This one is, if not a lost treasure, certainly a forgotten one among those who love both tenor saxophonist Stan Getz (1927-91) and guitarist Laurindo Almeida (1917-95) alike. It’s also one that really fell between the cracks. I didn’t even remember that I had a copy of this disc until I was asked about it…
Stan Getz/Gary McFarland – “Big Band Bossa Nova” (1962)
A genuinely joyful and rewarding musical experience, the glorious Stan Getz/Gary McFarland album Big Band Bossa Nova holds up well and sounds as new and as exciting, some six decades later, as it did when it was first released back in 1962. Big Band Bossa Nova was only the second of the tenor saxophonist’s five…
Stan Getz – “Marrakesh Express” (1970)
Of the many records Stan Getz (1927-91) recorded between 1961 and 1972 – the years the tenor saxophonist recorded for Verve Records while it was owned by MGM – Marrakesh Express seems the least likely to make its 21st century reappearance on vinyl. All the same here it is in 2025, beautifully presented on 180-gram…
Montreux Summit 1 & 2 (1977-78)
Having only recently realized these discs were issued on CD – but now out of print – I wanted to track them down to hear if they had anything new to say. I had both sets when they were first released, but I remember not playing them very much. At the time, my interest was…
Claus Ogerman on Verve
Some two decades ago, I worked on the four-disc boxset Claus Ogerman: The Man Behind the Music. The esteemed Gene Lees (1928-2010) contributed a typically lovely and well-informed text to the CD while Ogerman (1930-2016) himself chose much of the material and, remarkably, commented on each of the set’s individual tracks. I worked on what…