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…
Gary McFarland – “Soft Samba” (1965)
“Soft Samba is the New Sound of ‘65” – Verve Records ad in DownBeat, Jan. 28, 1965. In the early sixties, Gary McFarland (1933-71) was one of jazz’s “golden boys.” He displayed his talent for clever arrangements on Stan Getz’s Big Band Bossa Nova and his own The Jazz Version of ‘How to Succeed in…
“Don Sebesky & The Jazz-Rock Syndrome” + “The Distant Galaxy” (1968)
By 1968, Don Sebesky (1937-2023) had become, if not the preeminent jazz arranger of his day, then certainly one of the first to call to do the job. Other top-tier arrangers – like Quincy Jones, Neal Hefti, Lalo Schifrin and Oliver Nelson – had all left for Hollywood by then. Sebesky’s ascendance – or, to…
Cal Tjader – “The Prophet” (1968)
Verve Records has released the first Cal Tjader (1925-82) record in its 180-gram vinyl Verve Vault series, the 1968 gem The Prophet. The last of a whopping 15 discs the vibraphonist waxed for the Verve label between 1961 and 1968, The Prophet – released just this month – may well be the best of a…
Gary McFarland – “Scorpio and Other Signs” (1968)
By this point in composer, arranger and vibraphonist Gary McFarland’s (1933-71) all-too brief ten-year musical career, he had perfected the art of the pure pop instrumental. He was just one year away from waxing his magnum opus, “America the Beautiful,” an orchestral hybrid that seamlessly melded classical, jazz and rock, a new addition to his…