Stan Getz VOYAGE

Roxy54 - Amen to your post, total agreement. I have that album as well and for those that do not have it, then it should be on your short list to acquire.

Tenor saxophonist Stan Getz found a perfect accompanist in pianist Kenny Barron, who would regularly play in his group for his last five years. This out-of-print Black Hawk LP finds the pair, along with bassist George Mraz and drummer Victor Lewis, performing two standards and four more recent pieces, including two ("Dreams" and "Voyage") by Barron. The music is difficult to classify (modern bop?) but relatively easy to understand; Getz never coasts.

Like this truly excellent and ridiculously difficult to find album that features Stan Getz and Kenny Barron in beautifully languid "after hours" mode. Find it if you can and then wonder why among the tens of thousands of mediocre LP's out there one of this quality remains deleted. Very highly recommended.

Track Listing:

1 I Wanted to Say
2 I Thought About You
3 Yesterdays
4 Dreams
5 Falling in Love
6 Voyage

The Quintet:

Stan Getz - Sax (Tenor)
Kenny Barron - Composer, Piano
Victor Lewis - Composer, Drums
George Mraz - Bass
Babatunde - Conga & Brushes (Dreams track 4)

Recorded March 9,1986 on the Blackhawk Label and is catalog number BKH 51101

Review:

There have been a number of Getz releases in the past few years, many of them not worth listening to, live sessions recorded without Stan's knowledge. This obscure Blackhawk release is a classic of cosmic dimensions. All Getz fans will want to get this one.

One of the best of the late Getz albums, previously available only as an import. Previously filed as a Kenny Barron album(!), features Getz and his "soul-mate" pianist who accompanied him for the last decade of his life.

Yeah, he plays two Barron songs, but Stan the Man's out front. Smooth and burnished like "Ballads and Bossas", lyrical, gentle, quiet, slightly sad, Vintage Getz. From nearly the same period as B&B, and "Anniversary", this album deserves much wider appreciation. Late Getz and mid Barron, both in prime form.

Mostly Ballads, Getz soars over the rest like a big eagle. Stan blows sculpted blue fog notes, weaves dreams. Victor Lewis on drums and Babatunde on brushes provide a steady hypnotic beat.

"I Thought about You" is ravishingly lyrical. This romantic, hot air balloon trip mood continues through "Yesterdays", "Dreams" and "Falling in Love". Ironic as it may seem, the title track may be the weakest track on the album. Getz and Barron listen carefully to each other and give one another room to stretch out.

One of my favorites, but difficult to find, buy it when you can.

Have some wine, sit back and drink it in. Well recorded session.

Stan Getz said that Kenny Barron was the other half of his jazz heart. Until now Voyage has been virtually impossible to find but it belongs to the finest albums Getz recorded. Always the lyrical player, Getz seemed to play with an even greater ease and depth later in his career. This album is beautifully recorded, features the gorgeous piano of Kenny Barron and provides an album of songs that is both sensual and painfully beautiful.

End Review:

One of the all-time great tenor saxophonists, Stan Getz was known as "The Sound" because he had one of the most beautiful tones ever heard. Getz, whose main early influence was Lester Young, grew to be a major influence himself and to his credit he never stopped evolving.

This was an ad of a copy I sold on Audiogon last year. Posted here as FYI.

Thanks for the kind words. Nope don't have that one and now it is on my list to acquire. Just going through a 4CD set that just came in Shelly Manne and his Men - Live At The Blackhawk 1959. Killer jazz in a live club setting. Use to have all of this in vinyl 5 albums, that hurricanes of a few years ago got to, along with a few others. But the CD transfer is quite good. Apologise to be a wee bit off topic to Stan Getz, but this is great jazz as well.

Digging through my archives of vinyl found I do have a issued of this on Vinyl. Blackhawk label released 1986. No need to get the CD issue, has same tracks as the current CD issue.

Great stuff here. Also Lost Sessions is very good as well.

For those of you that may be interested Mosaic is gettin g ready to release a 4 LP set.


Stan Getz: The 1953-54 Norgran Studio Sessions (4 Audiophile LPs)

"Like many of his generation, Getz was drawn to the subdued, airy tone and relaxed phrasing of Lester Young, and found a way to combine it with the advancements of bebop. His triumph was in forging a musical signature that remained fresh and stylistically flexible, even as new styles and musical ideas came and went." - Ashley Khan, liner notes

One of our favorite exercises at Mosaic is to identify wonderful, forgotten little pockets in a great artist’s discography. A perfect example is the 1953-54 Stan Getz Quintet with Bob Brookmeyer which we shelved because it was too small even for a Mosaic Select. But after we launched a new, focused vinyl-only series of 3 and 4-LP sets, it became the perfect candidate.

Chronologically, these sessions for Norman Granz fell just after the quintet dates with Raney, before Getz had risen to the dizzying heights of extreme popularity and when he was still basking in the glow of his stint as part of Woody Herman’s Four Brothers saxophone section. Released on the Clef and Norgran labels just at the transition from 10-inch to 12-inch LPs, the tracks got recycled on Verve across many records, were combined with other songs from other dates, or were forgotten entirely.

Now, for the first time in decades, they are available again on LP. Three alternate takes buried in the vaults, and a recording of "Pot Luck" initially released on 78 only, appear on LP for the first time ever. It’s a great retrospective of the music of a man who reached an almost unparalleled position in jazz and widespread, international celebrity.

The group on these Norgran sessions was a real working band, and valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer’s soloing ability was up to the task of matching Getz’s standards. His musical pairing with Brookmeyer was one of those inspired arrangements that produced exceptional music.

The 180-gram pressings of this 4-LP set were mastered from analog sources using the original Clef/Norgran master tapes.

Limited Edition: 5,000 (4 Audiophile LPs - $100)