Stan Getz Music Style3/21/2021
This concept comes to mind when recalling the pervasive magic of Stans tone that evening; how it drenched the space like divinely scented liquid air, filling every atom and quark of the room with unimaginable tonal splendor, as if we were suddenly transported to the ancient Indian Mughal Akbar the Greats palace bedecked with rubies, emeralds, gold, silks, and sapphires overlooking the Yamuna River with fair, refreshing breezes.The predominant swing influences are Lester Young, Benny Goodman, and, not as commonly acknowledged, Artie Shaw.
Modern jazz influences lead towards Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon. What is new for me, however, is how Jack Teagardens influence on Stans sound and style is equally important compared to anyone else. This is apparent from listening to the great trombonist and singers sound and phrasing; a joy of smoothness, limpidity, elegance, and direct expressive impact without pretense or masks. During the course of his musical development, Teagarden transitioned jazz trombone from Dixieland (also known as Hot Jazz, Traditional Jazz and Early Jazz) to Swing, subsequently moving back and forth between the two forms, but always retaining dramatically exquisite elements of Dixieland in his playing, particularly at slower tempos. Like Getz, Teagarden makes any question of whether the music is made by an African American, Caucasian, or Jewish musician irrelevant. One simply doesnt care to focus on such relative trivialities compared to the actual music. This included riding in the car with Teagarden and his wife whenever automobile was the chosen mode of transportation to engagements, which was frequent, including the telling of exceptionally earthy jokes by the bandleader, delivered uncensored to the astonishment of the young musician. It is impossible to overestimate the musical, social, and psychological sway Teagarden imparted to the young, impressionable saxophonist, including extra-musical modes of intoxication taken for relaxation or stimulation: alcohol and drugs, the latter coming from band members. Stan Getz Music Style How To Inject MorphineIndeed, like Charlie Parker, Getz became a heroin addict while still in his teens, naively imitating some older musicians from either the Teagarden or subsequent Stan Kenton band who apparently found it amusing to show a young teenager how to inject morphine like themselves, which eventually led to heroin. Equally unbeknownst and misunderstood by most even in the jazz world, Parker had succumbed to opiates only after a severe back injury from a tragic car accident that threatened his ability to walk again. Partially because I have had relatively little interest in Early Jazz, I never really heard Teagarden until now, and his music is truly a timeless marvel of expression married to technique, with a passion for melisma and sculptural perfection. Actually, Adolph Sax, the Belgian inventor of the saxophone, envisioned a new instrument that combines the power of the brass family with the flexibility of the woodwind family, absolutely succeeding in his quest, but only after the saxophone was adopted by jazz musicians. It is a bright yellow dense, soft, malleable and ductile metal. Incidentally, Stan did begin playing a gold-plated tenor after his silver-plated horn was stolen in the mid-sixties.) For example, if you listen carefully, Lester Young generally articulates his eighth notes in a slightly more slurred fashion than Stan Getz, closer to the woodwind aspects of the tenor saxophone, in addition to being a bit more irregular in terms of rhythmic placement. I mention eighth notes because they often emerge as an important rhythmic component of jazz improvisations. Once, when asked what he does for a living, Lee Konitz, with a wry sense of humor, replied: I play eighth notes.) Enormously swayed by Young in terms of timbre, expression, phrasing, rhythmic propulsion, and other important qualities, Getzs eighth notes are more relatable to the brass identity of the tenor saxophone than Young, being more portato and weighted, relatively speaking, of course, and a degree more rhythmically regular. My assertion is that these are among the qualities found in Getzs playing that were planted permanently by Jack Teagarden, and one may even sense magically swift motion by the well-oiled, golden brass, main slide of a gloriously legato and buoyant trombone when Stan is playing at medium and fast tempos. Legato, yes, but definitely trombone-influenced. Central to Teagardens uniquely liquid brass sound was how he only used the first three of the possible seven trombone positions.) And Getzs extroverted exuberance playing at medium and fast tempos is derived, in part, from the celebratory ceremony that is Early Jazz as interpreted by Teagarden. Stans treatment of ballads Here the influence of Teagardens trombone playing and singing clearly forms the foundation of his young (sic) disciples vibrato, articulation, phrasing, tone production, and expression; a foundation that was organically expanded upon after Getz was inspired by the music of Lester Young. Regarding the origins of Youngs playing, I was curious to hear C-melody saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer for the first time, and was amazed at how transparently recognizable the connection is. Following this, I also listened to alto saxophonist Jimmy Dorsey for the first time, and was thrilled to finally understand the crucial effect he had on Charlie Parker. The club experience, at Fat Tuesdays in Manhattan, remains, and always will be, a unique musical astonishment. My Hindu friends sometimes remind me that God is everywhere, and in everything.
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