Live At Zardi's 1956 Vol.1

On 22 and 27 June 1959, Stan Getz and his quartet gave two legendary concerts in a club on Hollywood Boulevard. Black and white people, Saxophone players, pianists and singers all flocked to play the clubs and their sound resonated round the world from these sun-drenched settings. What drew all these jazz musicians of the time such as Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Art Tatum, Chet Baker, Sarah Vaughan and, of course, Stan Getz to these venues? They were escaping the chilly East Coast for both a warmer climate and a more relaxed environment than the tense South. It sustained a musical melting pot encouraged by a governor free of racial prejudice, the Republican Goodwin J. Knight, not to mention a booming labour market and the glamour of the movie industry – in a nutshell, the mythical appeal of the West Coast. Their favourite clubs: the Tiffany, the Haig, and most of all, the celebrated Zardi’s Jazzland, where Getz and his musicians performed these two evenings. The recordings remained unpublished on vinyl until this present edition.

In spring 2025 we came across the original tapes in the suburbs of Chicago. The set list of the two concerts is diverse but the line up is identical, with pianist Lou Levy, brilliantly representing the sound of the West Coast and whose style dovetailed perfectly with Getz’s budding forms of inspiration of that year, Max Bennett was on base and Gary Frommer on drums.

Getz here conveys the gentle atmosphere and cool mood he liked so much. The evening’s voyage concludes with a swinging improvisation that has the members of the audience reaching for the incandescent starry skies of California.

Stan Getz, saxophone
Lou Levy, piano
Max Bennett, bass
Gary Frommer, drums

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