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Writings about Music

Coltrane Was Being Candid

Stan Getz and Lester Young

 

In recent years, Stan Getz has become my favorite jazz artist to listen to. He has a musicality equal to the finest Indian classical musicians I've known, truly uncanny.

John Coltrane was simply being candid when he made that famous remark: "Let's face it - we'd all sound like that if we could."

Not only that, but the nickname Lester Young had for Stan was "Prez" - Young being another musical genius who didn't mince words.

 

Stan Getz surrounded himself with the finest musicians, often giving them their start, here joined by Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Tony Williams and Airto Moreira.

 

Stan Getz's allure comes from perfect tone, swing, invention, expression and spacing as demonstrated here with Lou Levy, Stan Levey and Leroy Vinnegar launching a jazz standard into interplanetary space.

 

Coltrane and Young were major innovators, of course, while Getz was more about what I've termed "transcendental consolidation."

I've written about Stan Getz voluminously here and here. Enjoy.

- Michael Robinson, February 2019, Los Angeles

 

© 2019 Michael Robinson All rights reserved

 

Michael Robinson is a Los Angeles-based composer, programmer, jazz pianist, and musicologist. His 162 albums include 149 albums for meruvina and 13 albums of piano improvisations. He has been a lecturer at UCLA, Bard College and California State University.