Search - Stan Getz :: At the Shrine

Getz, Brookmeyer, John Williams wonderful live performance

Malcolm | Toronto, Canada | 01/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was 1954 Stan Getz in concert, live, Stan's tenor voice, my first album ever, I still have it, the original LP, and 2 CDs, 1 spare and 1 for me to carry around. Stan Getz at his finest, melodic ballads but also fast tempos with an amazing piano player called John Williams. This is all from memory, I do not need to see the album, I have all the solos in my head.

Bob Brookmeyer is on valve trombone, he uses a strong depth of imagination. Wonderful. I sought him out some years

ago in Toronto for a brief friendly chat from my side. Mostly I wander up to musicians casually, they always appreciate sincere compliments, but in Brookmeyer's case I was

complimentary and respectful. Deservedly so...

he was a leading member of the Quintet for Stan Getz at the Shrine. I think today this is an overlooked album but I promote it strongly to my friends and play it frequently.

Drummers are Art Mardigan and Frank Isola, bass Bill Anthony.

Listen first to Feather Merchant, this was done outside the concert in a studio but personnel is same. Is this not one of the best jazz things you have ever heard? I love it (I have 600 CDs some classical but mainly modern jazz, I have every album by Stan Getz) When you listen, take in also Al Cohen's composition Tasty Pudding for a real melodic treat, and the unforgettable Loverman, that was the first time I heard the song. Oh, and I have to tell you, there is a heckler in the audience at the Shrine, yes the dialogue is all there with the introduction and voice of Duke Ellington for Stan Getz being one of the leading exponents of the Cool School...Anyway Stan puts down the heckler, I won't tell you what he said but everyone laughs, it is very interesting to hear Stan's young voice, so tender... and then Getz says something which bound me to him forever "It's so quiet up here, you can feel your hearbeat...clearly" Here was a cool sounding tenorsaxman, at the top of his form... inventive, beautiful, a man and his music, he was my Man.. There was nobody else on tenor at the time. Brookmeyer was excellent too, I mean he was the best, you should also listen closely to the pianist. Wow, what an album!!! You buy, you will thank me..."

Overlooked classic

rash67 | USA | 05/31/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album deserves to be better known.



In the early 50's Norm Granz, owner of Verve, tried to get Jazz out of small smokey clubs and into large venues. Hence his "Jazz at the Philharmonic" series, pairing together on stage practically everybody in Jazz and everyone else . Results were generally mediocre, but a lot more people DID hear combo Jazz, which was progress.



In this case, a young Stan the Man, the greatest saxophonist of all time, shared the spotlight with Bob Brookmeyer on valve trumbone. They played together off and on for years, one of the few other performers Stan genuinely respected, instead of treating as background. They play in a similar tone and range. Getz suggested in Downbeat that Brookmeyer be in the Stan Getz band, but Brookmeyer objected and Getz backed off and said this was wishful thinking.



Herein they play complex bebop duet and ballads. Pleasant melded tone, clever without ever being in your face, it's the best of the Norm Granz pairings. Getz's sax and Brookmeyer's valve trombone dance around each other in intricate arabesque arrangements. Most of the rest of Getz other albums are solos with combo accompanyment, or with Chet Baker, when everyone gets a turn, true duets like this were quite unusual for Stan.



Samples don't do justice to the music, selections should have started with the music, not the talk.



Deserves 3-4 stars as a 50's classic of the style."