Stan Getz — Captain Marvel – Columbia KC 32706 (1972)/ Pure Pleasure – vinyl [10/14/08] ****:
(Stan Getz, tenor sax/ Chick Corea, elec. piano/Stanley Clark, bass/ Tony Williams, drums/ Airo, percussion)
Don’t know why this remastering from Pure Pleasure is coming to us so late in the game, but I happen to have the original Columbia vinyl and they sound absolutely alike. Dixon Van Winkle was the recording engineer and he did a bang-up job. Chick Corea leads the band behind Getz (but such a ’70s sound with electric piano), along with his Return to Forever bassist Stanley Clarke (who plays acoustic here though he played electric with that group). (Wish Corea had stuck with his acoustic piano.)
The easily-identifiable Getz sound on tenor sax is wet and mellow, his primary influence having been the great Lester Young. This album has a remarkable organic sound, opening with his big hit “La Fiesta.” The album’s title tune is the third selection. The sax has a warm and lyrical tone that I bet isn’t equalled on the CD version, though I didn’t have that at hand for a comparison.
If you don’t have the original in your collection and you’re a Getz fan, as I am, this reissue is a must-have. Why hasn’t anyone reissued his wonderful “Focus” album, which is a poor transfer on a Verve CD plus cuts off the first few seconds?
TrackList:
1. La Fiesta
2. Five Hundred Miles High
3. Captain Marvel
4. Time’s Lie
5. Lush Life
6. Day Waves
—John Henry
