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Exciting. This is the right term to attribute to the protagonists, the stories, the music, and the cultural drives that enlivened the Bossa Nova season. There is no better appellation that attempts, at least, to convey a certain idea of the carioca nights spent at Tudo Azul, Farolito, Michel, Mocambo, some of the hot spots of Rio in the '50s, where two young friends named Tom Jobim and Newton Mendonça performed; when the scene was dominated by figures like Dick Farney - the "Brazilian Frank Sinatra" - and Bossa Nova was not yet talked about. Exciting is to understand the morbid artistic jealousy that a certain De Moraes had towards Jobim himself, which was only calmed in the presence of Mendonça. Exciting is to understand how, in the midst of the bossanovist boom, other splendid pages were written still during carioca nights but in an apartment in Parque Guinle, owned by this recurring De Moraes, where a guitarist named Baden Powell, along with the homeowner, would write songs and get intoxicated till dawn. Very Special Guest, in the role of drinker, was an ex-President of no importance at all: Juscelino Kubitschek. Exciting to understand how "Chega de Saudade," also written by the duo De Moraes & Jobim and brought to success by a certain João Gilberto, along with the staging of a play named "Orfeu da Conceição" by De Moraes, supported by Jobim and a certain Luiz Bonfá, which would later lead to a film and a soundtrack like "Orfeu Negro," became the cornerstone on which Bossa Nova was based. Could this De Moraes be the spiritual and intellectual guide of the whole discourse? Hmm...
After all this we will sing and play our own do Brazil, the Americans will come to get their hands on the fantastic warm wind coming from Brazil. Thus begins the season definable as the "Americans Vocalists and Musicians meet Bossa Nova"; which, in the name of fascinating and irresistible Exoticism, will make eminent victims of the American musical star system. There will be two main and parallel strands: the vocal one, with Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald undisputed dominators of the scene - who knows why Jobim is involved? Hmm... -, and the instrumental one, dominated primarily by Stan Getz. Obviously, the Getz of early Bossa, who would later engage in collaborations with the splendid Astrud Gilberto, João's wife but at that time already "ex." Getz was certainly the American jazz musician most inclined and enthusiastic to hop on the train of this new wave, where everyone climbed on with varied results. Some climbed purely convinced by their own "experimental and musical" beliefs, some attempting to strike while the iron was hot and profitable, some driven by record producers - and certainly much credit, in this sense, should be given to Creed Taylor, a strong name at Verve and the real puppet master of the American-Brazilian discourse -, some for some other unknown reason. Going back to the list of victims, one could also find the name of an old lion like Coleman Hawkins, with a rough, workmanlike, and questionable "Desafinado Coleman Hawkins - Plays Bossa Nova & Jazz Samba." There was, with brilliant results, also a charming one like Paul Desmond, who shared a similar stylistic and musical path with Getz. Yes, if Desmond insisted that the sound of his Alto should resemble the taste of a Martini, then Getz's Tenor should necessarily approach the flavor of a Capirinha. Stan Getz, a cocktail as well as a musician: protagonist and reference point of various seasons of American Jazz, with eastern European blood in his veins, he became an undisputed master and disseminator of a certain Brazilian language; now also a significant commercial and economic vehicle. Simple ingredients, both musical and otherwise, of historical significance in both music and cultural contexts, I would say. Perhaps not the season of the "true" Getz, an authentic American swinger from the early days, but most likely the most representative and perhaps the most deeply felt by Getz himself.
The backstory of "Jazz Samba," with Charlie Byrd - participating as Getz's seductive guitar-playing partner - returning from Brazil with these new things, is well-known; with overlapping stories and legends. The album draws from the bossanovistic hat some of the movement's emblematic songs itself, such as "Desafinado" and "Samba de Uma Nota Só," obviously two of the manifestos of the celebrated firm Jobim & Mendonça. The highest emotional point surely arrives with a warm, heartbreaking, and melancholic "Samba Triste" by Baden Powell, written in collaboration with Billy Blanco, in which Getz delivers a show in terms of suffering, intensity, and melancholy; all highlighted by Byrd's charming phrasings. Byrd also offers some pearls born from his pen, like the outgoing, cheerful, and engaging "Samba Dees Days," where the summery, crisp, and dry sound of Getz evokes sensations - personal to the writer - like a blade of wheat brushed on the cheek. The journey through the tracks leads to other pearls by other Brazilian composers who have made the history of Brazilian music. Like the ironic "O Pato," for instance, an old piece written by the couple - also in life - Jaime Silva and Neuza Teixeira and included, at the end of the '40s, in the repertoire of Garotos da Lua. A piece that would later become a favorite of João. This is the first step of the Brazilian Getz, leading to other fundamental passages during the first part of the '60s: from the splendid collaborations with Mr. Gilberto, culminating in the famous concert at New York's Carnegie Hall; even though João was never fully convinced of Getz brasileiro (!), up to the following chapter of "Jazz Samba," that is the splendid "Jazz Samba Encore!" with Bonfá and Jobim. Worth mentioning, as a personal fancy, "Stan Getz with Guest Artist Laurindo Almeida," a very beautiful album with Laurindo Almeida, which features a version of "Menina Moca" that causes goosebumps every time. But it's the usual "other discourse"...
The Bossa Nova season represented for many jazz artists a fleeting night of love with a beautiful stranger, from whom it was unclear what to demand and what to grasp in those moments. Instead, Stan purposely remained struck and genuinely hit on the "Latin way" (Hey Chick!), and continued, in fits and starts, to pursue its sounds, essences, and colors, until the end of his days.
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