Charade
Reflections
Stan Getz
Arrangements by Claus Ogerman / Lalo Schifrin
Recorded in New York City on October 21, 22 and 28, 1963
Recording Engineer: Phil Ramone
Director of Engineering: Val Valentine
Stan Getz
Arrangements by Claus Ogerman / Lalo Schifrin
Recorded in New York City on October 21, 22 and 28, 1963
Recording Engineer: Phil Ramone
Director of Engineering: Val Valentine
Produced by Creed Taylor
Verve V-8554
Verve V-8554
From the back cover: The year 1963 may very well go down in the annals of human confusion as the year the people took over the arts.Besides a broad acceptance of folk and country material on the musical front, the American lexicon now contains two descriptive terms that show wide public appeal: pop art and pop jazz. There's no confusing the two of course, pop art is sheer junk while pop jazz is sometimes sheer funk.
Pop art is a kind of distillation of garbage and the muse. In it the artist reworks such prosaic things as beer cans, girdles, auto tires, and auto tubes into new forms and designs.
Pop jazz is a kind of a distillation too. At its very best it is a music that takes all the swing and the power and the heart of jazz and places them in a framework of material and arrangement that will appeal to the widest possible audience.
Stan Getz, of course, is one of the leading artists in the pop jazz movement. He achieved such a position of prominence purely by accident.
One day Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd went into a studio and cut an album of a new musical rhythm called bossa nova. Six months later Getz, and to a lesser degree, Byrd, had records on the best-selling charts. Every radio station in the country was playing Desafinado.
Getz has always had the musical qualities that appeal to the multitude. He plays tenor sax with humor, warmth, great lyricism, and a deep fondness and respect for melody. Essentially, these are the very same characteristics that have drawn a much more diverse and aware public to the folk and country music fields.
In the past Getz has been responsible for some of the most popular jazz ballad performances of all time. Something like a decade ago, he cut a series of sides with guitarist Johnny Smith. One of the titles from this series, Moonlight In Vermont, became an overnight success in the jazz market and today can still be heard occasionally on what are considered the good and middle of the road radio stations. On that recording the guitar-tenor combination caught the nostalgia and simple beauty of the Karl Suessdorf and John Blackburn tune.
Those same qualities of simplicity and nostalgia are equally evident on the newer version of the tune contained on this album. Getz plays lovely, lyric embellishments on the melody against a gentle and most attractive string background arranged by Claus Ogerman.
When Getz was a member of the Woody Herman big band, he recorded a tenor sax solo on the Ralph Burns composition Early Autumn. This, too, caused great excitement within the jazz business and some of that excitement reached the pop audience. But, as in the case of Moonlight In Vermont, the public wasn't quite ready for what was believed an unknown. Today that audience has shown itself ready for such music, and the version of Early Autumn contained on this album should appeal to all kinds of listeners.
The new versions of the tune contained here is a good deal different from the original. Lalo Schifrin has employed voices as a replacement for the big band chords, but the quiet tenderness and the warmth of the originals are most evident. This version ranks with the original.
As a matter of fact, the title of this album is a very definitive description of the contents. Throughout, Getz seems to take each of the tunes – standards, originals, movie theme and recent pop hits-and gives it new perspective. The listener has the feeling that the tenor saxist is reflectively turning the melodic structure over in his hands, turning the melody this way and that, holding it up to the light to discover new shapes and values. He seems to catch new and vital reflections and qualities in the music; a wry twist here, a brooding depth there.
The arrangements are distinctly tailored to the Getz sound and mood. Three of the tracks: the aforementioned Moonlight In Vermont, If Ever I Would Leave You (from the Broadway hit "Camelot"), and the recent Peter, Paul and Mary hit Blowin' In The Wind are from the pen of Claus Ogerman.
This arranger, who scored so mightily with Kai Winding's recording of More, shows the diversity of his talent on these three scores. Moonlight is quietly perceptive with a most effective use of voices. Leave You is arranged in soft melodic framework for Getz with strings, but room is left for Stan to add some very gutsy ballad blowing.
Blowin' In The Wind is a unique version of the Bob Dylan modern folk hit. It's treated with humor, spirit and a solid rhythm sound. There are funky touches in the string orchestration and Stan adds some sardonic bluesy licks of his own.
Besides arranging the rest of the standards on the LP, Lalo Schifrin has contributed two original compositions Reflections and Nitetime Street, and a strong chart for the movie theme Charade.
Reflections is a lovely, liquid ballad that provides Getz with long, lyric, melodic lines. Schifrin has also incorporated a velvet backdrop of voices into the arrangement. Nitetime Street has a soft, purring minor mood that's very much in the Getz groove. The tune also features some fine Kenny Burrell guitar work at a solid walking tempo. In contrast to the other composition, this track has strong rhythm and good muted brass backing.
The Johnny Mercer-Henry Mancini Charade is handled with a deft touch. This, too, has the moody, minor touch. There's a hint of bossa nova in the rhythm and the whole thing is most effective in a soft, significant way.
The dexterity of Schifrin's arranging talent and the fertility of the Getz imagination are evident throughout the rest of the album as well. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most has a bittersweet quality. Love is a fast, swinging bongo-infected version of the standard with voices employed most effectively. Sleeping Bee is another unusual outing. Where the tune is usually handled as a fuzzy, soft kind of adult lullaby, Stan and Lalo give it a sharp, bright explosive treatment. Penthouse Serenade is handled with lushness. It features Stan in front of a tapestry of voices. – Jack Maher Billboard
Moonlight In Vermont
If Ever I Would Leave You
Love
Reflections
Sleeping Bee
Charade
Early Autumn
Penthouse Serenade
Spring Can Really Hang You Up
Nitetime Street
Blowin' In The Wind
