His parents were Ukrainian Jews who immigrated from Kyiv city, Ukraine in 1903. The family later moved to New York City for better jobs. Stan worked hard in school receiving straight "A's" on average and finished 6th grade close to the top of his class. Stan's major interest was in musical instruments, and he felt a need to play every instrument in his sight. He played a number of instruments before his father bought him his first saxophone at the age of 13. Even though his father also got him a clarinet, Stan instantly fell in love with the saxophone and began practicing 8 hours a day. In 1941, he was accepted into the All City High School Orchestra of New York City. This gave Stan a chance to receive a private, free tutor from the New York Philharmonic, Simon Kovar - a bassoon player. He also began to spend more time playing the saxophone. He eventually dropped out of school in order to pursue his musical career, but was later sent back to the classroom by the school system’s truancy officers.
In 1943, he was accepted into Jack Teagarden's band, and because of his youth he became Teagarden's ward. Getz also played along with Nat King Cole and Lionel Hampton. After playing for Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman, Getz was a soloist with Woody Herman from 1947 to 1949 in 'The Second Herd' and he first gained wide attention as one of the band's saxophonists, who were known collectively as 'The Four Brothers', the others being Serge Chaloff, Zoot Sims and Herbie Steward. With Herman, he had a hit with "Early Autumn" and after Getz left 'The Second Herd' he was able to launch his solo career. He would be the leader on almost all of his recording sessions after 1950.
During the early '50s, Getz broke away from the Lester Young style to form his own musical identity and he was soon among the most popular of all jazzmen. He discovered Horace Silver in 1950 and used him in his quartet for several months. After touring Sweden in 1951, he formed an exciting quintet that co-featured guitarist Jimmy Raney; their interplay on up-tempo tunes and tonal blend on ballads was quite memorable. Getz's playing helped Johnny Smith have a hit in "Moonlight in Vermont," during 1953-1954 Bob Brookmeyer made his group a quintet and, despite some drug problems during the decade, Getz was a constant poll winner. After spending 1958-1960 in Europe, the tenorman returned to the U.S. and recorded his personal favorite album, Focus, with arranger Eddie Sauter's Orchestra.
Getz became a central figure in introducing bossa nova music to the U.S. audience. Teaming with guitarist Charlie Byrd, who had just returned from a U.S. State Department tour of Brazil, Getz recorded Jazz Samba in 1962 and it became a hit. The title track was an adaptation of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "One Note Samba". Getz won the Grammy for Best Jazz Performance of 1963 for "Desafinado". As a follow-up, Getz recorded Jazz Samba Encore! with one of the originators of bossa nova, Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfa.
He then recorded the album Getz/Gilberto with Tom Jobim, João Gilberto and his wife, Astrud Gilberto. Their "The Girl from Ipanema" won a Grammy Award. The piece became one of the most well-known latin jazz cuts of all time. Getz/Gilberto won two Grammys (Best Album and Best Single), besting The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, a victory for Bossa Nova and Brazilian jazz. A live album, Getz/Gilberto Vol. 2, followed, as did Getz Au Go Go, a recording made live at the Cafe Au Go Go. Unfortunately, Getz' affair with Astrud Gilberto brought an end to his musical partnership with her and her husband and he began to move away from bossa-nova and back to cool jazz. Even while still working with the Gilbertos, he recorded Nobody Else But Me an album of straightforward jazz with a new quartet including vibraphonist Gary Burton, but Verve Records, wishing to continue building the Getz brand with bossa-nova, refused to release it. It eventually came out 30 years later, after Getz had died.
In 1972, Getz recorded in the fusion idiom with Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke. This group, without Getz, went on to become the famous Return to Forever, and many of the pieces including "La Fiesta" remained in their repertoire. In this period Getz experimented with an Echoplex on his saxophone, for which critics vilified him. He eventually discarded fusion and "electric jazz", returning to acoustic jazz, while at the same time gradually de-emphasizing the Bossa Nova, opting for more esoteric and less-mainstream jazz. He had a cameo in the movie The Exterminator (1980).
Towards the end of his life the now drug-free Getz had another creative peak with a group including the pianist Kenny Barron, whom Getz described as "my musical other half".
In 1986, he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.
Getz married Beverly Byrne, a vocalist with the Gene Krupa band, on 7 November 1946; they had three children together: Steven, David, and Beverly (who married Michael McGovern).
Getz became involved with drugs and alcohol while a teenager. In 1954, he was arrested for attempting to rob a pharmacy to get a morphine fix. As he was being processed in the prison ward of Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, Beverly gave birth to their third child one floor below.
Getz tried to escape his narcotics addiction by moving to Copenhagen. He married Swedish aristocrat Monica Silfverskiöld on 3 November 1956 and had two children with her: Pamela and Nicolas. In 1957 Swedish girlfriend Inga Torgnér gave birth to a son Peter. Stan divorced Monica in 1987.
Zoot Sims, who had known Getz since their time with Herman, once described him as 'a nice bunch of guys', as a consequence of the wide behavioural range of which Getz was capable. In the final stages of his life Getz was able to end his addictions.
Getz died of liver cancer in 1991. His body was cremated and the ashes scattered at sea, off the coast of Malibu, California.
In 1998 the 'Stan Getz Media Center and Library' at the Berklee College of Music was dedicated through a donation from the Herb Alpert Foundation.
Desafinado
Stan Getz Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Saiba que isto em mim provoca imensa dor
Só privilegiados têm ouvido igual ao seu
Eu possuo apenas o que Deus me deu
Se você insiste em classificar
Meu comportamento anti-musical
Eu mesmo mentindo devo argumentar
Que isto é bossa nova, que isto é muito natural
O que você não sabe nem sequer pressente
É que os desafinados também têm um coração
Fotografei você na minha Rolleyflex
Revelou-se a sua enorme ingratidão
Só não poderá falar assim do meu amor
Este é o maior que você pode encontrar, viu?
Você com a sua música esqueceu o principal
Que no peito dos desafinados
No fundo do peito bate calado
No peito dos desafinados
Também bate um coração
The song Desafinado by Stan Getz and João Gilberto talks about the pain caused by someone critiquing your imperfections. The first verse highlights the hurtful effects of critiquing someone's off-tune singing. The pain is heightened when it comes from someone you love. The singer of the song, while admitting that they are not blessed with a perfect ear for music, justifies their "anti-musical behavior" as being a part of the new style of music known as "bossa nova."
In the second verse, the singer tries to make their critic understand that the out-of-tune singing is only a small part of them, and they too have a heart that beats for love. It could be implied that the critic has been too busy with the perfection of their music, that they forgot the essence of love and how it is shared by everyone. The final verse reveals that despite the hurtful behavior of the person in question, the singer still harbors immense love for them.
Line by Line Meaning
Se você disser que eu desafino, amor
If you claim that I sing off-key, my love, know that it causes immense pain for me.
Saiba que isto em mim provoca imensa dor
Understand that it brings me great suffering within me.
Só privilegiados têm ouvido igual ao seu
Only the privileged have an ear as refined as yours.
Eu possuo apenas o que Deus me deu
I possess only what God has given me.
Se você insiste em classificar
If you insist on labeling me
Meu comportamento anti-musical
As having an anti-musical behavior
Eu mesmo mentindo devo argumentar
Even though I would be lying, I must argue
Que isto é bossa nova, que isto é muito natural
That this is bossa nova, and it is perfectly natural.
O que você não sabe nem sequer pressente
What you do not know or even sense
É que os desafinados também têm um coração
Is that even those who sing off-key, also have a heart.
Fotografei você na minha Rolleyflex
I took a picture of you with my Rolleiflex camera
Revelou-se a sua enorme ingratidão
And it revealed your enormous ingratitude.
Só não poderá falar assim do meu amor
You cannot speak like that about my love,
Este é o maior que você pode encontrar, viu?
It is the greatest you will ever find, you see?
Você com a sua música esqueceu o principal
You, with your music, have forgotten the most important thing.
Que no peito dos desafinados
Which is that even in the hearts of those who sing off-key
No fundo do peito bate calado
Deep inside, a heart beats silently
No peito dos desafinados
In the hearts of those who sing off-key
Também bate um coração
A heart beats there too.
Lyrics © Editora e Importadora Musical Fermata do Brasil Ltda., CORCOVADO MUSIC CORPORATION, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Newton Mendonca, Tom Jobim
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Muzikman127
it's easier once you "get" the groove.
once you hear the dundum ch ch dundum ch ch dundum ch ch... everything else is just embellishment
it helps to hear some clips of samba grooves in isolation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D85u364oY0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa3qtJE2wIo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN8j7KihXOE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfoWB0NEjD4
@Bowwow30
I'm laying on my couch now, the balcony doors are open, the sun is shining and I can smell the spring. Somewhere in my houseblock one of my neighbours is playing Desafinado by Stan Getz. A great way to spend my Sunday afternoon and get happy.
@117raph
Boudewijn Smits
Cheers man
@bingo1232
Boudewijn Smits sounds like a mini vacation -- good for the soul!
@raysonkong
Boudewijn Smits you have high quality neighbors
@mizora6356
+Boudewijn Smits that was some chill you got there
@brandonturner6879
My neighbors listen to Lil' Wayne. Time to move in with you, man. lol
@johngreen6783
What a beautiful song. I listen to this and I’m transported to a different dimension. All my cares and worries just drift away.
@antonboludo8886
Exactly!
@RaptorFromWeegee
Like stepping off a Varig 707 into the warm breezes of Rio's Galeão Airport, circa 1965
@georgeberghorn5402
Found this tune on a jukebox at Shepard AFB in Texas in '72, was hooked on Jobim and bossa nova ever since. The best thing about this tune and other bossa tunes is that there is so much going on with the beat and at the same time it is cool and gentle. What a way to relax.