Stan Getz

Stanley Gayetsky (aka Stan Getz) (1927 in Philadelphia - 1991 in Malibu, California) was born to Russian-Jewish parents and raised in New York City, Getz played a number of instruments before his father bought him his first saxophone at the age of 13. In 1943, he was accepted into Jack Teagarden's band. After playing in various bands (1944 Stan Kenton; 1945 Jimmy Dorsey; 1945–46 Benny Goodman), Getz became known as a soloist in the Woody Herman Band from 1947–49. He scored a hit with his melodic and lyrical solo on Ralph Burns's Early Autumn. With few exceptions, Getz would be a leader on all of his recording sessions after 1950.

Getz became involved with drugs and alcohol while a teenager. He also developed a pack-a-day cigarette habit. In 1954, he was arrested for trying to stick up a pharmacy to get morphine. As he was being processed in the prison ward of Los Angeles City Hospital, his wife - Beverly Byrne, a former vocalist with the Gene Krupa band, whom he married on November 7, 1946 - gave birth to their third child one floor below; they divorced in 1956. Getz married Swedish aristocrat Monica Silfverskiold on November 3, 1956, and had 1 child. In 1957, a son was born to Inga Torgner, one of his many dalliances. Getz beat both wives repeatedly during drug-induced rages. Beverly was addicted to heroin, as was Stan, but eventually got sober. After years of trying to get him sober, Monica, who had gained custody of Stan and Beverly's children, left him; he divorced her in 1987, claiming, incredibly, abuse and infidelity. [1]

In the 1950s, Getz had become popular playing cool jazz with Horace Silver, Johnny Smith, Oscar Peterson, and many others. His first two quintets were notable for their personnel, including Charlie Parker's rhythm section of drummer Roy Haynes, Al Haig and bassist Tommy Potter. In 1958, Getz tried to escape his narcotics addiction by moving to Copenhagen, Denmark.

Returning to America in 1961, Getz became a central figure in the fusion of jazz and Bossa Nova. Along with Charlie Byrd, who had just returned from a U.S. State Department tour of Brazil, Getz recorded Jazz Samba in 1962 and it became a hit. The title track was an adaptation of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Só Danço Samba". Getz won the Grammy for Best Jazz Performance of 1963 for "Desafinado".

He then recorded with Jobim, João Gilberto and his wife, Astrud Gilberto, with whom Getz had a brief affair. Their "The Girl from Ipanema" won a Grammy Award. "Ipanema" became one of the most well-known jazz pieces of all time. Getz/Gilberto won two Grammys (Best Album and Best Single), besting The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, a victory for Bossa Nova and Brazilian jazz. Other musicians such as Wes Montgomery and Joe Henderson incorporated Brazilian jazz in their work. In 1967, Getz recorded albums with Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke.

After another drug-induced hiatus in Málaga, Spain, Getz resurfaced, playing with electric ensembles into the 1980s, and experimenting with an Echoplex on his saxophone, for which critics vilified him. He eventually discarded fusion and "electric jazz" for acoustic jazz again. Getz gradually de-emphasized the Bossa Nova, opting for more esoteric and less-mainstream jazz.

Getz died in 1991 of liver cancer. In 1998, The "Stan Getz Media Center and Library" at the Berklee College of Music was dedicated to the memory of the saxophonist through a donation from the Herb Alpert Foundation.