Stan Getz

Getz's father Alexander ("Al") was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant who was born in Mile End, London, in 1904, while his mother Goldie (née Yampolsky) was born in Philadelphia in 1907.

His paternal grandparents Harris and Beckie Gayetski were originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, but had migrated to escape the anti-Jewish pogroms to Whitechapel, in the East End of London.

While in England they owned the Harris Tailor Shop at 52 Oxford Street for more than 13 years.

In 1913, Harris and Beckie emigrated to the United States with their three sons Al, Phil, and Ben, following their son Louis Gayetski who had emigrated to the US the year before.

Getz's original family name, "Gayetski", was changed to Getz upon arrival in America.

The Getz family first settled in Philadelphia, but during the Great Depression the family moved to New York City, seeking better employment opportunities.

Getz worked hard in school, receiving straight A's, and finished sixth grade close to the top of his class.

Getz's major interest was in musical instruments and he played a number of them before his father bought him his first saxophone, a $35 alto saxophone, when he was 13.

He moved on quickly to play all other saxophones, as well as the clarinet, but fell in love with the sound of the tenor saxophone, and began practicing eight hours a day.

According to Getz, he only had about six months of lessons and never studied music theory or harmony.

Getz attended James Monroe High School in the Bronx.

Stan Getz (born Stanley Gayetski, February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist.

Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young.

Stan Getz was born Stanley Gayetski on February 2, 1927, at St. Vincent's Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott Yanow as "one of the all-time great tenor saxophonists".

Getz performed in bebop and cool jazz groups.

In 1941, he was accepted into the All-City High School Orchestra of New York City.

This gave him a chance to receive private, free tutoring from the New York Philharmonic's Simon Kovar, a bassoon player.

He also continued playing the saxophone at dances and bar mitzvahs.

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, at the age of 16, he joined 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.

A period based in Los Angeles with Stan Kenton was brief.

Following a comment from Kenton that his main influence, Lester Young, was too simple, Getz quit.

After performing with 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" in 1948.

After Getz left "The Second Herd", he was able to launch his solo career.

Horace Silver's trio was heard by Getz as the guest soloist at the Club Sundown in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1950, and he hired them for touring gigs, gaining Silver his earliest national exposure.

For an unknown period, Silver was not paid by Getz, who was using the money due the pianist to buy heroin.

Silver finally left in June 1952.

In the same period, Getz performed with pianists Al Haig and Duke Jordan and drummers Roy Haynes and Max Roach, as well as bassist Tommy Potter, all of whom had worked with Charlie Parker.

Guitarists Jimmy Raney and Johnny Smith were also associated with the saxophonist in this period.

His profile was enhanced by his featured performance on Johnny Smith's version of the song "Moonlight in Vermont", recorded in 1952, which became a hit single and stayed on the charts for months.

A DownBeat readers' poll voted the single as the second best jazz record of 1952.

A 1953 line-up of the Dizzy Gillespie/Stan Getz Sextet featured Gillespie, Getz, Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Max Roach.

The later album Moonlight in Vermont, reconfigured from two 10-inch LPs for a 12-inch release, was issued in 1956.

By 1956, Getz's recordings were also featured on national radio networks by Ben Selvin as part of the RCA Thesaurus transcriptions library.

He moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1958.

Here he performed with pianist Jan Johansson and bassist Oscar Pettiford, among others, at the Club Montmartre.

Influenced by João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim, he also helped popularize bossa nova in the United States with the hit 1964 single "The Girl from Ipanema".