Customer Reviews

West Coast Jazz

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4 star:		(2)
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Before he became a household name as the frontman for the Bossa Nova craze of the early 1960s, Stan Getz was one of the leading tenor saxophonists of the 1950s. In August 1955, Getz recorded "West Coast Jazz" in Los Angeles with four other relocated Easterners -- trumpeter Conte Candoli, pianist Lou Levy, bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Shelly Manne. Despite the fact that this was not your typical "West Coast" session -- the playing was anything but cool or syrupy smooth -- these musicians, along with the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Group, would become synonymous with a harder L.A. bop sound that would become the new left coast standard. "West Coast Jazz" features great versions of Miles Davis' "Four," Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia" and Gershwin's "Summertime" among other cuts. This remastered Verve disc also boasts five songs not included on the original LP issue, two alternate takes, and a sumptuous gatefold digipak with extensive liner notes. For anyone who loves Getz albums like "The Steamer" or "Award Winner," or Shelly Manne's "At The Blackhawk" volumes, "West Coast Jazz" is where this sound all started.

I've shied away from Stan Getz in the past because I've always associated him with bossa nova, and I get no listening pleasure from that style whatsoever.

So it was by sheer luck, and my good fortune, that I was driving around a few months ago without a CD, searching through the radio looking for something good. I stopped when I heard some swinging jazz coming through a station. Not big band swing, but more of a smooth and smoky sound, straddling the line between bop and swing without being precisely one or the other. At the end of the track, I was quite surprised to hear the announcer tell me that that was from Stan Getz's "The Steamer". When I got home, I hopped online and sampled more tracks from that album. Good stuff - so I went out and bought the whole album, and have been loving it ever since. "The Steamer" was good enough that I knew it wouldn't be the last Getz I'd get.

After that, I read up a little more on Getz, and discovered that there was a lot more to him than The Girl From Ipanema. Since I had to go to Tower to exchange an unwanted DVD gift, I went thumbing through the racks to see if anything jumped out at me. His "West Coast Jazz" caught my eye, since it was mid 50's pre-bossa nova, and a full CD of over 70 minutes. Plus, it had covers of Miles Davis's Four, Dizzie Gillespie's A Night In Tunisia, and Horace Silver's Split Kick. Seemed like a no-brainer.

Where have I been? Why has this sax tone been hiding from me? What I heard on "The Steamer" continues here. Sweet without being cloyingly so, cool without sounding pretentious. The trumpet on its own is not that harsh, but Getz's tenor sax is so smooth that when the trumpet comes in, the contrast is that much more evident in its sharpness. Pick your favorite cliche - baby's bottom, silk, satin - Getz is smoother than all of 'em.

And the rest of the band who fills out the quintet is absolutely perfect. It's Conte Candoli's trumpet and Lou Levy's piano that are the other prominent instruments here, with the bass and drums holding down the rhythm with consummate professionalism. I don't listen to the Woody Herman Band (maybe I should), but that band's members who appear behind Getz support him perfectly. Nobody's stepping on anybody's toes. With more than half of the songs over six minutes there's plenty of time for charismatic phrasing all around.

No need to go song by song; I've only gone through this a few times, but every track can stand on its own. I've already loaded this into my computer at work so I won't be without it.

The only thing that would make this more complete would be if it were sold with a martini with two olives.

Stan Getz, who died more than a decade ago, continues to be amazingly prolific!

Verve has triumphed yet again digging another West Coast Jazz Classic out of the vaults and cleaning it up with a 20-bit remix.

Sparkling, complex, a mix of up-tempo and ballad arrangements. This late 50's CD sounds a lot like Stan's 80's work. Best tunes include "East of the Sun and West of the Moon", "Suddenly It's Spring", "Of Thee I Sing" and "Handful of Stars".

Similar to "Award Winner" and "The Steamer" - all recorded at the same time. Buy all three. Jazz's greatest saxophonist may be gone, but his legacy continues to astonish. Stan Levy, Getz drummer is quoted as saying "He (Stan) had no limits; he could play anything. The horn was an extention of his head. There were no barriers, the music just came out".

So come hear Jazz's most beautiful sax sounds come pouring out of him like a bubbling happy waterfall. Warm, and up-beat. For best results, listen on vacuum tube equipment, as it was originally recorded.

by MY tough rating system, a clear four to five stars for a great classic. Getz albums keep vanishing, the originals at least, not the best of's. Get it while you can, you won't be disappointed.

His mellow music is a balm for a harsh world.

Buy it and you'll smile every time you listen.

This album takes me back to the summer of 1965 and some pretty good musical memories. I guess they called it "West Coast" because of the lighter, more airy tone that these brothers bring, as opposed to the hard-hitting bebop sounds from New York, Chicago, or Kansas City. A sound more easily connected to L.A. or Frisco, although Brother Getz is from Philly. Anyway, it's a good sound, and he's brought some sharp brothers with him. Conte Candoli's trumpets' been everywhere from Doc Severenson's big band (Johnnie Carson) to Supersax, and beyond. So's Lou Levi's piano. Leroy Vinnegar's bass has backed everybody from Lionel Hampton to Rollins, Dex,Dizzy and etc., and Shelly Manne is in the top 5 of the greatest drummers on earth. "East Of The Sun" is a very cool, laid-back opener with some beautiful blues-like lines from Stan. Conte is a little more serious. (Good Solo) Lou re-relaxes with a very nice solo of his own, before a good closing solo from Stan. Mile's "Four", my foremost on the set, is introd(ed) by Shelley. This is an absolute swinger, as Stan and Shelley's work here has been in my brain, although the record was lost in '94. Conte comes up "smokin", with Lou right behind him, leading to his own clean solo before Stan and Conte "close out". Stan and Conte come out swinging the theme on "Suddenly It's Spring", then Stan is off (again) and swinging HARD, with that "West Coast" sound. Conte is muted, and cookin' just as hard. Lou gets off another very competent solo before Stan and Conte divide up the closing. Dizzy's "Night In Tunisia" is next. Lou has first solo here, and comes out jumpin' just ahead of a hard-jammin' Conte. Stan, never at a loss for "swing", comes out doing just that. "Summertime" is almost a ballard, with excellent solos, backed by Shelley. "SHINE" is a high-speed, total JAM! "Split Kick" is a Getz "kicker". Notice Conte's work here. This CD has about 7 more tracks than the record, which, also, makes it an offer that should be hard to refuse.

Ignore the title "West Coast Jazz," which Getz later would admit was a mere ploy to lure a certain segment of the early 1950s jazz audience. There's nothing wimpy, intellectual, "cool" about the way these masters represent an African-American art form at its zenith. Lately, a discussion has made its way around the net concerning a video of Getz and Coltrane playing while accompanied by Oscar Peterson. The unthinking adulation, if not canonization, of Trane has led many critics as well as musicians and listeners who should know better to disparage Getz and Oscar to the greater glory of Coltrane.

It's true that Coltrane makes an instant impression with his incisive, arresting, edgy sound and his "vertical" approach, going to the altissimo register and pyrotechnical harmonics from the very first bar of his solo. Getz, on the other hand, chooses to follow Lester Young, submitting a Prez-like, linearly developed and melodic solo that moreover swings "with" the groove established by Oscar rather than all but ignoring it. Because many listeners are familiar with little else than Getz' early 1960s bossa nova period, they assume that he's technically limited!

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Norman Granz delighted in putting him up against masters like Stitt, Rollins, and Diz on several Verve sessions on which no tempo is under the speed limit. But there's one solo on this album that should settle the matter for good: Getz' incredible technical facility as well as his command of articulation, time, harmony and melody on the old Louis Armstrong/Bing Crosby/Benny Goodman vehicle called "Shine." Chorus after chorus go by, and Getz' solo simply keeps developing, unfolding new surprises, each revealing yet another remarkable side to this prodigious player.

The aforementioned description is in no way meant to disparage Coltrane's playing. Anyone who has listened to "Giant Steps" or Trane's cadenza on "I Want to Talk About You" from "Live at Birdland" has either got to be astonished by his playing or tone deaf. But the same goes for anyone who listens to Getz' solo on "Shine." And during those moments when Getz chooses to take a more understated, purely melodic path, his ability to sound more "Prez-like" than Prez himself is merely further testimony to the multiple genius of an artist who could find beauty in utter simplicity as readily as in the most challenging pyrotechnics.

West Coast Jazz
Heard this on KJAZZ and just had to have it. Very cool. It's my first Stan Getz CD.

This is an album in which Stan Getz et al. really deliver a solid performance play!