Stan Getz: Nobody Else But Me

by Dave Gelly

Book Overview

The creator of the unforgettable "Girl from Ipanema" tenor sax tone, this son of Ukranian immigrants took his unique sound through five decades of swing, cool, bossa and beyond. From Getz's teenage gigs with Dorsey, Goodman and Stan Kenton, fame with Woody Herman, years as a masterful bandleader, and struggles with drugs and the law, this biography tells the bittersweet story of one of our most beloved jazz musicians. This is the first book to focus...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879307293
• ISBN13: 9780879307295
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Backbeat Books
• Length: 178 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Wow!

This book about Stan Getz was written by Dave Gelly, an award-winning British jazz critic whose other career -- get this -- is playing tenor sax. I ordered it the instant I finished the author's biography of Lester Young. I play tenor sax myself (albeit not professionally), and devoured both works with the greatest delight; I especially appreciated the author's analysis of so many of their solos. Mr Gelly, if you are reading this: please please PLEASE keep the saxophone player biographies coming.

Gelly "Gets" Getz, he's Gellin' Like Magellan

Jazz Critic Dave Gelly has a jazzy and breezy prose style, not unlike the tenor saxophone style of the book's subject, Stan Getz. I zipped through this book, and it went down as easy as a dry martini after a hard day's work. Getz's nickname was "The Sound" and the sound was lush, beautiful, lyrical, melodic, and swung like crazy. But Stan, "The Man" was a different story, and it is a paradox that such lovely music could come from someone so flawed. Heroin addiction at one point caused a desperate young Getz to attempt to rob a pharmacy. He later kicked heroin, but was an alcoholic wife beater. He was not the best parent. He was jealous of Chet Baker. He was an adulterous womanizer. But then there was the music, Jack Teagarden, Stan Kenton, the Woody Herman Band, the Bossa Nova, the exciting career, the gorgeous sound . . . Gelly tells it like it is, spinning a compelling narrative that doesn't shy away from the life behind the music, but still illuminates that music, putting it all in perspective, and making us feel the wonder of "The Sound" anew. It's all there in this book, Nobody Else But Me, shakin' like Gelly on a plate.

Taking the reader on a dizzying tour

Stan Getz: Nobody Else But Me by jazz critic Dave Gelly is an engaging and informative biography of Stan Getz. Taking the reader on a dizzying tour through this great jazz saxophonist's life and music, including Getz's rise to fame in Woody Herman's "Four Brothers" saxophone section in the 1940s, to his breakneck bop in the 1950s, to his international hit "The Girl From Ipanema", and much, much more, Stan Getz: Nobody Else But Me deftly examines this outstanding musician's work and personal life in thoughtful detail.