Stan Getz

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Stan Getz
“The Sound”
1927-1991



“I never consciously tried to conceive of what my sound should be. I never said, ' I want this kind of sound!' I believe it was because of the bands I played with from the ages of 15 to 22.”

Stan Getz was born a child of World War Two on February 2, 1927 in Philadelphia Pa. Throughout his child years Getz was always interested in musical instruments. After his junior high school teacher chose him to play the bass in a concert Getz realized that he had a gift that the others in the band didn’t have. By the age of 15 Getz was working as a professional musician playing the tenor sax, like he was born to play one. He started working with many big band leaders such as, Jack Teagarden, Jimmy Dorsey, Stan Kenton and Woody Herman. Not only was Jack Teagarden teaching Getz about music and improvising, but he was also teaching him about drinking heavily.
Getz was with Herman’s band “Second Herd” from 1947 to 1949 he became very popular. He was one of the first members of ”The Four Brothers" saxophone section, which included Zoot Simms, Serge Chaloff, and Herbie Steward. In 1948 he became more famous with the recording of "Early Autumn" with the Woody Herman Band. In the 1950s, Stan was associated with a kind of jazz known as "cool jazz". This type of music that he played was a type of bebop, but he played it with much self control and detail. During the fifties, he was one of the most popular jazz musicians. Throughout the fifties he played with Mulligan, Jimmy Raney, Lionel Hampton, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Horace Silver, Jimmy Rowles, and Oscar Peterson. In 1954 he was incarcerated for using drugs. He started fighting the drug addiction, however, and temporarily escaped it by moving to Denmark in 1958. He worked with European musicians like the baritone player Lars Gullin, pianist Martial Solal and Bengt Hallberg and with other Americans like Oscar Pettiford and...