Stan Getz Quartet - Live in Amsterdam, Dusseldorf & Zurich 1960 (2016)

Stan Getz, one of the most gifted and influential of American jazzmen of his time and a consistent favorite of the U.S. public, was living since July 1958 in a small town outside Copenhagen, where he had started a new life. Like many American expatriate jazzmen, he found the relaxed European lifestyle more conducive to his creativity; there was more time to develop and try out new ideas. It was to prove an artistically flourishing and assertive time for him.

By the spring of 1960, he was ready to leave Copenhagen and start travelling the continent with Norman Granz’ Jazz at the Philharmonic troupe, where, in Swedish pianist Jan Johansson, Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums, he had an excellent rhythm section to support the more lyrical and forceful playing he achieved in Europe. “He doesn’t seem dry and intellectual as he used to,” said one Danish jazz critic. “He has soul in every note he plays. Getz demonstrates that the modern school isn’t as bloodless as people have been thinking. He builds up his themes with unerring logic, and it is almost incredible that he can give his tone so much richness and fullness without vibrato…” It was a golden time for Getz, and
all these qualities are evident in these concert performances recorded in Amsterdam, Dusseldorf and Zurich.