Stan Getz

Stan Getz in Stockholm is one of the best LPs produced by the saxophonist during this period. Getz recorded this date for Norman Granz in December of 1955, after returning from North Africa, where he spent several months recuperating from a crippling illness –a combination of pleurisy and pneumonia.

Getz is in the company of three Swedish jazzmen: pianist Bengt Hallberg, bassist Gunnar Johnson, and drummer Anders Burman. The program is made up of standards and a mix of ballads and faster bopflavored tunes. The bluesy “Indiana” kicks the date off with a brief solo tenor intro. Getz’s trademark tone is warm, rich, and full. His real foil on the track is Johnson, whose bop playing is excellent. Hallberg is knottier, and very formal, and Burman is merely keeping time, but it hardly matters since it’s a blues. The ballads here are what work best, however, as evidenced by “Without a Song,” “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You,” “Everything Happens to Me,” and the lovely reading of “Over the Rainbow.” The set closes on two uptempo numbers, the sprightly “Get Happy,” introduced with a solo by Getz in full-on blues mode, and the bubbly, shuffling “Jeepers Creepers,” that sounds breezy, lightand airy. Getz’s lyricism is at its peak here.

PERSONNEL:

STAN GETZ, tenor saxophone
BENGT HALLBERG, piano
GUNNAR JOHNSON, bass
ANDERS “ANDREW” BURMAN, drums

Stockholm, Sweden, December 16, 1955.

SIDE A:

01. INDIANA
02. WITHOUT A SONG
03. I DON’T STAND A GHOST OF A CHANCE WITH YOU
04. I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH ME

SIDE B:

01. EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME
02. OVER THE RAINBOW
03. GET HAPPY
04. JEEPERS CREEPERS