Stan Getz honors Bill Evans, San Francisco circa 1985

[Daniel R. Kuhn]

I lived in S.F. and visited many of the clubs there that are long extinct. When Bill Evans died there was an impromptu (spontaneous) gathering of jazz bretheran (players and enthusiasts) at Bimbo's on Columbus Ave. in North Beach. First and last time I saw Stan. He had his huge, beautiful white husky there circulating with him throughout this saddened but exhilerated crowd...He played like Stan plays......pulling the soul out of body and heart from heart-beat...glorious, emotional and heart-breaking. I am sorrry to say - the man STAN was an often monstrous creature and lived his human life in hell and hindsight - but the jazz musician STAN was God's angelic spokesman for the purity of musical sound and a beneficiary of profound musical talent. I want Stan to be forgiven and happy in the ether of the afterlife but to know he has touched us with his musical, redemptive grace. I do love Stan from Stanley, Virginia.

[Paul Wood]

Yes, Bev, ".......the person making that music was the real Stan," and ".....(not.ed) even one note of such beauty could have come out of that horn if he wasn't truly that beautiful himself in his soul."
I subscribe to that wholeheartedly. That is the Stan Getz I know and will always remember. He has been in my life and I have loved him for his music too long to be influenced by his private life and personal problems. I am deeply sorry that he had to deal with these and especially for his children who have suffered during those periods of despair. It is something they must work out for themselves in the knowledge that they are not alone. The world is full of stories surrounded by unhappiness. Thank the Lord Stan's music brought so much joy to so many.