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Great news – Verve have recently released a professionally recorded Stan Getz concert in AAA format from Nov 26th 1961 – featuring Steve Kuhn (p), John Neves (b) and Roy Haynes (d). Of all the great tenors, and the 1960s was the era of great tenor saxophone players, I think that Getz had the best tone – and he kept recording mainstream jazz right until the 1990s (Anniversary and People Time are among my favorite live recordings). This comes fairly hot on the heels of the “lost” Getz/Bill Evans album, that I though a little disappointing.

The album comes as 3 x 180g slabs, packaged in cheap “sandpaper” inner sleeves. The outer cover looks like the kind of photo-processing that one would have done with an early copy of photopaint and windows 3.0. The liner notes, which give a good historical context, are on the inner gatefold. Verve should look to Resonance Records for advice vis-a-vis modern deluxe packaging. Sound quality is excellent- nicely mastered and a good live re-production for the era. The muffled introductions by Chip Monck at the start of side 1 are un-necessary. It is a worthwhile investment if you are a Getz fan: this is after “West Coast Jazz” after Europe but before “Jazz Samba“, and he very much appears the equal of Coltrane and Rollins in that era. Incidentally, of the 1960s Stan Getz records, for reasons that I cannot explain, “Sweet Rain” is my favorite. It is one of those rare albums that could be released today, and would not appear out of time.

What is reassuring about this 1961 live album is that it came from the Verve music archive – which must have survived the UMC fire. Hopefully, sometime soon, the February 21st 1961 session, part of which has been released in compilation, will be released in a nice package like this. The major reason for interest in this concert was the presence of Scott LaFaro on bass.

Stan Getz Quartet
February 21 1961, New York, Ny Unissued Concert Live
Stan Getz Quartet Stan Getz (Ts) Steve Kuhn (P) Scott Lafaro (B) Pete La Roca (D)

• Baubles Bangles And Beads (Forrest-Wright)
• Little Old Lady (Adams-Carmichael)
• I Remember Clifford (Golson)
• For You, For Me, For Evermore (Gershwin-Gershwin)
• Speak Low (Nash-Weill)
• Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most (Landesman-Wolf)

Incidentally, if I were to go to a desert island and was allowed to bring only a few live jazz box sets with me, People Time – with Kenny Barron would be one.

The others that I would bring:

• Bill Evans – Complete Village Vanguard
• John Coltrane – Complete 1961 Village Vanguard
• Wynton Marsalis – Live At Village Vanguard
• Shelly Manne – Complete live at the Blackhawk
• Miles Davis – Live at the Filmore 1970 (Bootleg series vol. 3)
• Miles Davis – Complete Live at Plugged Nickel (1965)
• Art Pepper – At Ronnie Scotts
• Art Pepper – Complete Village Vanguard
• Hampton Hawes – All Night Session vols 1-3

I’m sure there are more – but all of these I would recommend without hesitation.

~ by Pat Neligan on June 16, 2019.

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