Stan Getz is the reason I play saxophone. He is still my overall favorite. When you think of the players he's played with, one becomes bedazzled with the shear number of talented musicians.
Stan once said "I'd still play the sax even if nobody listened." That pure sense of love for playing is precisely why everyone loves to listen to him. You'd have to be deaf or quite dull mentally to not appreciate talent on that level. Pablo Casal's definition of the word "talent" is still the greatest: "It's 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration."
Stan's style in the early 1960s seemed to change from the West Coast Cool of the late 1950s, his lines seemed to get longer and more legato, but always the master of his instrument.
One of the greatest solos EVER! Music reflects the values of a culture more certainly than any other art form. Jazz greats of that time on the level of Stan Getz were utterly selfless; the music was EVERYTHING! They literally sacrificed their lives for it. In this post-Christian society of the Imperially-glorified self, it truly is very sad to see just how very much culture has declined since that time. The mindless, insipid garbage that passes itself off nowadays as music is truly pathetic compared to talent like this.
@@JimboJazzAs with (ahem!) a certain recent sucessful political newcomer - I don't care what his lifestyle or opinions are, only his performance on the job
