The very first song Stan Getz recorded for Norman Granz's Clef label, in December 1952, was Victor Young's Stella by Starlight. At the time, the Stan Getz Quintet was comprised of Stan Getz (ts), Duke Jordan (p), Jimmy Raney (g), Bill Crow (b) and Frank Isola (d). [Photo above of Stan Getz]
By then, the group had already been playing the standard at gigs. They did so on November 14 at New York's Carnegie Hall and four days later at Birdland. They also performed it after the studio recording, on March 8, 1953, at Boston's Hi-Hat Club, with guitarist Jimmy Raney replaced by valve-trombonist Bob Brookmeyer.
The song features Getz at his very best—smooth, inventive on improvisation, and seamless on execution. Perfection!
Here's the quintet at Carnegie Hall playing Stella by Starlight...
Here's the quintet in the studio recording for Clef...
And here's the Getz quintet, with Bob Brookmeyer, at Boston's Hi-Hat Club...
Other Perfection tracks in this ongoing series...
- Paul Desmond and Jim Hall: Any Other Time, go here.
- John Coltrane: You Say You Care, go here.
- Quincy Jones: Funk Junction, go here.
- Art Farmer's Work of Art, go here.
- Miles Davis: A Gal in Calico, go here.
- Gene Krupa: Mulligan Stew, go here.
- Dave Brubeck: The Duke, go here.
- Horace Silver: The Back Beat, go here.
- Horace Parlan: Up & Down, go here.
- Dexter Gordon: Society Red, go here.
- Barney Kessel: You Go to My Head, go here.
- Count Basie: Corner Pocket, go here.
- Herbie Mann: Manteca, go here.
- Donald Byrd: Bronze Dance, go here.
- George Shearing: I'll Be Around, go here.
- Ammons & Stitt: You Talk That Talk, go here.
- Count Basie: Blues in My Heart, go here.
- Moonlight in Vermont, go here.
- Johnny Griffin / Matthew Gee, Here, go here.
- Jimmy Smith / Stanely Turrentine: When I'I Grow Too Old to Dream, go here.
- Chet Baker: Estate, go here.
- Jazz Studio 1: Tenderly, go here.
- Herb Pomeroy: Down Home Outing, go here.
- Frank Sinatra: There's a Small Hotel, go here.
- Bill Harris Herd: Blackstrap, go here.
- Gerry Mulligan: Westwood Walk, go here.
- Red Garland/Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis: We'll Be Together Again, go here.
- Bill Evans: Reflections in D, go here.
- Ted McNabb & Co.: Mountain Greenery, go here.
- Maynard Ferguson: Fox Hunt, go here.
- Serge Chaloff & the Herdsmen: The Most!, go here.
- Maynard Ferguson: Starfire, go here.
- Urbie Green, Please, go here.
- Machito, Conversation, go here.
- David Allyn, Love Is a Serious Thing, go here.
- Lennie Tristano, Wow, go here.
- Teddy Charles, Borodin Bossa Nova, go here.
- Gerry Mulligan, Night Lights, go here.
- Tommy Flanagan, In the Blue of Evening, go here.
