Getz, Stan (1927-1991)

US saxophonist. He was one of the foremost tenor-sax players of his generation. In the 1950s he was a major exponent of the cool jazz style, as on the album West Coast Jazz (1955). In the 1960s he turned to the Latin American bossa nova sound, which gave him a hit single, ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ (1964). Later he experimented with jazz-rock fusion.

Getz became a professional musician at 15, working with the big-band leaders of the era: Tommy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, and Woody Herman. Technically brilliant but never showy, he was influenced by Lester Young, and became a cult hero in the cool-jazz movement with its tendency towards subtlety and restraint. In the early 1960s Jazz Samba, Big Band Bossa Nova, and other albums brought jazz to a wider public.