Search - Stan Getz :: Best of West Coast Sessions

In the mid-1950s, Stan Getz used the same musicians whenever he was performing on the West Coast. He also recorded a series of LPs with them that have been collected in the three-CD West Coast Sessions. This "Best of" has been culled from the set by Lou Levy, the group's pianist, and it represents Getz and the band at a very high level indeed. The style might be called "cool bop," a distinct hybrid with more rhythmic bite than is associated with the cool school, but a more mellow sound and less aggression than bop usually suggests. Getz is in wonderful form, his singing, slightly muffled tenor sound giving forth a stream of fluid lines. He's very well matched with Levy, who's both an adroit accompanist and a soloist capable of developing concentrated momentum and seeing his ideas through to the end. Leroy Vinnegar's resilient bass lines offer a springy foundation, and both Shelly Manne, on six tracks, and Lou Levey, on four, provide lightly propulsive drumming. Trumpeter Conte Candoli is present on four tracks. He's a good partner for Getz, with a style that can suggest Miles Davis in his early bop period. The theme statements on the quintet tracks get a distinct character from the mix of two horn sounds that are so mellow. Apart from Miles's "Four," the opening track, and "Blues for Mary Jane," a Getz original, the tracks are all standards, and they provide Getz with the melodic inspiration that he needs. "You're Blasé" and "But Beautiful" are classic ballad performances by a giant of the lyric tenor saxophone. At the opposite end of the tempo spectrum, the concluding "Shine" is a model of inventiveness at a flying tempo. --Stuart Broomer