Stan Getz

Artist ∙ Jazz

One of the all-time great tenor saxophonists, Stan Getz possessed one of the most beautiful tones in all of jazz. He was also among the greatest of melodic improvisers, melding lush romanticism with jazz's sense of physical toughness. In 1964, already a frequent poll-winner for decades, he released the groundbreaking Getz/Gilberto album with João Gilberto. Along with its smash single "The Girl from Ipanema," it helped him reach a new level of popularity, becoming one of the highest-selling jazz LPs in history and winning several Grammy awards. During the late '60s and the '70s, Getz's playing became more athletic: Sweet Rain in 1967, Change of Scenes with the Clarke-Boland Big Band in 1971, and Captain Marvel in 1974 offered excellent examples of his bona fides in progressive jazz and fusion.

February 29, 1964 at GMT-8
Getz/Gilberto
It’s not enough to say that 1964’s Getz/Gilberto is, hands down, the most popular bossa nova record of all time. The meeting of American tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto remains a beacon of cross-continental collaboration: It helped propel not only Antônio Carlos Jobim’s iconic “The Girl From Ipanema” as a jazz standard, but also his “Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)” and “Desafinado.” And the album launched the career of 24-year-old singer Astrud Gilberto, whose hushed voice became synonymous with the genre. The “bossa nova craze” of the 1960s had everyone from The Beach Boys to Frank Sinatra doing versions of the breezy sound, and the eight songs on Getz/Gilberto— all minimal, all mellow—provided the era with an artistic peak.

Recorded in just two days, Getz/Gilberto is marked not only by its lighthearted feel, but also by its incredibly intimate recording by producer Creed Taylor. The entire affair pulses with restraint: Gilberto’s guitar a gentle pluck, his voice a throaty murmur; Getz’s solos, meanwhile, are breathy and lyrical. Astrud Gilberto had never sung on a record before, but her English was much better than her husband’s, and she was quickly recruited for the English translation of “Ipanema” and “Corcovado.” Her whispery performance stole the spotlight from the headliners. She only made a session wage for her work, but ended up an international star—and a pivotal influence on artists like Sade.

The great majority of the songs on Getz/Gilberto were written by Antônio Carlos Jobim, the architect of bossa nova. Jobim, who also contributes piano, popularized the leisurely, pastoral tweak on samba rhythms with his composition “Chega de Saudade,” first released on Elizete Cardoso’s 1958 album Canção do Amor Demais (and popularized when Gilberto released it as a single the following year). The cool jazz saxophonist Getz was entranced by the bucolic samba sound, and spent the early 1960s championing it for American audiences, eventually finding success with the genre on three albums: 1962’s chilled-out Jazz Samba with guitarist Charlie Byrd, the fuller Big Band Bossa Nova (also from 1962), and 1963’s gentle Jazz Samba Encore!, recorded with Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfá.

However, it would be his spare team-up with Gilberto that helped define both musicians’ legacies. An immediate sensation, the album spent 96 weeks on the charts and garnered the pair an armload of Grammys. “The Girl From Ipanema” turned out to be remarkably durable, recorded by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Cher, Amy Winehouse, and more. It’s been turned into hard funk by The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, spun into a house banger by Crystal Waters, reinvented as ultra-cool neo-exotica by Pizzicato Five, and even turned into a futuristic Latin trap pop hit for Bad Bunny.
8 Tracks
February 29, 1964 at GMT-8
Getz/Gilberto (Expanded Edition)
It’s not enough to say that 1964’s Getz/Gilberto is, hands down, the most popular bossa nova record of all time. The meeting of American tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto remains a beacon of cross-continental collaboration: It helped propel not only Antônio Carlos Jobim’s iconic “The Girl From Ipanema” as a jazz standard, but also his “Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)” and “Desafinado.” And the album launched the career of 24-year-old singer Astrud Gilberto, whose hushed voice became synonymous with the genre. The “bossa nova craze” of the 1960s had everyone from The Beach Boys to Frank Sinatra doing versions of the breezy sound, and the eight songs on Getz/Gilberto— all minimal, all mellow—provided the era with an artistic peak.

Recorded in just two days, Getz/Gilberto is marked not only by its lighthearted feel, but also by its incredibly intimate recording by producer Creed Taylor. The entire affair pulses with restraint: Gilberto’s guitar a gentle pluck, his voice a throaty murmur; Getz’s solos, meanwhile, are breathy and lyrical. Astrud Gilberto had never sung on a record before, but her English was much better than her husband’s, and she was quickly recruited for the English translation of “Ipanema” and “Corcovado.” Her whispery performance stole the spotlight from the headliners. She only made a session wage for her work, but ended up an international star—and a pivotal influence on artists like Sade.

The great majority of the songs on Getz/Gilberto were written by Antônio Carlos Jobim, the architect of bossa nova. Jobim, who also contributes piano, popularized the leisurely, pastoral tweak on samba rhythms with his composition “Chega de Saudade,” first released on Elizete Cardoso’s 1958 album Canção do Amor Demais (and popularized when Gilberto released it as a single the following year). The cool jazz saxophonist Getz was entranced by the bucolic samba sound, and spent the early 1960s championing it for American audiences, eventually finding success with the genre on three albums: 1962’s chilled-out Jazz Samba with guitarist Charlie Byrd, the fuller Big Band Bossa Nova (also from 1962), and 1963’s gentle Jazz Samba Encore!, recorded with Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfá.

However, it would be his spare team-up with Gilberto that helped define both musicians’ legacies. An immediate sensation, the album spent 96 weeks on the charts and garnered the pair an armload of Grammys. “The Girl From Ipanema” turned out to be remarkably durable, recorded by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Cher, Amy Winehouse, and more. It’s been turned into hard funk by The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, spun into a house banger by Crystal Waters, reinvented as ultra-cool neo-exotica by Pizzicato Five, and even turned into a futuristic Latin trap pop hit for Bad Bunny.
18 Tracks
April 19, 1962 at GMT-8
Jazz Samba
8 Tracks
December 31, 1962 at GMT-8
Jazz Samba Encore!
11 Tracks
February 28, 1973 at PST
Stan Getz & Bill Evans (Previously Unreleased Recordings)
11 Tracks
January 13, 2002 at PST
Getz For Lovers
15 Tracks
February 9, 2022 at PST
Getz For Lovers (Deluxe Edition)
26 Tracks
October 31, 1955 at GMT-8
West Coast Jazz
Getz assembled this band to kill time while shooting a film in Los Angeles in 1955. Jazz was in a stylistic battle between coastal scenes; the title of this album mocks that notion, the performances eschewing the reputation of West Coast jazz as placid and polite. Getz applies sensual cool to “East of the Sun (And West of the Moon),” but his blowing with trumpeter Conte Candoli on Miles Davis’ “Four” or Dizzy Gillespie’s “Night in Tunisia” is marked by charged interplay and fiery solos.
13 Tracks
March 11, 2002 at PST
The Very Best of Stan Getz
12 Tracks
November 2, 1992 at PST
The Essential Stan Getz: The Getz Songbook
14 Tracks
October 8, 1964 at GMT-7
Getz/Gilberto #2 (Live)
10 Tracks
November 30, 1957 at GMT-8
Getz Meets Mulligan In Hi-Fi
8 Tracks
December 31, 1956 at GMT-8
Stan Getz And The Oscar Peterson Trio
7 Tracks
February 18, 2016 at PST
Getz/Gilberto '76 (Live)
Twelve years after Getz/Gilberto, their influential 1964 collaboration merging jazz and bossa nova, Brazilian singer João Gilberto joined Stan Getz's band for a week in San Francisco. Accompanying himself on nylon-stringed guitar with (and without) Getz's quartet, Gilberto transforms samba classics into perfect pearls of rhythmic subtlety while singing in a low, smooth, yet attention-commanding voice. About half the tracks on this wonderfully intimate live album feature deeply sympathetic saxophone solos from Getz, who makes his tenor sing most eloquently, too.
13 Tracks
December 31, 1957 at GMT-8
Stan Meets Chet
Too hip to do battle in a bop-style blowing date, Chet Baker and Stan Getz play it cool on their only full-length studio session together. In fact, Getz keeps a sprightly run through Duke Jordan's "Jordu" all to himself, with Baker's trumpet laying out entirely. During a pensive medley of ballads, Baker turns "Autumn in New York" into an impressionistic daydream over Jodie Christian's delicate piano chords. After a languid duet intro, "Half-Breed Apache" turns into a fleet-fingered showcase for each man's skills.
4 Tracks
December 31, 1995 at PST
But Beautiful (feat. Stan Getz)
10 Tracks
December 31, 1961 at GMT-8
Focus
9 Tracks
December 31, 1975 at PST
The Best of Two Worlds (feat. João Gilberto)
10 Tracks
December 31, 1954 at GMT-8
Stan Getz and the Cool Sounds
10 Tracks
January 8, 2007 at PST
Their Greatest Hits
12 Tracks
October 30, 1962 at GMT-8
Big Band Bossa Nova
8 Tracks
December 31, 1953 at GMT-8
Stan Getz Plays
16 Tracks
December 31, 1957 at GMT-8
Stan Getz/Cal Tjader Sextet [Original Jazz Classics Remasters]
7 Tracks
March 18, 1996 at PST
Bossa Nova: Verve Jazz Masters 53: Stan Getz
16 Tracks
November 9, 1997 at PST
The Complete Roost Recordings
59 Tracks

Stan Getz

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