Music on this page: "People Time" (People Time - Verve)

Stan Getz Biography (1927-1991)

Beginnings...

Stan Getz was born at St. Vincent's Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa. on Feb. 2, 1927. He had one brother, Robert, who was born on October 30, 1932. His parents had come from the Kiev area in the Ukraine in 1903, tired and fearful of the Pogroms. The Getz family had first settled in West Philadelphia, but moved to New York City after Stan's fraternal uncle told them there were better jobs in New York. They lived first on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and then moved up to the East Bronx.

Stan's father had many jobs, but wasn't aggressive by nature and was often unemployed. Stan's mother was a more demanding person, and pushed her first son hard to study. She believed he would become a doctor or a professor, and took extra care of him, setting straight "A" standards for his schoolwork. Stan worked hard in school. During hot Bronx summers, Stan developed a love for swimming at Crotona Park. At this same park, he sold sunflower seeds in two-cent packets that he had purchased in bulk. Stan had his Bar Mitzvah in 1940. Neither Stan nor Robert had much spiritual grounding. Between them, they would have four wives and seven children, none of whom were raised Jewish.

Stan finished 6th grade near the top of his class and was accepted into a high I.Q. Advancement program, where he would combine 7th and 8th grades in one year. He was attracted to musical instruments, and he pestered people until he could try whatever instrument came within his view. He was playing the harmonica by age 12, and bass in Jr. High School. Early indications off his innate talent became apparent with his ability to play new tunes he would hear- picking them out on the piano or his harmonica. He conducted a fantasy opera orchestra in front of the radio. He would hum all of the famous Benny Goodman clarinet solos from memory. As he studied music, he was instantly good at sight-reading, and seemed to have a photographic memory, as well as an instinctive sense of pitch and rhythm.

On February 16, 1940, his Dad bought him a $35.00 alto saxophone. Stan was 13. He moved on quickly to play all of the saxophones, as well as the clarinet, but he really loved the sound of the tenor saxophone. "In my neighborhood my choice was: be a bum or escape. So I became a music kid, practicing eight hours a day. I was a withdrawn, hypersensitive kid. I would practice the saxophone in the bathroom, and the tenements were so close together that someone from across the alleyway would yell, "Shut that kid up," and my mother would shout back, "Play louder, Stanley, play louder." He mooched quarters off of his Mom so that he could take saxophone lessons every week from an excellent local teacher named Bill Sheiner. He even took up playing bassoon in the school band.

Although Stan was economically poor compared to most of the other kids at school, his mother dressed him smartly to cover for him as best she could. He became a clotheshorse for life at a young age. In a business built on image, this didn't hurt him at all. At 14, he worked the summer in the Catskills as a busboy, musician and shy emcee for shows. He hated talking before an audience.

In September of 1941 he was accepted into the All City High School Orchestra of New York City. Entrance into this select group gave him access to a private, free tutor from the New York Philharmonic, Simon Kovar- a bassoon player. He also began to play local gigs at this time: Fraternity parties, Bar Mitzvahs, Saturday night dances. They paid about three bucks a night. At 14 he had saved enough to buy a tenor sax.

Four months into gigging, he met trumpeter Shorty Rogers on the same bandstand one night. Stan knocked him out by playing famous jazz solos by Lester Young and Tex Beneke perfectly, and reading charts flawlessly and fast. He started going to jam sessions after gigs ended. Getz later explained his gift: "It's like a language. You learn the alphabet, which are the scales. You learn the sentences, which are the chords, and then you talk extemporaneously with the horn. It's a wonderful thing to be able to speak extemporaneously, which is something I've never gotten the hang of. But musically, I love to talk off the top of my head. And that's what jazz music is all about."

Encouraged by older musicians in local bands who recognized his talent, Stan is hired by house bandleader Dick Rogers to play at Roseland for thirty-five dollars a week in December of 1942. His grades begin to drop as he works more. The family decided he should pursue the music salary, and he drops out of high school. The school system's truancy officers serve bandleader Rogers with papers. Stan is sent back to the classroom, but by now it seems pointless. He already knows what he wants to do, and how to make a living. On January 14, 1943, he joins Musician's Local 802 in New York. He tells other musicians he's available to play now. A friend recommends famous trombone player Jack Teagarden's band. Stan hangs out at the rehearsal hall and auditions for the band. The war draft is draining a lot of bands, and Teagarden knows Stan's not draft age yet. Stan sits in, reads perfectly, and is offered $70.00 a week. He is told to pack his things and be ready to leave with the band for Boston the next morning.

He returned home to the Bronx tenement expecting an argument about going on the road, but his mother was out and his Dad surprises him. "Go!" He says emphatically. "Christ! Stan, seventy bucks a week! I can't make that in two weeks. And I haven't had a job in a month anyway."

Leaving home, for the road...

Stan begins touring with the Teagarden band, but in St. Louis truant officers again catch up with him. Jack is told that if the kid is going to continue to work with him in the band, "T" must become his guardian in order to see that Stan does his schoolwork once a week. Stan's parents agree with the arrangement. "He (Teagarden) taught me a lot about bending my right elbow", was how Getz put it to a reporter later on. "In my early years, working with Jack Teagarden had the most effect on me. That was a very good introduction to professional music to me. Teagarden was a great musician. His playing is timeless- and it's logical." Working in the Teagarden band was tough. The one-nighters never ended.

By nature, Getz possessed an extremely addictive personality type. At 15 he took up smoking cigarettes at the rate of a pack a day for the rest of his life. He also discovered that alcohol helped lower his anxiety, so each night he was getting drunk. His male role models at this stage of his life were a father who had deferred to Stan's musical money making options, and a famous guardian with a non-stop drinking habit. Stan appreciated the happiness soloing on his saxophone brought him. Soloing was like getting high, and he wanted to repeat the feeling each night on the stand.

Stan's days with the Teagarden band ended in 1944 when he was seventeen. The band was in California, and Stan wanted to stay there. The local union told him he could not work in a steady paying gig for 90 days. He took the only job of his life outside of music, selling men's clothes in a store. He played one-nighters to supplement this. He sent for his parents and brother to come out and join him, and they lived in one room.

Stan Kenton...

Thirty-three year old bandleader Stan Kenton hired Getz for $125.00 a week. Kenton worked with Bob Hope on his popular radio show, which reached 20 million listeners each Tuesday night. The Kenton band followed Hope around California playing at wartime troop bases. Kenton also had a steady gig at the Palladium Ballroom in Hollywood. On July 20, 1944, Stan plays his first recording date with the band, and the first song they record becomes a big hit "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine", sung by Anita O'Day. It sold 400,000 copies and reached #4 on the charts.

There were several musicians in the Kenton band addicted to heroin. Taking note of how much Getz drank each night, one of them turned him on to heroin, snorting it in the back of the band bus. Within a few weeks Stan was addicted.

Working in Kenton's band, Getz carefully studied the work of his idol, Lester Young. He learned his solos note for note, and began incorporating them into his Kenton work. It was over a disagreement about Young's relevance that Getz left Kenton in April of 1945, the same month President Roosevelt died, and four months before the end of WWII.

Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, a record deal, and marriage...

After a short stint with the easygoing Jimmy Dorsey, eighteen-year old Getz joined Benny Goodman's band in October of 1945. Between October and December of that year, Benny's band was based in a Newark, N.J. nightspot. Stan regularly went into New York and hung out at the Spotlite Club on 52nd Street to hear Charlie Parker perform. At this time he also met Beverly Byrne, a vocalist with Gene Krupa's band, and a sister of the then famous vocalist Buddy Stewart. Someone at Savoy Records noticed Stan and signed him to lead a recording session. For his first gig as a leader, he formed a "Swing Bop Quartet" and recorded four tunes with pianist Hank Jones, bassist Curly Russell, and drummer Max Roach. The titles were: "Opus De Bop" "Running Water", "Don't Worry 'Bout Me", and "And The Angels Swing".

Stan and Beverly were married on November 7, 1946 in Los Angeles. Stan hangs with a certain group of saxophone players in L.A., all influenced strongly by Lester Young. They're playing in the rehearsal band of trumpeter Tommy DeCarlo. They are: Herb Steward, Zoot Sims and Jimmy Giuffre. The band often plays an East L.A. Mexican ballroom playing mainly Mexican stock arrangements. Sometimes they would mix in their own jazz and no one seemed to mind.

Ralph Burns came down to the joint to hear his friends play one night and was blown away by the cohesion of the saxophone team. Burns at that time was the staff arranger building Woody Herman's new Bop-based band, and Woody hired all four of the saxophone players on Burn's advice. The organization was to be known as Herman's Second Herd. His first band had been more swing and blues oriented. "From the very beginning that band was something special," said Stan many years later, "I remember our first rehearsal at a place on Santa Monica Blvd. Ralph Burns came in with a brand new, pretty difficult chart...and that band read it down and swung it without a moment's hesitation."

Between December 22-31,1946, this band recorded fourteen songs, releasing eleven of them. Five of these eleven became hit singles: "I've Got News For You", "Keen and Peachy", "The Goof and I", "Four Brothers" (named after the saxophone players of Stan Getz, Serge Chaloff, Zoot Sims and Herb Steward) and "Summer Sequence". All of Stan's influences are at play in his work by now: Notably Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and Dexter Gordon.

Development...

"I never consciously tried to conceive of what my sound should be...I believe it was because of the bands I played with from the ages of 15 to 22. The first one was Jack Teagarden, who we all know played trombone, but his sound was so great...so legitimate, and effortless. I never tried to imitate anybody, but when you love somebody's music, you're influenced. Then I was with Benny Goodman when I was 18, and I believe his sound had an influence on me; such a good sound that he had in those days, you know? And in-between I heard Lester Young, of course, and it was a special kind of trip to hear someone like Lester, who sounded so good and almost classical in a warm way. He took so much 'reed' out of the sound. I really don't know how I developed my sound, but it comes from a combination of my musical conception and no doubt the basic shape of the oral cavity. I did always try to get as much of the reed out of the sound as I could... and hear more of the breath. I came from an era when we didn't use electronic instruments. The bass wasn't even amplified. The sound was the sound that you got, and I discovered that my dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound...I have to work hard to get my sound because I use a harder reed (med-hard Van Doren). People think that I play effortlessly. I remember doing a record date with Bill Evans and afterwards he said to me, you make it sound so easy but when I get right up next to you you're working hard and making it sound easy!"

Heroin use was out of control in the Herman band. Stan: "I remember playing one time with Woody's band at this afternoon concert. Nine acts of vaudeville and a trained bear. The bear came on, and I mean, this bear had to be nine feet tall. And the band came out, and the two on each side of Sam Marowitz-the lead alto player who was very strait-laced; no drugs, no drinking-were Serge Chaloff, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and me. All stoned. The bear was doing this thing with the trainer, and at one point the bear came around and his arm went over the saxophone section. He could have killed the five of us- but only Sam Marowitz ducked. The rest of us were too stoned to even know the bear was near us."

The vocalists were top draws after the war, not bands. Record companies didn't understand and appreciate the significance of Bebop. Television, cars and suburban living were spreading the nightclub and dance hall customers further away from the centrally located club venues. Woody Herman pointed out another division: "The audience that could understand "Apple Honey" couldn't relate to "Lemon Drop", or "Four Brothers". Musically, the Bebop route was magnificent, but business-wise, it was the dumbest thing I ever did."

Between several damaging "recording bans" instituted during the 1940's by the American Federation of Musicians for union bargaining, bands squeezed in as many recording dates as they could. On one of these rushed sessions, Herman recorded "Early Autumn", featuring a brief, beautifully stated solo by Getz. The record became a hit when it was released a few months later. Although Getz was never interested in listening to his own records, he once said "Early Autumn I've heard, because it's played on the radio enough for me to hear it. And it's okay. It's a nice solo. But I don't get it. I don't understand why it was such an earth-shaking thing. It's just another ballad solo for me...my music is something that's done and forgotten about."

Stan quit the Herman band in March 1950 after a tragic accident on a train outside Chicago. Stan and several other musicians had been driving to a gig in winter conditions when their car broke down. The Herman band manager had arranged to flag down a train in an out-of-the way town to pick them to continue their trip. When the train slowed unexpectedly, an old conductor- a month from retirement- got down onto the tracks to investigate. He slipped under the wheels of the train on some snow and was killed. As the happy musicians boarded one of the warm cars, other passengers, who had already heard what had happened to the conductor, greeted them with icy, angry stares. Stan never forgot the tragedy- it freaked him out so much he quit the band. He began to freelance, cutting a few records, and led a big band for the only time in his life at Harlem's Apollo Theater for one week in August of 1950.

Success...

The previous month (July, 1950) Woody Herman's record of "Early Autumn" had been released, and the more airplay it got, the bigger the Getz name became. Stan was now officially a star, based on one solo, and everyone wanted him to play.

Beverly and Stan suddenly have enough money to buy a modest house in Levittown, New York, and by Dec.15, 1950 Stan Getz is recognized enough to be asked to open "Birdland" with Charlie Parker and Lester Young. He is 22. On Christmas day, 1950 he joins an all-star concert at Carnegie Hall featuring Miles Davis, Serge Chaloff, Sonny Stitt, Max Roach, Bud Powell, Parker, Sarah Vaughan, and Lenny Tristano. He tops the Metronome Magazine Poll as Tenor saxophonist, and shares the Metronome Musician of the Year Award with Lee Konitz. He comes in second in the Downbeat Poll.

While playing a gig in Hartford, Connecticut, Stan hires a local kid named Horace Silver to join his group on piano, ("I was discovered in Hartford, Connecticut by Stan Getz and took Al's place. In 1950 I was about 21. I was appearing at The Sundown with Harold Holdt. Stan liked me, hired me and I took Al's chair to go on tour with Stan's quintet." - Horace Silver) and then he's off to perform in Sweden, where he receives a hero's welcome. Everything is fine until he discovers there is no heroin to be found anywhere. He suffers through withdrawal and plays as much as he can with young Swedish players his own age, who know little about the prevalence of narcotics on the American jazz scene. Being exposed for the first time in his life to very talented, enthusiastic musicians who weren't high on drugs causes a rather short, first epiphany for Stan. He wants to be clean like them. He hopes he can quit using soon.

Recording constantly, regardless...

Back in Boston in October of 1951, he records "Live at Storyville Vol. 1 and 2" at George Wein's Boston club. The gig, recorded on October 28th, is an amazing performance by Getz, Al Haig on piano, Jimmy Raney on guitar and Tiny Kahn on drums. They speed through thirteen tunes in sixty-seven minutes, including the spectacular tribute "Parker 51".

On March 11, 1952 Stan records "Moonlight in Vermont" and his audience grows. He is making $1,000 a week, and spending almost all of it on heroin. Wife Beverly is also addicted, and they make frequent six hour round trips between Long Island and Philly to score cheap junk. He's keeping his career going in spite of his habit, and some great sides keep his audience growing: "These Foolish Things Remind Me Of You", "Stella by Starlight" and "Thanks For The Memory", performed with the vintage Jimmy Raney edition of Stan's Quintet, seem timeless.)

Norman Granz...

Stan signed with Norman Granz's Clef Records label in 1952, and Granz turns on the P.R. machine to sell Stan. He combines several 78 singles into an LP album entitled "Stan Getz Plays", packaged with a memorable cover shot of Stan leaning forward with his saxophone to receive a kiss from his young son Steve in the recording studio. Granz puts him on tour with a Jazz At The Philharmonic company, and things are great until he gets busted in a Los Angeles narcotics sweep. He is arraigned, but the judge lets him finish his pre-arranged eight-day tour with west coast D.J./ Producer Gene Norman and pianist George Shearing. Stan fronts a sax unit on the trip featuring Zoot Sims and Wardell Gray.

Problems......

He has been on heroin for nine years, and wants to get off of it before he goes to prison. While on this tour he swallows barbiturates and drinks liberally to lessen the inevitable withdrawal symptoms. He is strung out the entire tour, and tries to pick fights with other musicians on the bus. By the time they arrive in Seattle, he is in misery with muscle cramps. Gaunt and sickly, he walks into a drug store across the street from his hotel, pretends he has a gun under his coat, and stages a stick-up. A woman named Mary Brewster is behind the counter that morning, and when Stan approaches he tells her to "Give me a capsule of Morphine. Don't scream. If you do, I'll blow your brains out". She calmly assists two other customers, and whispers "Stick up" to one of them who leaves quietly and calls the police. Turning back to Stan, she says, "Let me see your gun."

At this unexpected challenge, Stan turns and runs out of the store and back to his hotel room across the street as the other customers watch. He then calls to apologize to Mary Brewster. A cop is already there and listens in on another phone. Stan says, "I'm sorry for the crazy thing I did. I've never done anything like that before. I'm not a stick-up man. I'm from a good family. I'm going to commit myself on Wednesday." Brewster asks "Why don't you commit yourself today?" "I can't. If I don't get drugs, I'll kill".

The cop on the phone speaks up, pretending to be a doctor, and asks if he can help. Stan blurts out his life's story. The "doctor" says he'll come right over to help. Locked in his room, despairing and ashamed, Stan tries to kill himself by swallowing a fistful of barbiturates. The police knock on his door minutes later, and run him in for booking. A photograph of Stan in the back seat of a patrol car, looking sick and scared, is flashed over the news wire services. The overdose of barbiturates takes effect minutes after he is locked up and he collapses. He is rushed to a hospital where doctors perform an emergency Tracheotomy to save his life. All of the national attention brings reporters to his bedside the next day. He explains that he began getting hooked on heroin "About a year ago." He tells them about his family life with Beverly and the kids, and how there's another baby on the way. He talks about how he sends his parents money to live on back in New York. He paints a picture of a loving family man who has made some terrible mistakes. He doesn't mention that his wife is also a heroin addict. He is released from the hospital for sentencing in the previous Los Angeles narcotics case.

The sentencing judge isn't buying Stan's own damage control story. He gets right to the point:
"You have talent, family and a good background, but despite an income of a thousand dollars a week, you are not only broke, but your family is living under deplorable conditions. They are sleeping on the floor while you travel in luxury spending money on yourself- and doing what comes naturally.

You're a poor excuse for a man. If you can't behave yourself, someone else is going to have to look after you...It's time you grew up." He gets six months in jail and three years probation. He is lucky to be sent to the jail ward of the Los Angeles General Hospital where he begins detox. At the same time he is admitted, his addicted wife is downstairs giving birth to their daughter, Beverly.

Stan is transferred to the Los Angeles City Jail, which is a much tougher place. He is released exactly six months to the day later on August 16. For the first time in his adult life he is drug and alcohol free. He is 27.

Staying on top...

Within thirty-six hours of his release, he's in the best and worst place he could possibly be- performing on stage with Chet Baker in Los Angeles. Only three days later he is playing an All-Star concert before another California crowd of 6,000, and receives a thunderous ovation when he arrives onstage. Norman Granz puts him on tour with the band of Duke Ellington. Dave Brubeck and Gerry Mulligan fill out the bill. In December of 1955 he is the featured guest soloist with the Count Basie Band. To round out the year, he wins the Downbeat Poll for the fifth straight time.

While playing a Washington, D.C. club date he meets a 19-year-old Swedish aristocrat named Monica Silfverskiold backstage. She is studying at Georgetown and is attending the gig with friends. Back out west alone with the kids, Beverly is nearly strangled to death by an escaped mental patient while she walks with her two small boys near her home one morning in Laurel Canyon. The two boy's screams for help were heard by nearby police as they ran down the trail in panic, and the cops captured the patient.

Stan decides to move the family back east, and he arranges for Beverly and the kids to drive back as far as Kansas City with one of her reputed connections named Tom Killough. They were to meet Stan in K.C., and he was to drive the rest of the way to New York. Near Tulsa, Okalahoma, Killough falls asleep at the wheel and the car is split in two by the steel I-beam of a turnpike overpass. Killough dies. Beverly and the children are in very serious condition.

Stan arrives and tells reporters "He was sure that God was punishing him for his weakness and sins...for enslaving himself and Beverly to heroin and booze, for letting his three kids grow up virtually uncared for in a drug-dominated chaos, for the mangled bodies of his wife and son. If God took (his son) David, Stan would understand, he deserved it."

After a golden summer, Stan flies unannounced to Sweden in the autumn. Once again he goes through heroin withdrawal, this time ending up in a strait jacket in the hospital. He comes down with pneumonia and nearly dies. Monica feels that God has given her a perfect life so far, and has sent Stan so that she can help him. Love will conquer all, she hopes, and she makes it her mission in life to take care of him.

Her wealthy family sends them off to Africa so that he can recuperate without drugs interfering. They return to Sweden where they're engaged to be married, and then return to the U.S. where Monica begins the rebuilding of Stan's life.

Stan takes off for a JATP tour and gets a Mexican divorce. Stan and Monica move to Great Neck, Long Island. Beverly settles for a lump sum cash payment. He continues to work steadily for Norman Granz, recording "Stan Getz with Oscar Peterson", "Mulligan Meets Getz, and "Stan Meets Chet". He wins the Downbeat and Metronome Polls for the 8th and 9th time , and is a featured performer at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958. After some legal maneuvers, Monica gets custody of Stan and Beverly's kids, and then flies home to Sweden to give birth to their first child. Tired of the I.R.S. hounding him, Stan decides to move to Denmark. He pays off the I.R.S. by mail. Denmark is relaxing. They rent a villa and settle in with the new baby and the other children. The villa is in a small town outside of Copenhagen called Kungens Lyngby, and faces a swan-filled pond.

Stan joins Anders Dyrup in starting the Club Montmarte in Copenhagen. There is no sign on the street outside the place - just a large photograph of Count Basie over the door. Bassist Oscar Pettiford plays in the house band. He had come to Denmark because race wasn't a big issue there. Pettiford was part Choctaw, Cherokee and African-American. He had married a white woman. Getz and Pettiford get along well, and many other fine musicians stop by the new club to play. Stan moves around Europe with ease, playing all the jazz venues.

While Stan is living in Europe, another musical revolution had occurred in the U.S. The rise of Modal Jazz, as played by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman is dominating the progressive jazz scene. Modal jazz has no chords to worry about, it's the inspiration of the musician to move, or not move the music along. It's a challenge for musicians trained to follow more structured chord-based melodics. Stan felt like he was being quickly left behind, but he stuck to chordal music. It didn't elude him that while he was helping Swedish musicians play Swing and Bebop, the Americans were building a new musical venture- and selling records. John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things" became a hit, and after eleven years, Getz lost both the Metronome and Downbeat polls to Coltrane. The final blow was when his good friend Oscar Pettiford died suddenly of Meningitis at age 37. Stan played a benefit concert for his wife and family, raising $4,600.

Trends change...

Stan returns to New York and its jazz scene to much critical acclaim to those who come hear him, but his audience has dwindled. As his dates are cancelled, he realizes how much the public can forget in a few years. Although he put together a great band, it fails to ignite any interest.

At this time he turned to arranger and composer Eddie Sauter to begin work on the project that he claimed was the most important recording of his life- the "Focus" album. In the middle of these sessions, Stan's 54-year-old mother dies of a stroke at his daughter's third birthday party. Because he missed the first sessions of the Focus album when the orchestra was present, he had to wear headphones in the studio and follow the recorded score, improvising over it, but not being able to hear himself clearly because of the headgear. Stan always said, "The record I'm most proud of is "Focus". That was one hell of an effort, to match up with those strings with no music written, but just a score transposed into my key. I listen to that record and feel proud." Stan met guitarist Charlie Byrd while playing a club in Washington, D.C. After the show, Byrd takes him to his home and plays him some tapes he has brought back with him from a State Department tour he made of Latin America between March and June of 1961. He collected the music from Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Argentina. Byrd was impressed with the sound of the jazz/samba hybrid that was called 'Bossa Nova' in Brazil, and tells Stan that he can't find anyone interested in recording it in America. Stan immediately sees the potential in the sound and asks Creed Taylor to set up a recording session, at which he and Byrd will record some Bossa Nova tracks for an album. Byrd tells Taylor about the fine acoustics inside All Soul's Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. On February 13, 1962, Stan and Taylor fly down from New York for the "Jazz Samba" session, and then fly back on the shuttle in time for dinner in Manhattan. No big deal.

Stan is surprised that "Jazz Samba" begins selling well in August of 1962, while 'Focus' is all but ignored. "Jazz Samba" even makes the single Pop charts on September 15, 1962, and "Desafinado" follows two weeks later. In the last weeks of 1962, there is a national Bossa Nova craze. Stan finds himself on top of the Downbeat Poll for the year.

On March 18, 1963, Stan goes into the studio to record "Getz/Gilberto". Joao Gilberto was almost pathologically shy, and refuses to leave his hotel room to go to the studio. Monica goes to his hotel and pleads with Gilberto to go. The only Brazilian fluent in English present at the session was Gilberto's wife, Astrud. Stan asks her to sing "Corcodavo" and "The Girl From Impanema". She has no training or experience, but Stan likes her voice. "Gilberto and Jobim didn't want Astrud on it. Astrud wasn't a professional singer; she was a housewife. But when I wanted translations of what was going on, and she sang "Ipanema" and "Corcodavo", "I thought the words in English were very nice...and Astrud sounded good enough to put on the record." In March of 1964,Verve releases "Getz/Gilberto. Monica actually went into the record office and spent weeks calling radio stations all over the country making sure they had a copy, and encouraging them to give it airplay. Her work paid off, and the album began to chart on June 6, 1964.

"The Girl From Ipanema" is a big hit single, and makes the unknown Astrud Gilberto a star. In July of 1964, "The Girl From Ipanema" reaches #5 on the Pop charts, and the album "Getz/Gilberto" reaches #2, edged out only by the Beatle's "A Hard Day's Night". Getz/Gilberto wins Album of the Year honors at the 1965 Grammy's, with 'Ipanema' winning as best single for the year. Two more Grammy's were bestowed on the album for Best Engineered Album, and one to Stan for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance.

In 1966, Stan and Monica buy an estate in Irvington, New York named "Shadowbrook". The 36 room, ten-acre estate overlooked the Hudson River. Getz had also become a favorite performer at the Johnson White House. The first White House event was to honor the Top College Graduates of 1965. He then plays for the Chiefs of the Diplomatic Corps along with the Marine Dance Orchestra. Next he is performing in honor of the 1966 Presidential Scholars. Then he is asked to travel to Bangkok, Thailand, and play for the King and Queen during Johnson's State Visit to that nation. The King is a jazz fan, and Johnson delivers one of the best.

Stan has a fight with Monica and prematurely flies back to New York before the State Dinner during which he is to play for the King and President. On the flight home guilt and remorse set in at the thought of "letting down the President", and he boards the next plane back to Bangkok in New York and makes the dinner performance with only an hour to spare. He then tours Vietnam and Thai Army bases playing for troops.

In the spring of 1967 Stan is present for a White House jazz concert, again in honor of the King and Queen of Thailand, which features Duke Ellington and the North Texas State College Big Band. This is the only time that Stan Getz will play with Duke Ellington.

1968 was the first year since 1943 that Getz makes no recordings. In 1969, he goes to England. In London, he plays for a living, and hangs out with a fast crowd, including Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. One night in late November, while drinking in his suite at the Dorchester with these two, he talks about his swimming prowess, and they bet him he couldn't swim across the Thames that night. Getz takes them up on the bet and soon the three of them are walking through the hotel's lobby, with Stan in swimming trunks under a terry cloth robe. Up to the last moment, the bets are getting higher, and after accepting the challenge of the highest bid, Stan jumps into the dark river water. As they hear the splash in disbelief, Milligan panics and runs to a cop to report that Stan Getz has jumped into the river on a bet to swim across, and he must come find him. The police tell him to go home and sleep it off. Stan completes the swim, and pulls himself up the embankment on the opposite side. Sellers and Milligan jump in a cab and race over the nearest bridge to look for him. They find him calmly sitting on a bench, dripping wet, asking, "What took you guys so long?"

The 1970's - A relentless pace - Accolades...

By now it is the early 1970's and Stan is no longer drinking. Monica and Stan are happy together. He travels to Johannesburg, South Africa to play, and is appalled to see the strength of Apartheid. He organizes a concert at the Bantu Men's Social Club and insists on playing for only racially mixed audiences.

Back in the U.S. Stan gathers Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Airto Moreira and Tony Williams into a new group. They open at the Rainbow Grill in January of 1972, sharing the bill with Joao Gilberto. This musical venture breaks all attendance records at the Grill. The group records the intense"Captain Marvel" album, which isn't released for three more years because of a recording contract dispute. Stan soon signs with the Columbia label. By the time "Marvel" is released, Corea, Clarke and Moreira have left to start their own band, "Return To Forever", adding Joe Farrell on sax and Flora Purim on vocals.

Stan's first wife Beverly dies in California of a stroke at the age of 45. She has been clean and married to a chiropractor for many years. Stan does not hear about her death for a year. He finds out that she had conquered drugs in the early 1960's, and met her husband while singing in a jazz club. She had quit show business and quietly managed his office for years. But she always kept a picture of Stan, Monica and the Getz children, cut from an album cover, on her fireplace mantle. "She never stopped loving Stan and never talked bad about him," said her husband, Dr. Bednar.

Stan records his first Columbia album, "The Best of Both Worlds", in May of 1975 with Joao Gilberto. He leaves for Europe in the summer of 1976. Then he travels to South America with son Steve, who plays the drums in the band.

On November 20, 1976, Stan is back at Carnegie Hall for Woody Herman's 40th Anniversary Concert as a bandleader. At the end of January, 1977 he records "Stan Getz Gold" back at the Montmarte Club in Copenhagen and then celebrates his 50th birthday at The Monastery, Copenhagen's finest club. Twenty jazz saxophonists from all over Denmark arrive at the club to play "Happy Birthday" for Stan. In April Getz tours the nation of Cuba with a group, and then travels to Israel for the summer, where he films "Stan Getz in Israel: A Musical Odyssey".

On June 17, 1978, President Jimmy Carter invites Stan to the White House for a performance to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival. Carter is a big Getz fan.

The 1980's - Still working and recording at a furious pace...

Stan leaves for a tour of India and Australia, where he is an undisputed star in the press. In 1980, he grossed $220,000. When he returns, he gets a call from President Carter again, this time to play a Tall Ships Festival in Boston on May 29. On May 12, 1981, Stan records "The Dolphin" in San Francisco. He likes the city and decides to move there. He also decides to sue Monica for divorce for the years of secret Antabuse dosing. After being served with papers for the lawsuit, Monica tries to save the marriage once more by going into marriage therapy, but the marriage itself is not the issue; it is the drugs and drinking.

He leaves on a tour of Europe and then records "Pure Getz". Gary Giddens wrote of that album's Strayhorn composition: "With "Blood Count", Getz joins the relatively small group of jazz stylists who can lay personal claim to material by sole virtue of their interpretive integrity" Stan celebrates his 55th birthday at Fat Tuesday's in New York. Later on, through social acquaintances with friends of faculty at Stanford University, the school takes an interest in Stan as a possible Artist In Residence in the Music Department. He soon realizes that he can leave the road and stay and teach if he plays his cards right. He says to an AP reporter "It's nice to see how normal people live. This is my chance to stay sober". For the first time in his life, Stan voluntarily checks himself into "The Ark", another rehab clinic, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. After playing at the White House again in December of 1982, Stan heads out on a tour with Chet Baker. Baker missed half of the dates, and tries to get back to France quickly via Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, carrying heroin. Stan is traveling with him and is fairly freaked out by the risk involved.

Stan heads back to California and tours the wine country, living at Stanford. The Music Department at the University continued to encourage Stan to join them. He made many new friends on the faculty and in the community. One friend, an artist named Nate Oliveira, remembered "...When you asked him about his feelings when he played, he would get pissed off and say, "What are you talking about. Getting sentimental. I don't think about those things." But he really did. When he played, you could almost see him make marks like a drawing, a big painting- an abstract expressionist like Bill de Kooning. Wow. You could really see it. I said, " Stan, you know what we do, we color this world. If we weren't around, people like us, the world would be all gray." And he said, "God". And he never forgot that.

During this same time, Stan starts taking AA seriously. In 1985 on a tour of Israel, Stan's son Steve travels with him as the band's drummer, and calls it "The happiest time he ever spent with his father".

Getz returns to Stanford, where he becomes the artist in residence on January 1, 1986. His schedule requires him to teach six hours a week, give four concerts a year, and conduct student workshops. He discussed his teaching with a local reporter, and adds: "When I got this saxophone, it became a religion. There wasn't TV, there wasn't much money, and there was just a real dedication...I never thought of it as an art. It was just work that I loved. Not just work, but work that I loved. I loved it so much I would play it if nobody listened to it. Any jazz musician, if there's nobody around to listen, would play just for the sheer joy of improvising music." Larry Grenadier, one of Stan's college students at this time said later that "He would make certain comments after he heard you play, just take you aside and say something- how to play with the drummer, what he looked for in a bass player, how to make it more comfortable for a horn player, stuff like that. Just listening to him helped a lot. His sound is so unique; it's so rare for people to have that individual sound and make that strong a statement just with their sound. It was so striking; it just hit you over the head. And his timing and rhythm were so strong; he was a master of space and silence."

In 1986, coming up on the anniversary of his first year of sobriety, Mel Miller interviews Getz in "The Saxophone Journal", and Stan expounds on many areas of his playing: "I practiced saxophone eight hours a day for the first two years I played. But I never practiced after that because I was always out on the road working. The only time I take out the horn, other than work, is to find a new reed...I've always regretted the fact that I've never formally studied and learned the mechanics of writing music...It's a pain in the neck to have to depend on others to write things, or if I have something in mind and am barely able to tell someone what to play behind me. Most musicians seem to be able to follow me because I've learned enough chords to be able to play them without even knowing their names....Life is too full of distractions nowadays. When I was a kid we had a little Emerson radio and that was it. We were more dedicated. We didn't have a choice and we didn't have big allowances. I got out of the Bronx by taking that saxophone in a room eight hours a day and playing it! Now there's more distractions, like movies, video, and sports. Early on we made records to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records. I still feel that way. I put out a record because I think it's beautiful, but not necessarily commercial...Commercial can be a good word too. It means getting to a larger number of people. Records used to be documents but now record companies want 'product'. They want to sell a lot more records and guys want to get famous. I never thought about being famous or having a band. I just wanted to play music." When Getz was asked what he would like to say to all saxophone players reading the interview, he said: "Switch to piano! No. Really, if you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it's like the human voice. Of course, it would be best if you could actually sing with your own voice. The saxophone is an imperfect instrument, especially the tenor and soprano, as far as intonation goes. Therefore, the challenge is to sing on an imperfect instrument or "voice" that is outside of your body. I love that challenge and have for over forty-five years. As far as playing jazz, no other art form, other than conversation, can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction."

Health issues barely slow him down...

On May 1, 1987 Stan was told he had a tumor behind his heart the size of a grapefruit Stan plays the JVC Jazz Festival on June 21, 1987, and then heads off for a European tour While in Copenhagen, Stan plays at his old club, the Montmarte, and described how he felt at the time: "I thought that those concerts in Copenhagen could be my last ones, and that gave me the feeling of "Now I have to really try my best." I felt strong, although my life was in danger. I made quite a drama out of it. You know how people can overact in those situations. In my fantasy, I was singing my musical swan song. You know how things are going when everybody is ready to start playing the violin."

Around this time, his son Steve asked his Dad what he thought about when he played. Stan replied:" It's not forced concentration. Sure, I'm thinking about what I'm playing, but what I'm trying to do is to psyche myself into relaxing so the notes come out of the horn in a natural way."

Getz returns to the U.S. and teaches at Stanford. On September 18, 1987 he undergoes the operation to remove the tumor in his chest.

On October 29, 1987 Woody Herman dies in Los Angeles, at 74. Stan cries when he hears the news. He is living alone near the beach in California while he recovers from the surgery. Q245r5 Stan finds playing the sax painful and tiring, but he embarks on a month-long European tour in spite of it. Too sick after one week, he cancels the rest of the tour and heads home.

On July 1, 1988 Stan performs at a memorial concert for Buddy Rich at Carnegie Hall. Soon after returning west he buys a house in Atherton, California, complete with a white picket fence around it. There he enjoys life, eating a macrobiotic diet and playing with his new puppy. But July is darkened when Stan is informed that he has liver cancer, and also Cirrhosis, caused by years of abuse. The Lymphoma had apparently not been stopped by the tumor operation 10 months earlier. He is told he could live for four to six months, or maybe a year, with an operation, radiation and chemotherapy. He decides to fight with a strict diet utilizing specific herbs. Although he hadn't had alcohol since September of 1985, he had continued smoking cigarettes.

In November of 1988 Stan meets with Herb Alpert for two hours. Alpert is interested in signing and recording Stan when he hears that he has no recording contract.

On November 21, Stan gets the results of MRI liver scans. They show a miraculous shrinkage of the tumor by 10%. Doctors on the case are astonished. The herbs and diet have been working. But the very next day, Stan suffers a mild heart attack caused by a blocked artery and undergoes Angioplasty. The doctors give Stan Morphine for pain- no one bothered to tell them that Stan was addicted to it- and send him home. He is found passed out from an overdose five days later at his home, and he goes back to the hospital for four days of detox.

In June of 1989, Stan toured Europe with a group, including pianist Kenny Barron. They record "Just Friends" with singer Helen Merrill. The same month he is inducted into France's Order of Letters along with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Hank Jones, Phil Woods, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath and Jackie McLean. This group records the "Paris All-Stars Tribute to Charlie Parker" album on June 16. Stan stars in a documentary portrait of himself entitled "People Time", and gets great news on August 12, 1989- doctors report that the latest MRI scan shows that the liver tumor has shrunk 70%. He records his first album for Alpert, "Apasionado". Stan looks forward to opening the 1989 World Series by playing the "Star Spangled Banner" for 26 million people on TV- the biggest audience of his career. As he strapped on his saxophone and prepared to walk onto the field, a huge earthquake hit San Francisco, and for fifteen seconds the full stadium swayed and creaked. Stan was taken away to an office within the stadium where he remained for an hour before leaving for the night. On June 17, 1990, Stan gets the latest MRI scans, and the best news yet. His liver tumor is barely visible. He leaves for New York and Europe. On his return, Stan played the Monterey Jazz Festival with a band featuring Kenny Barron, Victor Lewis, and Alex Blake. The audience roared when Dizzy Gillespie joined Stan on stage.

In December of 1990, Stan got bad news himself. A blood test showed that his liver cancer was not in remission any longer, and that the tumor was again growing. He started getting serious stomach pain.

He flew to Boston and played at the Charles Hotel with Kenny Barron, in preparation for a short trip to Europe in March, and a longer tour there in July and August of 1991. Stan made a side-trip to New York on February 25, and recorded an album with singer Abbey Lincoln entitled "You Gotta Pay The Band". Hank Jones plays piano at the session. Jones had played piano on Stan's first record date 45 years earlier.

Time to go home...

Stan flew to Copenhagen in February. Although he is ill, he records "People Time". The Getz/Barron duet performances are superb. Then they move on to Paris to play, but by now Stan's playing is showing the strain of his sickness. On March 10, 1991 he returns to Malibu, and then leaves for a vacation in Hawaii. On his return from this trip, his health deteriorated rapidly, and he was homebound. Friends visited: Shorty Rogers, Charlie Haden, Lou Levy, Johnny Mandel and Herb Alpert.

At 3 A.M. on the morning of Thursday, June 6, 1991, Stan asked to be helped in his wheelchair to the window next to his bed, so that he could gaze out at the ocean. Stan slipped away at 5 P.M. that night. He was 64.

On Sunday, June 9, Stan's ashes were poured out of his saxophone case six miles off the coast of Malibu Beach by his Grandson, Chris. The sky was clear and the water was still. The song coming out of the CD player was Strayhorn's "Blood Count". The yacht they stood on belonged to trumpeter Shorty Rogers, Stan's friend from the Bronx.