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
A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other's ideas.
My life is music, and in some vague, mysterious and subconscious way, I have always been driven by a taut inner spring which has propelled me to almost compulsively reach for perfection in music, often - in fact, mostly - at the expense of everything else in my life.
You can read all the textbooks and listen to all the records, but you have to play with musicians that are better than you.
Other than conversation, no other art form can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction like Jazz.
If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it's like the human voice.
The value of jazz still has to be clarified. People involve themselves with its superficialities without digging for its soul.
It’s like a language. You learn the alphabet, which are the scales. You learn sentences, which are the chords. And then you talk extemporaneously with the horn. It’s a wonderful thing to speak extemporaneously, which is something I’ve never gotten the hang of. But musically I love to talk just off the top of my head. And that’s what jazz music is all about.
I cannot play a lie. I have to believe in what I play or it won't come out.
You don't rehearse jazz to death to get the camera angles.
We recorded to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records.
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 never consciously tried to conceive of what my sound should be...
I learn something new every day.