For Musicians Only - Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie & Sonny Stitt

 

Be Bop

For Musicians Only

Dizzy Gillespie - Stan Getz - Sonny Stitt

Art Director: Sheldon Marks

Verve Clef Series Hi-Fi MGV-8198

Personnel: 

Dizzy Gillespie - Trumpet

Stan Getz - Tenor Sax

Sonny Stitt - Alto Sax

John Lewis - Piano

Herb Ellis - Guitar

Ray Brown - Bass

Stan Levey - Drums

From the back cover: There are few who will deny the Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt and Dizzy Gillespie are among the peers of their profession. Internationally recognized as the top tenor sax man of the 1950s, Stan Getz has continued to sow the musical seeds that reap rewards. Though it's not generally known, Getz started as a musician on bass, later switching to bassoon, and finally to sax. Historically, he's worked with more name bands and great musicians than other his age (30), numbering among them Jack Teagarden, Dale Jones, Bob Chester, Stan Kenton, Herbie Fields, Buddy Morrow, Benny Goodman and Jimmy Dorsey. It was during his service with the Woody Herman band in 1947 though, that Herman's "Four Brothers" sound was formed, the "Brothers" being Getz, Serge Chaloff, Zoot Sims and Herbie Steward (later Al Cohn). Getz is today recognized as one of the first post-war musicians to set a style that has largely been copied and cartooned  by many other fine musicians.

Sonny Stitt is a veteran disciple of the modernist school, starting with Dizzy in 1946. He's known far and wide as the possessor of great drive, superb individuality and excellent taste in his work. A winner of the Esquire New Star Award in 1947, Stitt has since continued to rate among the upper rung in all music polls. He's equally at home on tenor, baritone or alto sax, though it's alto that he favors in the main and which is heard in this album.

What can be said about Gillespie the truthfully hasn't bee said before? Despite the fact that both Gillespie and Charlie Parker are argued about as the progenitors of modern jazz, it's generally recognized that each was interdependent upon the other in shaping the sounds of the new musical era. Gillespie's trumpet style  hasn't been cartooned simply because it can't be. A well schooled musician, a fine arranger, Gillespie began developing what was later to be known as bop as far back as his work with the swinging Mercer Ellington and Cab Calloway bands in 1939. It wasn't until 1945 however, after working with Benny Carter and Ella Fitzgerald, Charley Barnet, Lucky Millinder, John Kirby and later the big Billy Eckstien band of 1945, that Gillespie and bop began to be a household word. His influence on the sphere of music has been profound and much of the credit for bringing jazz to its present state as an international tour de force can be attributed to him.

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