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.
Dreams
Stan Getz Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You are too wonderful to be what you seem!
Could there be eyes like yours, could there be lips like yours
Could there be smiles like yours, honest and truly?
You stepped out of a cloud
I want to take you away, away from the crowd
And have you all to myself, alone and apart out of a dream, safe in my heart
You are too wonderful to be what you seem!
Could there be eyes like yours, could there be lips like yours
Could there be smiles like yours, honest and truly?
You stepped out of a cloud
I want to take you away, away from the crowd
And have you all to myself, alone and apart out of a dream, safe in my heart
The lyrics to "You Stepped Out of a Dream" by the Stan Getz Quartet describe the overwhelming feeling of falling in love with someone who seems too good to be true. The singer is awestruck by the beauty and perfection of the person they have encountered, expressing wonder at the possibility of finding someone with eyes, lips, and smiles as lovely as theirs. The song suggests that this person has arrived unexpectedly, as if from a dream or a cloud, and that the singer feels a powerful desire to be alone with them, away from the distractions of the world.
The lyrics capture the sense of enchantment that often accompanies the early stages of a romantic relationship, when the other person seems to embody all of our hopes and dreams for the future. The song suggests that falling in love is a kind of waking dream, a moment when the beloved steps out of the realm of imagination and into reality. By expressing a longing to take this person away from the crowd and keep them safe in their heart, the singer acknowledges the fragility of love and the need to protect it from the demands of the outside world.
Overall, "You Stepped Out of a Dream" conveys a sense of wonder, joy, and longing, capturing the exhilaration of falling in love and the desire to keep that feeling alive. The song celebrates the magic of encountering someone who seems too good to be true, and expresses the hope that this feeling will last forever.
Line by Line Meaning
You stepped out of a dream
Your presence feels like it's a dream come true.
You are too wonderful to be what you seem!
You are even more amazing than what meets the eye.
Could there be eyes like yours, could there be lips like yours
Your eyes and lips are so beautiful, they seem unreal.
Could there be smiles like yours, honest and truly?
Your smile is so genuine, it's hard to believe it's real.
You stepped out of a cloud
Your entrance was so graceful and elegant, it was like you appeared out of nowhere.
I want to take you away, away from the crowd
I want to be alone with you, away from the distractions of the world.
And have you all to myself, alone and apart out of a dream, safe in my heart
I want to cherish you and keep you close to me, like a dream that's become a reality.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Gus Kahn, Nacio Herb Brown
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Dave Keen
I fail to see how anybody can give a thumbs down for Stan
Getz or criticise his playing. It meets all the credible criteria. Sound,
articulation ( in spite of what George Garzone may say? ), time, content, conception, whilst at the same time being a unique original voice. It’s all perfect.
I’ve been listening to jazz ever since I can remember and trying to play it for the past 50 odd plus years. Which doesn’t necessarily make me an expert. However the folk who criticize should try learning to play a
musical instrument. It ain’t easy, even for the gifted ones. If it was we’d all be doing it at Stan Getz’s level? I can’t tell you how many saxophone students I’ve had over the years who had better ears than I and who desperately wanted to be a player but just couldn’t do it.You only have to check out YouTube to see how many bad wannbe players there are out there. That’s not a criticism is just an honest observation.I have many musical heroes who also meet the credible criteria!
But there are few players whose note choices you couldn’t improve on. Bird, Louis Armstrong, Freddy Hubbard, Stan Getz. When I listen to these guys I never think “I don’t think that’s a note I’da picked”. They never make a less than perfect choice. They’re note choices are always perfect. You can’t improve upon them.
Stan Getz is a God musically and truly one of the most gifted saxophone players of any generation. It’s a level of playing we should all aspire to. As Trane said “We’d all play like Stan Getz if we could!” and in spite of Ken Burns and Wynton Marsalis’s complete exclusion of Getz ( and many more too many to name ) in their flawed 10 part History of Jazz documentary, ( don't get me wrong I'm happy anybody would put money into a jazz documentary. it's juts a shame it was so biased ) history will attest to just how great a player Stan Getz was, long after we’re gone. I was saddened to see negative remarks about Stan cos he truly was the master of the Saxophone. Be quiet naysayers just listen and be glad that God decided to bless us with his presence.
POLYZENIDAS
what a beautiful sound, what beautiful improvisation, a GREAT GENIUS!
Phaedra Collins
Stan Getz - what else is there to say other than sheer brilliance. There will never be anyone else who ever comes close to his great talent..
jimmy3610
This song is absolutely amazing!! The album Voyage is also some of the best music Stan recorded and released. I highly recommend that you purchase it. It can be found on Amazon.
Astronist
Just love this track -- it has a hypnotic, dreamlike quality that seems to want to go on forever. And Getz and Barron go so well together.
betaguy777
Agree. Stan Getz was indeed a master of the tenor sax. A unique style
Bertil Selminger
Stan Getz. Simply the greatest!
gustavo braga 🐳
3:30 aquela hora que acalera!!! Perfection!
javier Azmat
Una obra de arte, esta canción!!!
stefanog1971
J'adore, je trouve que cette musique est sublime !
maogwanshi
This is the face that I remember seeing when I met him in Palm Springs in the mid-1980s. The Great Stan, what a jazzy sax player that will melt your soul.