Customer Reviews

Recorded Fall 1961

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There have been many perfect duos in jazz such as Monk & Coltrane, Gillespie/Parker and this perfect match: Stan Getz and Bob Brookmeyer. One reason for this perfect union is Brookmeyer's talent as a gifted writer/arranger plus his inate Kansas city wit--much of this loosens up Getz from his formality and makes listening to them fun. This disc also features perhaps the best rhythm section Getz ever had like the perennial Roy Haynes on drums, John Neves on bass and ex-Coltrane pianist, Steve Kuhn. They were so perfect together that Getz later fired them perhaps because they upstaged him. But don't let that minor fact deter you from checking out this disc since all the tunes are well matched for this duo like the ballads, "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" or Brookmeyer's "Who Should Care" or the swinging standards like "Nice Work If You Can Get It". Outside of Getz, Brookmeyer would also team up later with another Kansanian, Clark Terry (The Power of Positive Swing'ng) but check this one out since we hear a pre-Bossa Nova Getz at his best!!

I ordered this CD for my father for xmas. He heard this record on LP in the sixties, now he realized that it was re-released on CD. He said that this is the Getz-Brookmeyer quintet's best record ever. Soon after this Stan moved to the well-known bossa-novas, which are also unforgettable and five stars *****!

Listening to Stan Getz works, one is amazed at the number of major future talents who he hired as backup musicians, Gary Burton, Al Haig, Kenny Barron, to name a few. The only musician to turn up more future talents than Getz was Miles Davis. Despite marvellous technique, it was Stan in the spotlight, he tended to let them have a short solo and paid them musical minimum wage. (Later many would be stars in their own right.)

The exception was Bob Brookmeyer and his valve trombone who was so talented Getz treated him as an equal and played duets with him, at the same time, rather than giving him space for a short solo. Getz valued him so much he even told a magazine Brookmeyer had join his band. Brookmeyer objected. Getz retreated and said it was wishful thinking.

They got together on and off for years. Getz even changed mouthpieces when playing with Brookmeyer so his sax would have a similar tymbre to Brookmeyer's trombone.

I like their effort "Jazz at the Shrine". This is more complex duet play, fast, light, bebop, dry, in a similar vein to Shrine. Here they do a wonderful job of playing around each other, improvizing two moving parts at the same time without ever bumping into one another, or hitting a wrong note. Like an arabesque.

Back then they called it "cool", but this is real jazz played smoothly. Mellow mood music with sensitive interplay between the two principal performers, backed by a fine rhythm section (pianist Steve Kuhn, bassist John Neves and drummer Roy Haynes).