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.
How High the Moon
Stan Getz Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
How faint the tune
Somewhere there's heaven
How high the moon
There is no moon above
When love is far away too
Till it comes true
That you love me as I love you
Somewhere there's music
How near, how far
Somewhere there's heaven
It's where you are
The darkest night would shine
If you would come to me soon
Until you will, how still my heart
How high the moon
Somewhere there's music
How faint the tune
Somewhere there's heaven
How high the moon
The darkest night would shine
If you would come to me soon
Until you will, how still my heart
How high the moon
The lyrics to Stan Getz's song How High the Moon are a depiction of the longing and yearning that someone in love feels. The first verse begins with a wistful statement: somewhere, there's music, but it is faint and distant. In the second line, the focus shifts to a far-off place - heaven - and how high the moon seems to be. The next couple of lines describe the emptiness and loneliness that a person feels in the absence of their beloved. The absence of love makes everything seem bleak, and there is no warmth in the light of the moon. However, the verse ends with a glimmer of hope - that someday, love will be reciprocated, and the moon will shine again.
The second verse builds on the theme of distance and separation. It talks about how the music is near and far simultaneously, just like how the concept of heaven, which is imagined to be far away, is where the lover is. The lover's absence makes the night seem darker than usual, lacking any luminescence, and the singer yearns for the lover's presence. Until the lover comes back, or the feelings are reciprocated, the singer's heart will remain still, and the moon will remain high.
In conclusion, the song How High the Moon expresses the feelings of someone in love who is separated from their beloved. The lyrics evoke a sense of longing, distance, and hope that someday the love will be reciprocated.
Line by Line Meaning
Somewhere there's music
There's always music somewhere in the world, even if it's just a faint tune that's hard to hear.
How faint the tune
The music is so faint that it's barely audible, but it's still there in the background.
Somewhere there's heaven
In some place in the world, there's a heavenly, perfect feeling of happiness and contentment.
How high the moon
This perfect happiness is so high, it's like it's located on the moon, unreachable by ordinary means.
There is no moon above
When love is lost or goes away, it's like the light of the moon goes out, leaving only darkness behind.
When love is far away too
When love is distant, everything feels darker and more distant, just like the moon is farther away when you can't see it.
Till it comes true
However, this darkness and distance can be ended with the return of love, which brings light back into the world.
That you love me as I love you
This happiness can only come from one specific source - reciprocated love between two people.
How near, how far
Even if the person you love is far away, the feelings of happiness and contentment still exist inside of you.
It's where you are
This feeling of perfect happiness is always linked to the location of the person you love - it exists wherever they are.
The darkest night would shine
If the person you love were to return, all the darkness and sadness in the world would suddenly seem bright and full of hope.
Until you will, how still my heart
However, until the moment when the person you love returns, your heart will be still and empty without them.
How high the moon
But the hope and promise of this perfect happiness never fades, and remains as high and unattainable as the moon itself.
Somewhere there's music
The cycle begins again, with the reminder that there's always music somewhere in the world, no matter how faint or hard to hear.
How faint the tune
Even if the music is hard to hear or barely there at all, it's still a comforting reminder of the happiness that exists somewhere in the world.
How high the moon
And once again, the unreachable heights of this perfect happiness are invoked, as unattainable yet tantalizing as the moon in the night sky.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Royalty Network, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Morgan Lewis, Nancy Hamilton
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind