The Night We Lost Stan Getz

[Peter La Barbera]

Late at night in New Windsor New York...getting ready to go to sleep...after a rotten day...with doubts about my life and the direction it's going...the usual shit someone fifty six years old goes through...I set the clock radio to the Jazz station, WBGO...he says in a solemn tone...I'm sorry to report but Stan Getz has died...I'm in my underwear...shocked...not able to move or immediately react...I remember...I was fourteen years old hearing the original Four Brothers recording...Early Autumn...that incredible group that played Storyville with drummer Tiny Kahn...The Brazilian fusion...The sets with Dizzy and Lionel, Max and Sonny...Chick Corea, Gary Burton...Airto and Jobim...Brookmeyer and Kenny Barron...The beauty that flowed from his horn...he may be remembered as the greatest white jazz musician ever...I feel he did Lester proud...carrying the banner better than anyone...A handsome man with features that were reflected into his playing...and he could swing with a vengeance ...I stood in my room listening in disbelief to his music coming across as a tribute to his genius...Losing him is like losing a piece of myself...never to be replaced again...there is too much sadness in this miserable world...how do we continue?...we're destroying much of the beauty of our planet...and now a memorable sound will be silent for a little while...

[Denis Ouellet]

Certainly shows the immensity of our loss.
Thank you.

[THEO URFF]

Hello, I recently saw the French movie ( mort un pourri or death of a corrupt cop)with Alain Delon. The movie begins with Stan sitting on a chair and picking up his horn and starts to play,than we soar over Paris with Stans amazing sound....listen to that soundtrack....its poeetry!!!! greetings from the Netherlands...Theo Urff

[Peter La Barbera]

Thanks for your reply. I will search out that film, sounds fascinating.

[Leon Slater]

I'm a jazz tenor player playing regularly in 2 local big bands here in Staffs, Cheshire & Shropshire in the uk,but constantly trying to improve my soloing abilities & a friend of Trevor Emeny, the best Getz style tenor in the Birmingham/West Midlands area UK. I'm just writing to say that after a concert of Stan & Gerry Mulligan in Sheffield in late October 1984 I was lucky enough to meet Stan after the show for 5 mins. I had to be frisked by a heavey security guy first. He had also as a guest Johnny Speight the writer of the comedy "Till Death do us Part". Stan told me of the sad loss of pianist Albert Dailey [I have the LP both of them recorded as a duo] I was bold enogh to say that as a player, we players of whatever standard appreciated what he was doing more than the average public. He was sat there in his 3piece suit & rose coloured glasses & was most gracious, & of course it was the highligh of my musical life!! He had it all, best tone & feeling, perfect ear, & memory & always very creative & original. Long live his genius. Lee Slater

[Peter La Barbera]

Thank you for sharing that lovely story, Leon Slater.