Memories of Stan Getz

Comment by Virginia Gordon on June 21, 2009 at 3:08pm

Still finding my way arround this wonderful site -
My husband & I first heard Stan and other great Jazz players at Howard Rumsey's L ight House in Hermos Beach(CA) back in the 40s & 50s. In those dayswe didnt have much money & we would nurse one drink for as long as possible so we could to stay & listen to those who who became the greats in Jazz ( like Stan who is my favorite)
I remember how nice they were - giving us free refills so we could stay longer. Sometimes it was so packesd we could not even get in the door.
I am so happy to find this site and all the people who love Stan as much as I
do.
Thanks to Beverly for making this wonderful site - I am just
discovering new things here every day when I log on.

Gratfully - Virginia

Comment by Derek Southon on June 21, 2009 at 6:08pm

Bev invited me to join the Community after I'd sent the following anecdote. Ronnie Scott was a good friend of mine and, as a painter of jazz musicians, I spent a lot of time at his club. I sometimes took my young daughter along and she would collect autographs. She was with me one night when Stan was playing there and we mer him in the foyer. I wasn't too sure how he would feel about autographs, but he smiled, asked my daughters, name and signed her book. As he made his way to the dressing room he smiled again and said, " Got to look after the kids, they'll be paying my wages one day." My daughter was about nine years old at the time, now, as a forty year old, she still treasures her book and the memories from a time when life was sweeter. Derek Southon.

Comment by Denis Ouellet on June 21, 2009 at 6:38pm

Thank you Derek and Virginia for these wonderful stories.
They warm my heart.

Denis

Comment by Denis Ouellet on July 15, 2009 at 10:26am

This is from a late 1980's interview of Don Lanphere by Les Tomkins.


In it Don talks about his wife Midge's love for ballad playing.
She says, “You know, Stan Getz knows how to stand up and play a pretty song for me.”
Don tells us that he mentionned this to Stan a little while back while in Seattle.
Stan replied "“Well, there may be some players around that swing more than I do but I’m very big with the ladies!”


Now this got me laughing .... still ...

Comment by Tony Jay-Jay on November 13, 2009 at 5:09pm

I feel that 'girl from Ipanema', for me, was the the catalyst to really listening to tenor saxophone and how it should be played..
I know die hards would say 'too commercial' but it did reach out and touch me, in it's many guises..

Comment by Derek Southon on November 13, 2009 at 5:48pm

Tony, I agree entirely with your comments about 'Ipanema," but the so-called commercial aspect of any jazz number is okay with me, I'm just pleased that a particular number, played by a consummate artist, can reach and give pleasure to a wider audience. If it also means that someone makes some well deserved money, everyone's happy. Derek (Del) Southon.

Comment by Paul on November 14, 2009 at 10:33am

I was around 16 or so when Ipanema was on the jukebox. My wife-to-be (5 years later!) had heard several of my Stan albums but, being an Elvis fan, really didn't care for them. We were at coffee shop, the type that had the jukebox controls at each table. I selected Ipanema and it really changed her mind as to the beauty of Stan's playing. But it is an important part of Stan's career and should be in everyone's library.

Comment by Tony Jay-Jay on November 28, 2009 at 4:08pm

The track that really getz me listening to it over and over again is 'Blue Getz Blues'. I first heard it on a (combined) sax and trumpet CD and it kinda' made a lasting impression on me..

Comment by nelson b wilson on February 19, 2011 at 12:20am

I was in the Army stationed in Augsburg Germany in 1960 and on a spring afternoon I heard these notes of beauty that I as a 19 yr. old had never heard before, so I followed the sounds down the hall of our barracks to a Sgt.'s room and stood outside his room in the hallway and when he seen me he invited me in to listen, and I asked who and what I was listening to and it was Stan's album of  Getz au gogo, that was my introduction to jazz and Stan Getz and I fell in love with both and to this day I listen to a lot of smooth jazz  on cd and radio I have yet to find anyone like Stan and his sound, it is him like no other, his and his alone, unmistakeable and unforgetable!

  The Oklahoma Redman

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