GETZ: A Musical Portrait
Chris Ingham Quartet feat. Mark Crooks
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"The phenomenally gifted Mark Crooks...the quartet is everything you could wish for – swinging, supple and, most importantly, always appropriate. Ingham’s mastery of the subtle differences in style is impressive"
JAZZ JOURNAL (full review HERE)
"Crooks's tenor rises to the challenge...a performance that strikes a balance between muscle and lyricism"
SUNDAY TIMES
"Ingham has chosen well...an excellent collection featuring the superb saxophone sound of Mark Crooks...the band are in fine classic swinging form...extremely expressive..."
LONDON JAZZ NEWS (full review HERE)
"Another superb album...a musical love potion...recommended - highly"
BEBOP SPOKEN HERE (full review HERE)
"Definitely out of the right bottle...I was in Hawg Heaven from the first, pure notes of “Moonlight In Vermont” that tripped out of Mark’s bell and made their way on gossamer wings to the rear of the room"
JAZZ JOURNAL (full review HERE)
Live
2023
Fri 5 May STEYNING Jazz Club
2022
Mon 14 Feb LONDON Reform Club
Wed 23 Feb EASTLEIGH Concord Club
Sat 25 June BERKHAMSTED Jazz Club
Fri 22 June BURY ST EDMUNDS Hunter Club
Sat 3 Aug NOTTINGHAM Peggy's Skylight
Fri 23 Sep SOUTHWOLD Arts Centre
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2021
Fri 30 July IPSWICH St Peter's
Mon 13 Sep BEXLEY Jazz Club
Sun 19 Sep LONDON Ronnie Scott's
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2020
Wed 19 Feb LONDON Crazy Coqs
Sat 9 May BERKHAMSTED Jazz Club CANCELLED
Fri 22 May BURY ST EDMUNDS Hunter Club CANCELLED
Sat 23 May SOUTHWOLD Arts Centre CANCELLED
Fri 2 Oct IPSWICH St Peter’s By The Waterfront CANCELLED
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2019
Fri 4 Jan STOKE BY NAYLAND Fleece Jazz
Wed 6 Feb EASTLEIGH Concorde Club
Sun 10 Feb (lunchtime) LONDON Pizza Jazz Club, Dean Street
Sun 17 Feb (lunchtime) WAVENDON Stables
Wed 20 Feb BELVEDERE Jazz Club
Thur 28 Feb DEREHAM Jazz Society
Mon 4 March BEXLEY Jazz Club
Thurs 4 April DISS Jazz Club
Sat 4 May GRANTHAM Conservative Club
Sun 5 May STAMFORD Arts Centre
Sun 19 May IPSWICH Jazz Club
Fri 31 May WAKEFIELD Jazz
Tues 16 July BUXTON Festival
Fri 30 Aug OLD HARLOW Marigolds (Darren McCarthy - bass, Joel Barford - drums)
Sat 31 Aug HADLEIGH Jazz Club
Sat 5 Oct (6.30pm) SWANSEA Jazz Festival
Sat 28 Sep OXFORD St Giles
Mon 14 Oct LONDON Reform Club
Tues 15 Oct FLEET Jazz (Marianne Windham - bass, Joel Barford - drums)
Tues 29 Oct DORKING Watermill Jazz (Seb De Krom - drums)
Thur 7 Nov CAMBRIDGE Jazz
Sun 17 Nov (1pm) LONDON Ronnie Scott's SOLD OUT
Thurs 21 Nov LONDON The Other Palace
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2018
Fri 24 Aug BURY ST EDMUNDS Hunter Club
Sat 3 Nov LONDON Bull's Head, Barnes
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From the late 1940s to the early 1990s, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz was one of the great, individual instrumental artists in jazz. As jazz itself went through many phases, Getz as a player was remarkably consistent, producing album after album of poetic, swinging music. While his accompaniments were elaborately varied, Getz’s playing was always unmistakable, characterised by his singing, luminescent tone, his unmatched facility for elegance, passion and lyricism and an almost supernatural melodic creativity.
Yet perhaps there’s a sense of Getz being somewhat underrated, perhaps even taken for granted. Firstly, he had the temerity to achieve several commercial successes in his career, communicating way beyond the jazz connoisseurship, an achievement which never seems to sit well with jazz posterity. Secondly, despite his dipping in and out of in-the-air jazz styles, his genius was very much of the invention-within-the-melodic-tradition variety, a much less musically flamboyant route than some other options available to him. His very consistency probably worked against him, posterity-wise. In the end, whatever he was playing, and as brilliant as it was, it was always just Getz being Getz...
However, for a man who could have toured lucrative Greatest Hits shows for most of his career, his choices in both in the material that he tackled and the musicians with whom he associated, show a notably intrepid attitude. Stan thrived on challenge and was dedicated to keeping his music fresh and vital, rarely taking the easy option. The result is a musical legacy among the richest in jazz.
On the CD Stan, the Chris Ingham Quartet presents twelve pieces associated with Stan Getz to as a companion to their live presentation Getz: A Musical Portrait.
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1. Ballad For Leo (René Thomas) 4.22
Unusually dramatic rarely played piece by French guitarist Rene Thomas, from Dynasty (1971)
2. Split Kick (Horace Silver) 3.57
Recorded by Getz twice, in 1951 and 1955. This version is a hybrid.
3. When The World Was Young (Philippe-Gerard/Vannier/Mercer) 3.50
Favourite French ballad of Stan’s from the mid-1960s.
4. Signal (Jimmy Raney) 4.14
A typically left-of-centre cool school number from Jimmy Raney Plays (1952), upon which Stan moonlighted from his own recording contract disguised as Sven Coolsen.
5. Vivo Sonhando (Antonio Carlos Jobim) 5.15
One of the dozens of exquisite Jobim pieces Stan recorded in the Bossa Nova years of the early 1960s.
6. Windows (Chick Corea) 5.26
Another great pianist, another source of great material, from 1967.
7. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most (Wolf/Landesman) 4.15
One of Stan’s signature approaches; ballad playing as story-telling.
8. I Hadn’t Anyone Till You (Ray Noble) 5.06
Playful swinger showcasing the drums, from 1954.
9. The Dolphin (Luiz Eça) 6.16
A good example of the kind of intricate and nuanced repertoire Stan gravitated to in his later years. Written in in the mid-1960s, recorded by Getz in 1981.
10. Detour Ahead (Herb Ellis/John Frigo/Lou Carter) 7.40
One of the handful of standards written by jazz musicians, in this case guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist John Frigo, recorded by Getz in 1955.
11. Voyage (Kenny Barron) 4.19
A favourite uptempo piece of Stan’s in the late 1980s.
12. The Peacocks (Jimmy Rowles) 3.56
The mysterious Jimmy Rowles composition that was the title track to the Getz/Rowles collaboration of 1975.
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