Cashbox : 07/29/1967
Jazz Pick

Tenor saxist Stan Getz performs five smooth, glistening jazz sessions. The numbers include the title track Sweet Rain, Litha, O Grande Amor, Con Alma, and Windows. Getz receives the stellar support of Ron Carter, bass; Grady Tate, drums; and Chick Corea, piano. The artist plays poetically on the LP, which should get heavy sales action.

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American Record Guide
Donald Heckman : September, 1967

In the late fifties one of Coltrane’s principal competitors was Stan Getz. If ever there had been any real question as to their relative excellence, a few moments of listening to Getz’s current work will reveal just how pointless is any comparison between the two players. Getz is a superb technician, possesses one of the best harmonic ears in jazz and is capable, on occasion, of improvising lyrical melodic lines. But Getz’s music leaves me with a feeling of uneasiness. In terms of natural musical talent he is probably one of the most gifted jazz musicians who ever put horn to lip. And like many naturally gifted artists he has coasted along, playing ideas that spring easily to mind, only rarely probing for the gut material deep beneath the surface. Having finally shaken off the mantle of bossa nova that nearly smothered him, Getz gives a good enough accounting of himself in this collection. His rhythm section is adequate, although the differences between drummer Grady Tate and bassist Ron Carter are more obvious than I would prefer. What I am suggesting is that Sweet Rain, considered in the general run of jazz records, is a distinctly better than average release. But when one thinks of what Getz might do if he really dug in, it is a disappointment. Great talent always demands more stringent criticism; if Getz were a lesser musician, this might have seemed a more outstanding effort.

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Asbury Park Press (Asbury Park, NJ)
Don Lass : 09/16/1967

This is a great album by one of the great players in jazz. Stan Getz has always been a lyrical player of the highest order whose ideas flow like a waterall, but on this collection he exceeds most of his recorded output. The LP is the first in several years in which the tenor saxophonist is accompanied by only a rhythm section. The context enables him to improvise with more freedom than on orchestral collections, and in pianist Chick Corea, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Grady Tate he has selected three sensitive accompanists whose ideas supplement those of their leader handsomely. Another interesting thing about this collection is that Getz approaches the avant-garde on Con Alma, a jazz standard, and the variated Litha. On both he plays heated passages that retain an astonishing lyrical beauty while setting out on new musical routes occasionally. Corea, too, investigates new fields but, like Getz, he never frees himself completely of traditional jazz forms. Getz is also outstanding on the album’s one true ballad, Mike Gibbs’ Sweet Rain, a piece that enables this master of the saxophone to display his matchless tone and creativity. The remaining tracks, O Grande Amor, with its insinuating bossa nova beat, and a fervent Windows are also top drawer.

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Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD)
John Goodspeed : 09/03/1967

In another new Verve album, Stan Getz / Sweet Rain, the talented saxophone player has, despite the misleading title, turned back to jazz and away from bossa nova and the sweet-stricken Brazilian kick that has lately made his fortune. This too despite the sticky names of some of the five selections he leads his quartet through — Litha, O Grande Amor, Sweet Rain, Con Alma and Windows.

Getz has regained his old lyrical cool—with considerable help from Ron Carter (bass violin), Grady Tate (Drums) and Chick Corea (piano). He is less witty and reedy than Paul Desmond is in much the same jazz bag, but the Getz group swings. Seldom does it evoke the pale Brazilian image of a sad girl on a balcony, pining for her lover with the rose in his teeth. For which, let us sing hallelujah.

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Detroit Free Press (Detroit, MI)
Dorthy Ashby : 08/20/1967

If there could be such a creature as a jazz romanticist, then I’m sure Stan Getz would qualify. The tone quality of his tenor is easy to recognize, because it is so lyrically romantic, even when he is playing a tempo tune. What a pleasure it is to hear him playing jazz extensively, on long tracks rather than the pop length commercial melodies he was recording in such abundance for a while.

Even though his pop presentations were better than most, jazz needs the warmth, beauty, and sensitivity of his tenor. Goodness knows, there is a shortage of these qualities on many of the new releases, at least the kind of beauty and warmth I’ve become accustomed to.

Getz sounds revitalized and inspired on this excellent new album. A sizable share of the credit should also go to two of the most sought after rhythm men in jazz, Grady Tate, drums, and Ron Carter, bass.

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The State (Columbia, SC)
Bob Talbert : 07/23/1967

Just say, “Stan Getz.” That says all there is to say about the tenor sax today. Never has one musician been so on top, so in control, so well accepted on his instrument as the creative genius named Stan Getz who makes it “happen” every time he plays. Recognized by his peers, by history and by jazz and popular music fans, Getz has contributed so many things to the musical scene it is impossible to start naming them. His latest — and one of the most beautiful yet — is this Verve album with bassist Ron Carter, drummer Grady Tate and pianist Chick Corea. Getz is the full master on Sweet Rain and utterly perfect 8-minute version of Con Alma. Poetry from a tenor sax.

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HiFi / Stereo Review
Rex Reed : November, 1967

Performance: Awe-inspiring
Recording: Excellent
Stereo Quality: Excellent

I played the first side of this new Getz collection with my mouth wide open. With the possible exception of Sonny Stitt, Stan the Man is and always has been my favorite musician. But he has simply never before played as well as this. Even after he revolutionized combo playing within big-band confines with his stint as the fourth “brother” in the Woody Herman band, even after he took charge of returning jazz to life from the graveyard with his trip to Brazil and his discovery of bossa nova (Lord, when I think of all the imitators that have come along since!), even after all that, he is better and more revolutionary than ever. This disc is a magnificent cornucopia of unleashed, passionate joy. He coaxes the exotic, throbbing melodies of Dizzy Gillespie’s Con Alma and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s O Grande Amor from under layers of beat and proves once again (if there is still anybody who doubts it for more than, say, two and a half minutes at a whack) that his genius (yes, I said genius) derives not from gimmicks or fads but from genuine ability.

Every glistening solid-gold second of this album is stunning, but consider a tune by Stan’s pianist Chick Corea called Litha. I don’t remember hearing Corea before, but either I am going mad or he is the most exciting jazz pianist in years. I am sure the latter is the case, because I listened with perfect self-control to his glissandos and parlandos before dancing around the room in wild abandon. And I can’t even dance.

What I mean is that this album, in all its glory, in all its musical slices, is something to get really excited about. Stan’s playing alone is more imaginative than anything else he has ever done. It grates and sticks in the memory. Short of canonization, it’s hard to conceive what new honors the coming years will bring to him.

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Jazz Journal
Michael Shera : November, 1967

At last he has done it. Creed Taylor has recorded Stan Getz sans strings, choirs and Astrud Gilberto. This is the undiluted jazz album that I (and, I hope, lots of others) have been waiting for. In fact, the last one to equal this was the 1961 recording with Bob Brookmeyer.

In some ways, this is a more satisfactory group than Getz’ quartet with Gary Burton. The latter is a fine musician, and Getz tended to feature him perhaps a little too much. Chuck Corea is a good musician, but because he is not a brilliant soloist like Burton, the leader is able to take more of the spotlight. Corea plays for the group rather than for himself.

Although this is not quite Getz’ regular group (though Corea is his regular pianist), you would never know it. On Windows particularly, Grady Tate gives such an excellent imitation of Roy Haynes that I am inclined to doubt the personnel details given.

Getz has rarely, if ever, given such a remarkable display of his talents. He has now reached a point at which it is doubtful if any improvement can be made. Every facet of his work is as near to perfection as is humanly possible: he swings more than ever, particularly on Con Alma, and his melodic invention is a thing of wonder. Sweet Rain is a finely-wrought ballad performance with a tenderness and beauty only surpassed by the ease with which he carries the listener along. There is nothing difficult about Getz, and this is perhaps a clue to his popularity. He provides enjoyment at any level at which the listener wishes to participate.

The material, too, leaves nothing to be desired.

The intriguing Litha, the chorus of which contains fast passages with a slow interlude, provides an interesting challenge to both Getz and Corea, both of whom rise to the occasion. I am even prepared to like O Grande Amor, which is the inevitable bossa nova. Without encumbrances, however, Getz takes full advantage of the lilting rhythm to fashion a typically lyrical yet intensely swinging solo. Con Alma illustrates his swinging lyricism even more eloquently than O Grande Amor, and Windows is another interesting tune with suspensions and broken rhythms which provides Getz with another opportunity to prove what a master he is. If he plays as well as this at Ronnie Scott’s at the end of this month, it will be a visit worth waiting for.

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Port Chester Daily Item (Port Chester, NY)
Bob Foley : 07/08/1967
Ipanema Man in a Hudson Hacienda

He has played to enthusiastic audiences the world over, been entertained by kings in palaces and the President in the White House, and his recordings have sold millions.

But Stan Getz, world renowned jazz saxophonist, has another side — that of devoted husband and father. The popular composer-musician, who is perhaps best known for his haunting tenor sax rendition of The Girl from Ipanema, was born in Philadelphia 40 years ago and brought up in the Bronx, but now has a picturesque Hudson River estate called Shadowbrook.

In addition to his beautiful Swedish-born wife, Monica, the family includes five children, one large white dog, two cats, three cars, a governess and a gardener.

The Getz family moved to Westchester five years ago after several years in Denmark, where Stan cultivated a European following.

At first they lived in an old mansion on a hill overlooking Broadway in Irvington. Last year they moved a short distance north, just over the line into Tarrytown, where they make their home in an English-type stone and brick country house which dates back to the turn of the century.

“I like it here,” Mr. Getz said, “because it’s peaceful and quiet, friendly, secluded, and yet the city is easily accessible.”.

Credited with some 200 recordings and 50 copyrighted songs,, he likes to quote Irving’s description of the atmosphere of the area with its “rustling trees and flowing brook” and how the solitude of the setting is so conducive to thought and creativity.

The Getz children and their Labrador retriever, Soukie, and one-month old kitten, Sam, like it there too. The youngest child, five-year-old fair-haired Nicky, who playfully asks people to guess his full name — Nicholas George Peter Richard Getz — frolics around the spacious grounds with Soukie, who, according to eight-year-old Pamela, “is one of the few dogs who smiles when she’s happy.”

“Soukie thinks she’s Sam’s mother,” 13-year-old Beverly declared.

Rounding out the Getz crew are two older boys who have preceded the others through the Irvington public schools — David, 15, a track star at Irvington High School, where he will be a senior next year, and Steven, 18, a pre-med student at the University of Arizona.

When he’s not rehearsing at home in a large circular music room with amazing acoustics, you can find Stan Getz swimming or horseback riding in the Westchester area. He likes to read too, spending hours engrossed in history and literature.

Now In Greece

Stan is currently on a 17-day playing-vacation tour of Greece, where he will give six concerts.

A few days before leaving for Europe, the “very happy but never really satisfied” musician played before an overflow crowd in a concert under the stars in Central Park. The next evening, June 27, in one of several official visits to the White House, Mr. and Mrs. Getz were honored guests of President and Mrs. Johnson at a formal reception for the King and Queen of Thailand.

They had all been together last November at the King’s palace in Bangkok, when the President visited King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit. Stan had given a concert for the clarinet-playing jazz-buff King and stayed as a guest in the palace after the Presidential visit.

A New Project

Enthusiastic about his two new recordings — Stan Getz and the Boston Pops at Tanglewood and Sweet Rain — Stan is looking forward to a series of intimate concert-seminar type ventures next year with symphony orchestras at colleges and universities throughout the U.S.

He has been described as playing with “humor, warmth, great lyricism, and a deep fondness and respect for the melody.” His tenor sax solo of Early Autumn in 1949 propelled him into the world spotlight. Desafinado is another of the many famous pieces commonly associated with Stan Getz.

With an annual income reported to be several hundred thousand dollars, the man whose works have sold more than any other living jazz artist still proudly recalls how he made his first dollar. He had been playing the saxophone only eight weeks, and was sweating through an all-night wellare organization benefit on a hot summer night in the Bronx, when someone offered him a $1 to quit playing and go home.

He took the dollar and left, but he kept playing other places, including Bar Mitzvahs for nothing, and before he was 22 he had been a key soloist with the best — Jack Teagarden, Woody Herman, Jimmy Dorsey, Stan Kenton and Benny Goodman.

“The things he does are contemporary and in good taste, and he’s got a message,” his late mentor Teagarden once said of Stan Getz. “As long as you’ve got something to say and can express it, that’s all that matters.”

This, and his family-life at Shadowbrook, are what matter to Stan Getz.

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Santa Barbara News-Press
Bill Hillton : 09/30/1967

Any of us who paid any attention to the era of the big bands will remember Stan Getz with a quickening of the pulse as the great tenor sax player with Woody Herman’s band back in the 40s. But unlike many of the fine musicians of that era who fell by the wayside when the big bands passed from the scene, Stan Getz took his sax and blew himself right to the top of the pop heap.

Now two of his latest albums let you listen to two sides of this fine saxophone player. He plays with his quartet and he plays with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops. And if you are a Stan Getz fan, or even if you are not but hold something dear for the saxophone, you’ll get a giant charge out of these two albums.

The first is SWEET RAIN (Verve V-8693), and the second is STAN GETZ AND ARTHUR FIEDLER AT TANGLEWOOD WITH THE BOSTON POPS (RCA Victor LSC-2925). That title may be a killer, but the album is out of this world.

In Sweet Rain Getz proves without a doubt that he is one of the greatest jazz musicians alive. The Getz solos on this album may be a little farther out than you generally care for but that tenor sax just won’t let you turn it off.

Improvisations

The album opens with nine minutes of a tune called Litha, and you never heard such improvisations on the saxophone. Getz takes you to the top of the mountain on this one and races you to the brink of the cliff. Then, with an absolute switch of posture, he softens the music and keeps you from jumping over. I think this tune alone brings out his great jazz ability.

Make no mistake, he plays like there was no tomorrow on the others, but this Litha is something else. Like I said, you’ve never heard such fine tenor sax.

And while Stan Getz and his saxophone carried the album, I don’t want to take anything away from the others of the quartet. They were great Chick Corea on the piano, who also did a classic piece of work on Litha; Ron Carter on bass and Grady Tate on the drums.

Other tunes are O Grande Amor, Sweet Rain, the title tune, Con Alma and Windows.

Spine Tingler

“Sweet Rain” carries the Getz’ saxophone into a low register that is most uncommon for him, but he sets your spine to tingling by the magnificent manner in which he handles the low notes. The tune is so thick and heavy it almost reminds you of something from MacBeth, a macabre dance with mist and black-draped figure swirling in and out of a graveyard.

But Getz and Corea take your hand and bring you safely through the darkness. This is a magnificent album.
On the other album, Getz and Fiedler, the opener is The Girl From Ipanema, for which Getz and his saxophone are famous. But this opener only puts you in the mood for the 15 minutes of Tanglewood Concerto that follows.

Backed by the full Boston Pops orchestra, with solos by various artists, this tune is about as good a piece of music as you’ll hear today.

Sax Out Front

Four months in the writing by Eddie Sauter, the Tanglewood Concerto is specifically for the tenor sax. And Stan Getz does himself proud with his part of the number. But so does the Boston Pops. You can never take anything away from them. They are superb. Other tunes on the RCA album, on which Getz appeared through the courtesy of Verve Records, are Love Is for the Very Young, A Song After Sundown, Three Ballads
for Stan and Where do you Go?

Always in the foreground, of course, is the Getz sax, but the rest of the music leaves you breathless. It is filled with drums, guitars, brass, strings — you name it, this tune has got it.

So for an evening with Stan Getz try these two albums. You’ll be mighty glad you did.

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The Province (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
Jim Banham : 09/29/1967

Few jazz musicians have been the object of more idolatry than Stan Getz, whose latest record, Sweet Rain, (Verve V6 8693), might have been subtitled “A quick guide to the career of America’s most popular tenor saxophonist.”

All the qualities which have made Getz the perennial poll winner — first class technique, a warm, liquid tone and a and a flair for inventing pretty melodies — are on parade here, as are the various styles that Getz has employed during his career.

There is also something of a new departure for Getz — on two of the five tracks he flirts with semi-chromatic melodies, something which he has largely avoided in the past. Both Litha, which employs a slow bossa nova tempo and a fast 4-4, and the title tune are impressionistic melodies admirably suited to Getz’ romanticism, and he makes full use of their possibilities.

On the up tempo passages of Litha, Getz plays with the galloping drive that was his trademark a decade ago when he was more under the influence of one of the great originals of jazz, Lester Young.

Getz’ least attractive quality appears during O Grande Amor, a bossa nova tune that he has recorded previously, and more effectively, with a group of South American musicians.

During Getz first chorus his lyricism slides away to be replaced near the end by a whining, pleading series of notes. If Getz can be said to have a fatal flaw it is this streak of sentimentality which occasionally shows through his impeccable technique.

The technique, in fact, serves as a mask that effectively overshadows the absence of any legitimate emotional core, which is at the heart of all good jazz. It is chiefly for this reason that I have always regarded Getz as a first class jazzman of the second rank.

Certainly he is capable of holding his own with the best of the mainstreamers, but in the final analysis he cannot be included in that handful of jazz musicians who have changed jazz history, something his idolaters would have us believe.

Much of this also applies to Getz’ chief sideman on this date, pianist Chick Corea.

He is the possessor of a fabulous technique and a nice harmonic ear which reminds one of Thelonious Monk with the kinks ironed out. His improvisations, however, lack any real emotional fire.

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Down Beat : 09/21/1967
Don DeMichael : 5 stars

Getz has come in for more than his share of put-downs in recent years, partly because of his personality, partly because of his financial success, partly because he’s white. But make no mistake: Getz is one of the great jazz players when he really wants to be, which is certainly the case on this record.

His improvisations on Con Alma and Litha cascade like wild mountain streams rushing down a precipice. His solos on these tracks are farther out than any he has recorded, except perhaps those on Focus. I’m tempted to call them avant-garde, but that word has so many negative connotations in some quarters that it might be a disservice to this music.

Call it exploratory, if you will, but not in the sense that Getz is trying something just for the hell of it—he isn’t; he knows exactly where he’s going, but he doesn’t take obvious routes to get there. And it’s an almost-psychedelic trip. Nor is all this at the expense of lyricism, of which Getz is a master. Within those convolute, heated improvisations are passages of astonishing lyrical beauty-but never the sort that can be predicted; everything is new.

Sweet Rain is a Kafkaesque ballad by Mike Gibbs, and Getz immerses himself in the ominous-sounding music. It’s a dissonant piece of thick harmonic texture, but Getz does not merely run the chords; he creates lines of admirable compositional strength, seemingly without effort, so that the music always sings and never becomes a means to display glittering glibness. The whole performance conjures up shadowy figures doing a macabre dance, their movements occasionally glimpsed through a light mist.

Getz stays out there for the most part on Windows (a good piece for which no composer is listed), but when he comes back in, he is his old self, though with a great amount of rhythmic fervor, more than was sometimes the case in the past (the same holds for Amor, which is almost completely “in”).

Getz’ supporters are with him all the way. Corea is a pianist of promise, his work here somewhat under the influence of Bill Evans, but beyond aping and into something individual.

Carter and Tate, two stalwarts if ever there were stalwarts, continually push Getz and Corea. Carter’s resilient bass lines, studded with double stops, keep the background fluid, while Tate keeps the heat up, lashing out like a mad ballet dancer in full flight.

This is a remarkable album.

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Liner Notes by Johnny Magnus

The first time I heard Stan Getz was during his Woody Herman tenure when that band was in its Golden Era. He was the “Fourth Brother” and made “early Autumn” the greatest year round season. His eloquent poetry therein is one of those rare solo gems every aficionado knows by heart. The second time I heard Stan the Man was during my stint on the all-nite jazz radio show emanating from Birdland at the turn of the half-century. At that time Stan and I were taken for brothers inasmuch as we looked alike. He was on stage: I was in the glass-enclosed booth. There we were—looking at one another—Stan playing to the audience in the room, and I, presenting to the people in radioland. The oversized windows of that studio reflected each other and were my introduction to what might now be referred to as a psychedelic overdub—if that sight had sound. By the time I got out of that midnitely fishbowl, it was 6 a.m. (There is nothing more lonely, dirty and depressing than an abandoned niteclub after closing). The irony of this whole thing is that Stan and I never met; that was to happen later… way, way later… I mean like years and years.

Stan Getz got more airplay on my show that any other artist. His beautiful work with guitarist Johnny Smith became the background bridge for commercials and other verbal interludes throughout the show. There were all the accolades from critics and fans. He received every conceivable award, and naturally is the perennial poll winner.

Then, things reached a point of diminishing returns here. In his quest to conquer new worlds, he went to Europe and triumphed in all the happening countries, particularly in the hippest Europe of all… Scandinavia.

He loved it as much as they loved him so he stayed… for a while. Then, as if on a divine mission, he returned to give jazz a much needed kick in the fafarini. I hate to think what would have happened if he hadn’t. The big band business was finished forever. Rock and Roll was at its highest peak; this was before the Beatles became a way of life so you can imagine how really dreadful things were. Those talented guys, at least, took care of business and straightened a lot of people out. Jazz, I felt, was on the ropes and needed a take-charge guy to keep it from inevitable demise.

Things could not have been timed better. Time, place and opportunity came together and with a stroke of perfect casting, Producer-Director Creed Taylor assembled his cast. The property… BRAZIL. Not just a tune…a guitar player or group… the whole country! Brazil became a music phenomenon… Stan Getz made it a “happening.” The results: Desafinado, Ipanema, Quiet Nights, Meditation, One Note Samba, Jobim, Gilberto (Astrud and João), Bola Sete, Sergio Mendes, and Brasil ’66… Everybody.

In this album … SWEET RAIN … I hear the complete, mature, full-grown master of his instrument and soul. Never has he played so poetically. The moods and tempos change… complex… elusive like butterflies or quicksilver. Don’t fight it. Just go with it and let it happen … again and again and again. “Whatever Stan Wants Stan Getz!”

P.S. I finally got to meet Stan, our leading man. It was in California during Ipanema year and we are friends now. We didn’t want to rush into it.