Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley "Stan" Getzwas an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott Yanow as "one of the all-time great tenor saxophonists". Getz went on to perform in bebop and cool jazz, but is perhaps best known for...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSaxophonist
Date of Birth2 February 1927
CityPhiladelphia, PA
CountryUnited States of America
You don't rehearse jazz to death to get the camera angles.
My dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound. It had more projection. My sound always seemed to fill a room.
Life is too full of distractions nowadays. When I was a kid we had a little Emerson radio and that was it. We were more dedicated. We didn't have a choice.
We recorded to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records.
I compulsively reach for perfection in music, often at the expense of everything else in my life.
You know, when I'm playing, I think of myself in front of the Wailing Wall with a saxophone in my hands, and I'm davening, I'm really telling it to the Wall.
I played in rhumba bands, mickey mouse bands; all kinds of bands.
I never consciously tried to conceive of what my sound should be...
I came from an era when we didn't use electronic instruments. The bass wasn't even amplified. The sound was the sound you got.
I never consciously tried to conceive of what my sound should be...I never tried to imitate anybody, but when you love somebody's music, you're influenced...I really don't know how I developed my sound, but it comes from a combination of my musical conception and no doubt the basic shape of the oral cavity...
I learn something new every day.
I've always regretted the fact that I've never formally studied and learned the mechanics of writing music.
I've done some dastardly things but what can I do except make amends and apologize?
I'm a recovered alcoholic. I don't do anything anymore, but those things, those things take away ... You're a different personality completely when you take those. For those who are really chemically dependent on anything, it's not you.