Stan Getz
Encyclopedia
Stanley Getz was an American jazz
saxophone
player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young
. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman
's big band
, Getz is described by critic Scott Yanow as "one of the all-time great tenor saxophonists". Getz went on to perform in bebop
, cool jazz
and third stream
, but is perhaps best known for popularizing bossa nova
, as in the worldwide hit single "The Girl from Ipanema
" (1964).
. His parents were Ukrainian Jews who emigrated
from the Kiev
area in 1903. The family later moved to New York City for better employment opportunities. Getz worked hard in school, receiving straight As, and finished sixth grade close to the top of his class. Getz's major interest was in musical instruments, and he felt a need to play every instrument in sight. He played a number of them before his father bought him his first saxophone
at the age of 13. Even though his father also got him a clarinet, Getz instantly fell in love with the saxophone and began practicing eight hours a day.
He attended James Monroe High School (New York)
in the Bronx. In 1941, he was accepted into the All City High School Orchestra of New York City. This gave him a chance to receive private, free tutoring from the New York Philharmonic's Simon Kovar
, a bassoon
player. He also continued playing the saxophone. His tenor saxophone
of choice was the Selmer Mark VI
. On early recordings he had used a White Plastic Brilhart Tonalin mouthpiece. He eventually dropped out of school in order to pursue his musical career, but was later sent back to the classroom by the school system's truancy officers.
In 1943 at the age of 16, he was accepted into Jack Teagarden
's band, and because of his youth he became Teagarden's ward. Getz also played along with Nat King Cole
and Lionel Hampton
. After playing for Stan Kenton
, Jimmy Dorsey
, and Benny Goodman
, Getz was a soloist with Woody Herman
from 1947 to 1949 in 'The Second Herd', and he first gained wide attention as one of the band's saxophonists, who were known collectively as 'The Four Brothers', the others being Serge Chaloff
, Zoot Sims
and Herbie Steward
. With Herman, he had a hit with "Early Autumn" and after Getz left 'The Second Herd' he was able to launch his solo career. He would be the leader on almost all of his recording sessions after 1950.
In the mid to late 1950s working from Scandinavia, Getz became popular playing cool jazz
with Horace Silver
, Johnny Smith
, Oscar Peterson
, and many others. His first two quintets were notable for their personnel, including Charlie Parker
's rhythm section of drummer Roy Haynes
, pianist Al Haig
and bassist Tommy Potter
. A 1953 line-up of the Dizzy Gillespie
/Stan Getz Sextet featured Gillespie, Getz, Oscar Peterson
, Herb Ellis
, Ray Brown
and Max Roach
.
Returning to the U.S. from Europe in 1961, Getz became a central figure in introducing bossa nova
music to the American audience. Teaming with guitarist Charlie Byrd
, who had just returned from a U.S. State Department tour of Brazil, Getz recorded Jazz Samba
in 1962 and it became a hit. The title track was an adaptation of Antonio Carlos Jobim
's "One Note Samba". Getz won the Grammy for Best Jazz Performance of 1963
for "Desafinado", from the same album. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
. As a follow-up, Getz recorded the album, Jazz Samba Encore!
, with one of the originators of bossa nova, Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfá
. It also sold more than a million copies by 1964, giving Getz his second gold disc.
He then recorded the album Getz/Gilberto
, in 1963, with Tom Jobim
, João Gilberto
and his wife, Astrud Gilberto
. Their "The Girl from Ipanema
" won a Grammy Award
. The piece became one of the most well-known latin jazz
tracks. Getz/Gilberto won two Grammys (Best Album and Best Single). A live album
, Getz/Gilberto Vol. 2
, followed, as did Getz Au Go Go, a live recording at the Cafe Au Go Go
. Getz's affair with Astrud Gilberto brought an end to his musical partnership with her and her husband, and he began to move away from bossa nova and back to cool jazz. While still working with the Gilbertos, he recorded the jazz album Nobody Else But Me, with a new quartet including vibraphonist
Gary Burton
, but Verve Records
, wishing to continue building the Getz brand with bossa nova, refused to release it. It eventually came out 30 years later, after Getz had died.
In 1972, Getz recorded in the fusion idiom with Chick Corea
, Tony Williams and Stanley Clarke
, and in this period experimented with an Echoplex
on his saxophone. He had a cameo in the film The Exterminator
(1980).
In the mid-1980s Getz worked regularly in the San Francisco Bay area and taught at Stanford University as an artist-in-residence at the Stanford Jazz Workshop
until 1988. In 1986, he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame
. During 1988, Getz worked with Huey Lewis and the News
on their Small World
album. He played the extended solo on the title track, which became a minor hit single.
band, on November 7, 1946; they had three children together.
Getz became involved with drugs and alcohol while a teenager. In 1954, he was arrested for attempting to rob a pharmacy to get a morphine
fix. As he was being processed in the prison ward of Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center
, Beverly gave birth to their third child one floor below. Getz tried to escape his narcotics addiction by moving to Copenhagen
. He married Swedish aristocrat
Monica Silfverskiöld on November 3, 1956, and had two children with her: Pamela and Nicolas. Getz divorced Monica in 1987.
Zoot Sims
, who had known Getz since their time with Herman, once described him as 'a nice bunch of guys', as a consequence of the wide behavioural range of which Getz was capable. In the final stages of his life Getz was able to end his addictions.
Getz died of liver cancer
in June 6, 1991. His body was cremated and the ashes scattered at sea, off the coast of Malibu, California.
In 1998, the 'Stan Getz Media Center and Library' at the Berklee College of Music
was dedicated through a donation from the Herb Alpert
Foundation.
, Harry "Sweets" Edison, and Oscar Peterson
, "Stan's Blues", "Tootsie Roll", "For Stompers Only", "S'cool Boy", "Ah-Moore (Amour)", "Apasionado" with Herb Alpert
and Eddie Del Barrio, "Coba", "Espanola", "Amorous Cat", "Prezervation", "Crazy Chords", "Tour's End", "And The Angels Swing", "Long Island Sound", "Half-breed Apache", "Bronx Blues", "Blues for Herky", "Downbeat", "Pocono Mac", and "Blues for Mary Jane".
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....
. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
's big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
, Getz is described by critic Scott Yanow as "one of the all-time great tenor saxophonists". Getz went on to perform in bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
, cool jazz
Cool jazz
Cool is a style of modern jazz music that arose following the Second World War. It is characterized by its relaxed tempos and lighter tone, in contrast to the bebop style that preceded it...
and third stream
Third stream
Third Stream is a term coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller, within a lecture at Brandeis University, to describe a musical genre which is a synthesis of classical music and jazz...
, but is perhaps best known for popularizing bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
, as in the worldwide hit single "The Girl from Ipanema
The Girl from Ipanema
"Garota de Ipanema" is a well-known bossa nova song, a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s that won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel.The...
" (1964).
Life and career
Getz was born on February 2, 1927, in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. His parents were Ukrainian Jews who emigrated
Emigre
Emigre, also known as Emigre Graphics, is a digital type foundry, publisher and distributor of graphic design centered information based in Berkeley, California, that was founded in 1984 by husband-and-wife team Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko. The type foundry also published Emigre magazine...
from the Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
area in 1903. The family later moved to New York City for better employment opportunities. Getz worked hard in school, receiving straight As, and finished sixth grade close to the top of his class. Getz's major interest was in musical instruments, and he felt a need to play every instrument in sight. He played a number of them before his father bought him his first saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
at the age of 13. Even though his father also got him a clarinet, Getz instantly fell in love with the saxophone and began practicing eight hours a day.
He attended James Monroe High School (New York)
James Monroe High School (New York)
For schools with a similar name, see James Monroe High School.James Monroe High School was a comprehensive high school located at 1300 Boynton Avenue and E 172nd Street in the Soundview section of the Bronx....
in the Bronx. In 1941, he was accepted into the All City High School Orchestra of New York City. This gave him a chance to receive private, free tutoring from the New York Philharmonic's Simon Kovar
Simon Kovar
Simon Kovar was a 20th century bassoonist and one of the most renowned teachers of the instrument.Simon Kovar was born Simon Kovarski in Vilnius, Lithuania, then a part of Russia, in 1890. He took up the bassoon at age 20 after originally studying the violin...
, a bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
player. He also continued playing the saxophone. His tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
of choice was the Selmer Mark VI
Selmer Mark VI
The Selmer Mark VI is a professional model saxophone that is generally considered the Selmer Company's finest saxophone. Although tastes in saxophones differ the Mk VI design is universally regarded as one of the best saxophone models ever produced by any manufacturer...
. On early recordings he had used a White Plastic Brilhart Tonalin mouthpiece. He eventually dropped out of school in order to pursue his musical career, but was later sent back to the classroom by the school system's truancy officers.
In 1943 at the age of 16, he was accepted into Jack Teagarden
Jack Teagarden
Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden , known as "Big T" and "The Swingin' Gate", was an influential jazz trombonist, bandleader, composer, and vocalist, regarded as the "Father of Jazz Trombone".-Early life:...
's band, and because of his youth he became Teagarden's ward. Getz also played along with Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
and Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
. After playing for Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
, Jimmy Dorsey
Jimmy Dorsey
James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD"...
, and Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
, Getz was a soloist with Woody Herman
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
from 1947 to 1949 in 'The Second Herd', and he first gained wide attention as one of the band's saxophonists, who were known collectively as 'The Four Brothers', the others being Serge Chaloff
Serge Chaloff
Serge Chaloff was an American jazz baritone saxophonist.The son of noted Boston piano teachers, Margaret and Julius Chaloff, he was among the few major jazz performers on his instrument. Until Chaloff the only prominent baritone player in jazz was Harry Carney of the Duke Ellington Orchestra...
, Zoot Sims
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor and soprano.-Biography:He was born in Inglewood, California, the son of vaudeville performers Kate Haley and John Sims. Growing up in a performing family, Sims learned to play both drums and clarinet at an early age...
and Herbie Steward
Herbie Steward
Herbert Steward , is an American jazz saxophonist.He is best known for being the tenor saxophone player in Four Brothers, part of Woody Herman's Second Herd.-Discography:...
. With Herman, he had a hit with "Early Autumn" and after Getz left 'The Second Herd' he was able to launch his solo career. He would be the leader on almost all of his recording sessions after 1950.
In the mid to late 1950s working from Scandinavia, Getz became popular playing cool jazz
Cool jazz
Cool is a style of modern jazz music that arose following the Second World War. It is characterized by its relaxed tempos and lighter tone, in contrast to the bebop style that preceded it...
with Horace Silver
Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
, Johnny Smith
Johnny Smith
Johnny Smith is an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist.-Early years:...
, Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
, and many others. His first two quintets were notable for their personnel, including Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
's rhythm section of drummer Roy Haynes
Roy Haynes
Roy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is among the most recorded drummers in jazz, and in a career lasting more than 60 years has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...
, pianist Al Haig
Al Haig
Alan Warren Haig was an American jazz pianist, best known as one of the pioneers of bebop.Haig was born in Newark, New Jersey...
and bassist Tommy Potter
Tommy Potter
Charles Thomas Potter, born in Philadelphia on September 21, 1918, died March 1, 1988, was a jazz double bass player.Potter is known for having been a member of Charlie Parker's "classic quintet", with Miles Davis, between 1947 and 1950; he had first played with Parker in 1944, in Billy Eckstine's...
. A 1953 line-up of the Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
/Stan Getz Sextet featured Gillespie, Getz, Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
, Herb Ellis
Herb Ellis
Mitchell Herbert "Herb" Ellis was an American jazz guitarist. Perhaps best known for his 1950s membership in the trio of pianist Oscar Peterson, Ellis was also a staple of west-coast studio recording sessions, and was described by critic Scott Yanow as "an excellent bop-based guitarist with a...
, Ray Brown
Ray Brown (musician)
Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...
and Max Roach
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
.
Returning to the U.S. from Europe in 1961, Getz became a central figure in introducing bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
music to the American audience. Teaming with guitarist Charlie Byrd
Charlie Byrd
Charlie Lee Byrd was a famous and versatile American guitarist born in Suffolk, Virginia. His earliest and strongest musical influence was Django Reinhardt, the famous gypsy guitarist. Byrd became the American guitarist who best understood and played Brazilian music, especially the Bossa Nova genre...
, who had just returned from a U.S. State Department tour of Brazil, Getz recorded Jazz Samba
Jazz Samba
Jazz Samba is a bossa nova LP by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd, released on the Verve label on April 20, 1962.Jazz Samba was the first major bossa-nova album on the American jazz scene. It was the real start of the bossa-nova excitement in America, which peaked in the mid-1960s...
in 1962 and it became a hit. The title track was an adaptation of Antonio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim , also known as Tom Jobim , was a Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist. He was a primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, and his songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within...
's "One Note Samba". Getz won the Grammy for Best Jazz Performance of 1963
Grammy Awards of 1963
The 5th Grammy Awards were held on May 15, 1963. They recognized accomplishments by musicians for the year 1962.- Award winners :*Record of the Year**Tony Bennett for "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"*Album of the Year...
for "Desafinado", from the same album. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
. As a follow-up, Getz recorded the album, Jazz Samba Encore!
Jazz Samba Encore!
Jazz Samba Encore! is a bossa nova album by Stan Getz and Luiz Bonfá, released on the Verve label. It is bossa nova in a slower groove. It contains a mix of Jobim standards as well as originals from Bonfá. Performers also include Antonio Carlos Jobim and vocalist Maria Toledo, Bonfá's wife...
, with one of the originators of bossa nova, Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfá
Luiz Bonfá
Luiz Floriano Bonfá was a Brazilian guitarist and composer best known for the compositions he penned for the film Black Orpheus.-Biography:...
. It also sold more than a million copies by 1964, giving Getz his second gold disc.
He then recorded the album Getz/Gilberto
Getz/Gilberto
Getz/Gilberto is a jazz bossa nova album released in 1964 by the American saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto, and featuring composer and pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim. Its release created a bossa nova craze in the United States and internationally...
, in 1963, with Tom Jobim
Antônio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim , also known as Tom Jobim , was a Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist. He was a primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, and his songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within...
, João Gilberto
João Gilberto
João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira, known as João Gilberto , is a Brazilian singer and guitarist. His seminal recordings, including many songs by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, established the new musical genre of Bossa nova in the late 1950s.-Biography:From an early age, music...
and his wife, Astrud Gilberto
Astrud Gilberto
Astrud Gilberto is a Brazilian samba and bossa nova singer. She is well known for the Grammy Award-winning song "The Girl from Ipanema".-Biography:...
. Their "The Girl from Ipanema
The Girl from Ipanema
"Garota de Ipanema" is a well-known bossa nova song, a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s that won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel.The...
" won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
. The piece became one of the most well-known latin jazz
Latin jazz
Latin jazz is the general term given to jazz with Latin American rhythms.The three main categories of Latin Jazz are Brazilian, Cuban and Puerto Rican:# Brazilian Latin Jazz includes bossa nova...
tracks. Getz/Gilberto won two Grammys (Best Album and Best Single). A live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
, Getz/Gilberto Vol. 2
Getz/Gilberto Vol. 2
Getz/Gilberto #2 is a live album by Stan Getz and João Gilberto, released in 1964. It was recorded at a live concert at Carnegie Hall in October 1964...
, followed, as did Getz Au Go Go, a live recording at the Cafe Au Go Go
Cafe Au Go Go
The Cafe au Go Go was a Greenwich Village night club located in the basement of 152 Bleecker Street. The club featured many well known musical groups, folksingers and comedy acts between the opening in February 1964 until closing in October 1969. Originally owned by Howard Solomon who sold the club...
. Getz's affair with Astrud Gilberto brought an end to his musical partnership with her and her husband, and he began to move away from bossa nova and back to cool jazz. While still working with the Gilbertos, he recorded the jazz album Nobody Else But Me, with a new quartet including vibraphonist
Vibraphone
The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
Gary Burton
Gary Burton
Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist.A true original on the vibraphone, Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the usual two-mallets. This approach caused Burton to be heralded as an innovator and his sound and technique are widely imitated...
, but Verve Records
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
, wishing to continue building the Getz brand with bossa nova, refused to release it. It eventually came out 30 years later, after Getz had died.
In 1972, Getz recorded in the fusion idiom with Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
, Tony Williams and Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
, and in this period experimented with an Echoplex
Echoplex
The Echoplex is a tape delay effect, first made in 1959. Designed by Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s and was used by some of the most notable guitar players of the era; original Echoplexes are highly sought after....
on his saxophone. He had a cameo in the film The Exterminator
The Exterminator
The Exterminator is a 1980 action film written, produced and directed by James Glickenhaus and starring Robert Ginty as Vietnam veteran vigilante John Eastland, also known as "The Exterminator", who takes out the street punks and those involved in organized crime when the law fails to do justice.-...
(1980).
In the mid-1980s Getz worked regularly in the San Francisco Bay area and taught at Stanford University as an artist-in-residence at the Stanford Jazz Workshop
Stanford Jazz Workshop
Stanford Jazz Workshop was founded in 1972 by saxophonist and educator Jim Nadel to create an environment conducive to learning, experiencing and appreciating jazz...
until 1988. In 1986, he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
. During 1988, Getz worked with Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually scoring a total of 19 top-ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock charts...
on their Small World
Small World (album)
Small World is the fifth album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, released in 1988 .Although it reached the top 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the album was much less successful than its predecessors, 1983's Sports and 1986's Fore!...
album. He played the extended solo on the title track, which became a minor hit single.
Personal life
Getz married Beverly Byrne, a vocalist with the Gene KrupaGene Krupa
Gene Krupa was an American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...
band, on November 7, 1946; they had three children together.
Getz became involved with drugs and alcohol while a teenager. In 1954, he was arrested for attempting to rob a pharmacy to get a morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
fix. As he was being processed in the prison ward of Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center
Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center
Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, also known as County/USC, by the abbreviation LAC+USC, or by the name Los Angeles County General, is a 600-bed public teaching hospital located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California...
, Beverly gave birth to their third child one floor below. Getz tried to escape his narcotics addiction by moving to Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
. He married Swedish aristocrat
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
Monica Silfverskiöld on November 3, 1956, and had two children with her: Pamela and Nicolas. Getz divorced Monica in 1987.
Zoot Sims
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor and soprano.-Biography:He was born in Inglewood, California, the son of vaudeville performers Kate Haley and John Sims. Growing up in a performing family, Sims learned to play both drums and clarinet at an early age...
, who had known Getz since their time with Herman, once described him as 'a nice bunch of guys', as a consequence of the wide behavioural range of which Getz was capable. In the final stages of his life Getz was able to end his addictions.
Getz died of liver cancer
Hepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer. Most cases of HCC are secondary to either a viral hepatitide infection or cirrhosis .Compared to other cancers, HCC is quite a rare tumor in the United States...
in June 6, 1991. His body was cremated and the ashes scattered at sea, off the coast of Malibu, California.
In 1998, the 'Stan Getz Media Center and Library' at the Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
was dedicated through a donation from the Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert
Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...
Foundation.
Compositions
Stan Getz's compositions include "Running Water", "Chocolate Sundae" with Gerry MulliganGerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...
, Harry "Sweets" Edison, and Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
, "Stan's Blues", "Tootsie Roll", "For Stompers Only", "S'cool Boy", "Ah-Moore (Amour)", "Apasionado" with Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert
Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...
and Eddie Del Barrio, "Coba", "Espanola", "Amorous Cat", "Prezervation", "Crazy Chords", "Tour's End", "And The Angels Swing", "Long Island Sound", "Half-breed Apache", "Bronx Blues", "Blues for Herky", "Downbeat", "Pocono Mac", and "Blues for Mary Jane".