Stan Getz – best known as America’s
tenor sax master of the Bossa Nova – here creates a different kind of Latin
fusion that’s light on the fusion and heavy on the beauty. But those who come
to him familiar only with the Getz/Gilberto albums might be in for a bit of a
shock in hearing the less laid back approach he uses here. It’s something he’d
done before in his pre-Bossa, “cool jazz” work for the Savoy and Verve labels
that flirted with bebop, but is nowhere to be found on the creamy tones
employed when he’s creating a Brazilian/jazz hybrid alongside his partners João
Gilberto or Charlie Byrd. But even while he’s taking a more overt rhythmic
approach there is no loss of the lovely lines he develops – that’s simply pure
Getz, him doing what he’s best at.
Aiding and abetting him here
are three Miles Davis alumni – miraculous drummer Tony Williams, Brazilian
percussionist Airto Moreira, and keyboardist Chick Corea, whose Fender Rhodes
electric piano and whose compositions (spiced with what Corea called “My
Spanish Heart” on one of his own albums) set the real flavor of the album – and
rounding out the group is bassist Stanley Clarke, only 20 at the time of the
recording. With these former Miles sidemen, it would be understandable to fear
some of the notoriously brilliant fusion experiments that the great trumpeter
was creating at the time, but Getz and Corea here have something less
forbidding in mind, with uptempo Latin grooves dominating the album and the
only audible touch of what would become known as “fusion” in Corea’s
deferential Rhodes keyboards – even Stanley Clarke, soon to become one of the
masters of the electric bass, is here all acoustic. But a fusion it is
regardless – fusing a post-bop structure with Corea’s affinity for Latin
rhythms, augmented by Tony Williams’ impeccable drumming and Airto’s sometimes
complementary, sometimes otherworldly percussion accents.
And what about Getz himself?
As noted, even with a more urgent rhythmic delivery spurred by his band here,
he still keeps melody at the forefront and delivers the long, lyrical lines
that are his hallmark throughout. And when he’s given a pair of ballads in the
second half – Corea’s “Times Lie” (which kicks off as a ballad and then starts
chugging once Getz lays out before returning to its mellower beginnings) and
Billy Strayhorn’s classic “Lush Life” – those who know Getz from his Bossa Nova
stylings will find a very familiar vibe to this record. And as a bonus, the CD
includes a track recorded at the sessions that didn’t make the original album –
Corea’s duet with Getz on the absolutely gorgeous “Crystal Silence” which
includes a few mild interjections from Airto, but mostly finds the two players
talking back and forth at the height of their powers. There are those who
prefer Getz’s earlier, similarly styled collaboration with Corea, Sweet Rain,
but for me the presence of Tony Williams here trumps it, makes this a more
exciting collaboration overall, and Corea’s “La Fiesta” that opens this album
is a show-stopper that the fine earlier album can’t touch. But they’re both
pretty great – check ‘em both out.
- Patrick Brown
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