Stan Getz - Captain Marvel

**Greentone** · 05-19-2016, 05:26 PM

I was listening today to a record I hadn't heard in _years_. "Captain Marvel" by Stan Getz, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Tony Williams, and Airto Moreira. So, It's largely Return to Forever, but with the great Stan Getz out front...and TW drumming instead of Lenny White.

Now, lots of fusion gets a little dated. Not this record. Give it a listen. Okay, okay--there's no guitar. Still, if you can't draw ideas from it, you are absent one pulse.

The two Stans! Getz was a great player. And, Clarke on upright bass is amazing. Try this:

or this:

**neatomic** · 05-19-2016, 06:05 PM

absolutely great album..i had the vinyl (when it was released) as a kid..and the cd since...listen at least a couple of times a year..perfect combo..the great breathy getz tone and rtf... plus tony!!..great stuff

cheers

ps- listening to it now..thanks for the reminder.....must say the original lp was dark and murky sounding..the cd is nice...tony w was the perfect drummer for stanley clarke...

**HighSpeedSpoon** · 05-19-2016, 08:29 PM

I think Stan Getz is one of those topics which are always good to bring up.

Thanks. While we're on the subject, here is IMHO one of the finer examples of Getz's melodic inventiveness. ...

And, while slightly off topic, here is my favorite rendition of Lush Life, done by perhaps the greatest living tenor player today, Ernie Watts. (The album, Classic Moods, is desert island favorite of mine.) As much as I love Getz, I'd put Ernie's rendition of Lush Life up against Stan's any day of the week.

**Dana** · 05-19-2016, 08:52 PM

I love that record.

**AndyV** · 05-19-2016, 09:46 PM

Both are great Getz records. That sound! Even Coltrane said "We'd all sound like Stan if we could."

In addition to his uniquely lovely tone, control and astounding melodic inventiveness one of the reasons Getz was so great was his ability to phrase on any part of the beat and change it up even within a phrase.

As a person however, he was a mess - horrible to his family and colleagues. Charlie Byrd actually sued him over royalties from Jazz Samba. He broke up Joao and Astrid Gilberto's marriage and ran roughshod over his own. A famous Woody Herman quote about Getz's mercurial personality was "Stan Getz, he's a nice bunch of guys."

**neatomic** · 05-19-2016, 10:45 PM

thats the beauty of recordings..i get to hear the beauty of his soul without the stink of his humanity

for every 5 that knew him there are 1000 that heard his recordings and love'm unknowing

posterity

cheers

**feral guitar** · 05-19-2016, 11:43 PM

interesting stuff, to my ears Getz' bebop language sounds out of place in this fusion context, but he plays so well it almost works for me

**Greentone** · 05-19-2016, 11:46 PM

Bad heroin habit. Horrible relationships...goes with 1st thing. Superb musical skills...the best, really.

**AndyV** · 05-20-2016, 05:55 AM

A nice lesser known Getz record from 1955:

Before its hold music/elevator-music associations, this was such a perfect pop/bossa song and Getz's melodic statements and solo are (IMHO) up there with the best ever played (in any genre) on a vocal record. 50+ years and it's still utterly charming and perfect.

Getz, Evens, Elvin Jones? This one should have been better than it is but still pretty good:

I recall seeing Getz live on the "jazz Boat" in Boston harbor in the early 80s with his quartet with Kenny Baron. He was chain smoking while he played and the smoke billowed out of his horn. A tugboat came by and blew its horn and Getz imitated it perfectly on his sax. This was one of the tunes they played:

**Lazz** · 05-20-2016, 11:44 AM

Captain Marvel is an important and impressive album. Thanks for the reminder. I see it as a beacon in his career - similar to the place Song for Sisyphus marks for Phil Woods.

Like HighSpeedSpoon, I also love Ernie Watts.

**wintermoon** · 05-20-2016, 11:54 AM

"this was one of the tunes they played"

haunting Strayhorn!

remember this one? also haunting....

**wintermoon** · 05-20-2016, 12:03 PM

remember this from Bill Crow's Jazz Anecdotes book?

Mel Torme brought Jose Ferrer by Stan Getz' gig at Birdland. It was MAN OF LA MANCHA on Broadway and apparently Jose Ferrer is a pretty good pianist. He asks Mel to ask Stan if he can sit in and Stan says OK. Now it seems that everybody EXCEPT Stan knows who Ferrer is, so after the piano solos the house goes wild. This is kind of getting Stan thinking, so he asks Mel if "this guy is playing with anybody right now". Mel says that he's "got a gig on a Broadway that pays pretty good". So Stan says, "well tell him he's not gonna get more than scale form me...."

**AndyV** · 05-20-2016, 03:28 PM

**neatomic** · 05-20-2016, 04:28 PM

love so many getz..from four brothers stuff on..stuff with johnny smith!..etc etc

but fave recording is -focus- cut in 1961...getz commissioned eddie sauter to write string arrangements with no melody line..and getz came in and improvised over it... some live and some overdubbed...absolutely killer

they repeated the formula for the soundtrack to mickey one (warren beattys first starring role)

only sax with strings recording that comes close is art peppers later classic winter moon

cheers

**wintermoon** · 05-20-2016, 05:04 PM

"art peppers later classic winter moon"

KILLER record! maybe my favorite AP lp along w/ 'Meets The Rhytm Section'.
I believe Howard Roberts has a few jabs here and there on it as well, I can remember he takes a tasty little solo on 'When The Sun Comes Out' and the way Art ends that tune w/all those out there flourishes, whoa....

that's where I got my user name, from Hoagy's tune.
you know the other version w/Art on "Hoagy Sings Carmichael"?

**Doctor Jeff** · 05-20-2016, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by HighSpeedSpoon

And, while slightly off topic, here is my favorite rendition of Lush Life, done by perhaps the greatest living tenor player today, Ernie Watts. (The album, Classic Moods, is desert island favorite of mine.) As much as I love Getz, I'd put Ernie's rendition of Lush Life up against Stan's any day of the week.

Sorry, but I think the Coltrane/Johnny Hartman version is the definitive version of Lush Life. Hartman was born to sing that song, and nice Coltrane blowing as well.

**Doctor Jeff** · 05-20-2016, 05:40 PM

Back OT love Stan Getz--in addition to his classic stuff, some of his late recordings when he was not healthy are very excellent, kind of like Chet Baker's.

I went to school with one of his sons (a few years behind me), who IIRC was in the entertainment business awhile but mainly worked as a tennis pro. Stan left the family when he was a teenager, but Nick told me that later in life Stan mellowed and subdued a lot of his demons. I believe he was clean quite a few years before the terminal liver disease took him.

**Lazz** · 05-20-2016, 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by neatomic

fave recording is -focus- cut in 1961...
art peppers later classic winter moon

Big loud very much YES!

I now need to check Mickey One (not heard or seen before)

**sgcim** · 05-20-2016, 06:59 PM

Getz was a very abrasive person, who seemed to burn most of his bridges.
I remember I read an interview with him right after the group with Chick, and he said he "got sick of Chick Corea and his space monkeys."
Jimmy raney got sick of his BS, and resigned from his group in the Men's room at the club they were playing in.
There's also some story about him giving Billy Bean such a hard time, BB became demoralized about playing jazz.

A friend of mine has a video of him playing a concert with Bill Evans in Germany, where they had a rehearsal the day before, and they agreed to do a certain set of tunes.
In the concert, Getz launches into a song that they didn't plan to do, and Bill Evans decides not to take his BS, and refuses to play it with him.
You can see BE motion Eddie Gomez and the drummer to stop playing, and Getz just keeps playing alone, until he realizes what a jerk he was, and just gives up, finally.
Then Getz plays Happy Birthday for BE, in an attempt to make up for his ass-hattery.

Gary Burton really gives him a reaming in his Autobiography, when he goes into the three years he spent as a member of Getz' Quartet. The last straw came when he found out out Getz was ripping him off with his pay, after GB acted as his musical director and tour manager!

**AndyV** · 05-20-2016, 08:38 PM

Don Maggin's book is the definitive bio on Stan. All the beauty, all the ugliness.

http://www.amazon.com/Stan-Getz-Life...ords=Getz+Stan

**HighSpeedSpoon** · 05-20-2016, 10:36 PM

Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff

Sorry, but I think the Coltrane/Johnny Hartman version is the definitive version of Lush Life. Hartman was born to sing that song, and nice Coltrane blowing as well.

No worries. I agree that the Coltrane/Johnny Hartman version is the definitive version. I just prefer Ernie's. To each his own.

**AndyV** · 05-21-2016, 08:01 AM

Agree that Coltrane /Hartman is definitive but my favorite version of Lush Life is the first version I heard ... from Ella and Joe:

destinytot · 05-21-2016, 08:41 AM

My fave.

destinytot · 05-21-2016, 08:43 AM

Love Stan Getz's Sweet Rain album, too (w. Chick Corea).

**Mark M.** · 05-24-2016, 09:16 PM

What an enjoyable read. It's a pleasure to "listen" as you guys wander on and off topic. Threads like this make this place special.

I haven't listened to Captain Marvel in years. I'll have to give it a listen soon.