Search - Stan Getz :: Billy Highstreet Samba

Getz leading "Fusion" effort

rash67 | USA | 08/09/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Stan Getz European road manager was Bill Hoogstraten. One day Stan said, "Let's see, Hoogstraten, doesn't that mean 'High Street'"? Stan thought this was quite amusing, being often on High Street himself, so Stan collaborated on a Samba named for him. But 'Billy Highstreet Samba' is not really a samba, more nearly Rock Fusion.



Stan participated in a number of forgetable Fusion efforts in the 70's, to show he could play anything au courant, before his comeback in the 80's. Then, on his next Concord albums, he decided to change and play only what he was good at - his own straight-ahead mainstream style of Jazz, more involved versions of the same type of music he'd played in the '50's. Of all of his Fusion flounderings, this is the most listenable.



The better Getz pieces on this CD are, as usual, the slower, introspective ones like Chuck Loeb's "Be There Then", "Dirge" and the standard "Body and Soul". But, overall, there is also too much Fusion here; the sidemen meander, do their own thing, oblivious, while Stan tries to look for a place to make his statement in his idiom.



This will not replace Getz Cool, aloof work in the '40's thru '60's in anyone's heart. Nor will it replace his marvelous Cool (with emotions) comeback in the '80's, but it it the best album of the lost Fusion years."

Sound of fusion

B. London | Chicago | 04/01/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album was dedicated to Getz's personel manager, a fine fellow I'm sure-named Billy Highstreet. Sounds like an American Indian name! It was 1980 and soon Steve Getz, Stan's son became personel manager and remains even today as a guardian of Stan's venerable body of work. As even a Jazz Superstar like Getz was, artists must be exposed to the currents of newer trends. So, using a very talented pianist and a guitarist-Chuck Loeb, Getz plays his own vision of the "fusion" style so present in the early 80's. And he performs this music beautifully and with ease and of course more "prettiness" than most anyone else could. He even includes a lovely ballad-Body and Soul, and plays some soprano sax! A great artist like Getz could never lose his sweet "sound" no matter how times changed, we should be thrilled that we still can enjoy his work. If you are a fan, and you appreciate the first class treatment Verve always gives art you will be happy to own this recording."