrangements on harmonica. At thirteen, his parents gave him a battered alto saxophone as a birthday present. Getz practiced eight hours daily and took occasional lessons with Simon Kovar of the New York Philharmonic through the All-City High School Orchestra. Though recommended for a Juilliard scholarship, he left school in ninth grade to pursue professional jazz.

Getz joined Jack Teagarden’s touring band at sixteen in 1943, with Teagarden becoming his legal guardian to permit travel. He subsequently played with Stan Kenton, but quit after Kenton criticized his idol Lester Young. Following brief stints with Jimmy Dorsey and Benny Goodman, Getz achieved breakthrough recognition as a member of Woody Herman’s “Second Herd” from 1947 to 1949. He was one of the legendary “Four Brothers” saxophone section alongside Serge Chaloff, Zoot Sims, and Herbie Steward. The section’s hit “Early Autumn” in 1948 established Getz as a major talent and defined his distinctive cool-jazz style: lyrical rather than aggressive. This approach made him one of the most commercially successful jazz musicians of the 1950s alongside Miles Davis. During this period he led various quartets and quintets with pianists Oscar Peterson and Lou Levy, and guitarists Jimmy Raney and Herb Ellis. His 1952 recording of “Moonlight in Vermont” with Johnny Smith became a crossover hit, demonstrating appeal beyond jazz audiences.

Getz’s most significant transformation occurred in the early 1960s. After moving to Copenhagen in 1958 to escape drug culture, he returned to the United States in 1961. He partnered with guitarist Charlie Byrd, who had recently studied Brazilian music. Their 1962 album Jazz Samba introduced bossa nova to American listeners and won a Grammy for Getz’s solo on “Desafinado.” This success reached its commercial and artistic peak with Getz/Gilberto in 1964, featuring João Gilberto and his wife Astrud Gilberto. The album’s “The Girl from Ipanema” became the first jazz recording to win Best Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards. Both albums sold millions of copies and established Getz as the musician most responsible for globalizing bossa nova.

After the bossa nova boom faded, Getz explored diverse musical directions. He worked with vibraphonist Gary Burton and pianist Bill Evans, recorded Focus in 1961 with orchestral arrangements by Eddie Sauter, and experimented with jazz fusion, recording Captain Marvel with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Tony Williams in 1972. In the 1980s, he served as artist-in-residence at Stanford University’s Jazz Workshop and recorded emotionally mature ballad albums. Getz died on June 6, 1991, at age sixty-four from liver cancer that was diagnosed in 1988. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean off Marina del Rey. Getz influenced generations of saxophonists through his lyricism and technical mastery. John Coltrane said, “We’d all sound like that if we could.”