Piano Diana Blog: Stan Getz

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Monday Music Quote: Stan Getz

"It’s like a language. You learn the alphabet, which are the scales. You learn sentences, which are the chords. And then you talk extemporaneously with the horn. It’s a wonderful thing to speak extemporaneously, which is something I’ve never gotten the hang of. But musically I love to talk just off the top of my head. And that’s what jazz music is all about." -- Stan Getz

Here is some information that is available online and so important to know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_chord

Each chord is described as a series of intervallic relationships to the root of the chord. This provides an accurate and easily understandable basis for working out these chords in each key.
The terms used to describe intervals are as follows:

r = root of the chord
♭2 = minor second = 1 semitone above root
2 = major second = 2 semitones above root
♯2 = augmented second = 3 semitones above the root
♭3 = minor third = 3 semitones above the root
3 = major third = 4 semitones above the root
4 = perfect fourth = 5 semitones above the root
♯4 = augmented fourth (tritone) = 6 semitones above the root
♭5 = diminished fifth (tritone) = 6 semitones above the root
5 = perfect fifth = 7 semitones above the root
♯5 = augmented fifth = 8 semitones above the root
♭6 = minor sixth = 8 semitones above the root
6 = major sixth = 9 semitones above the root
7 = minor seventh = 10 semitones above the root
M7 = major seventh = 11 semitones above the root

One of my all time favorite songs that was tops on the charts in 1964, The Girl from Ipanema!

Here is the chord chart. I just love the gentle groove of bossa nova music. How about you?

Fm7
Tall and tan and young and lovely, 
    G7
the girl from Ipanema goes walking 
    Gm7                   F#7                    Fm7   F#7
and when she passes, each one she passes goes...'aaaah.'
Fm7
When she walks, she's like a Samba 
     G7
that swings so cool and sways so gentle,
     Gm7                   F#7                    Fm7
that when she passes, each one she passes goes...'aaaah.'

CHORUS:
F#+7      F#7          C9
Oh, but I watch her so sadly,
F#m7                 D9           
how can I tell her I love her? 
Gm                         Gm7
Yes, I would give my heart gladly...
         Am7                        Dm7-5
But each day, when she walks to the sea, 
    Gm7                          F#
she looks straight ahead, not at me. 
Fm7
Tall, and tan, and young, and lovely, 
    G7
the girl from Ipanema goes walking, 
    Gm7                F#7                    Fm7
and when she passes, I smile..but she doesn't see.
F#7                             Fm7  F#7
No,she doesn't see, she doesn't see.
                 Fm7
She just doesn't see.

Stan Getz Guitar Chord Chart

Do you have a favorite Stan Getz song?

You'll find an ear training software that is available through Hear and Play, called Pitch. When you have the time, you might want to look into it.

Warmly,

"Jazz washes away the dust of every day life." -- Art Blakey

Monday Music Quote: Stan Getz

“The saxophone is actually a translation of the human voice, in my conception. All you can do is play melody. No matter how complicated it gets, it’s still a melody.”

-- Stan Getz

Stanley Getz, better known as Stan Getz (February 2, 1927 - June 6, 1991) was a jazz musician. He is considered one of the greatest tenor saxophone players of all time, well known for his instantly recognizable warm tone as displayed in his version of the song 'The Girl from Ipanema'.

Girl From Ipanema - chords

Fm7 
Tall and tan and young and lovely 
     G7 
The girl from Ipanema goes walking, 
    Gm7                   F#7                   Fm7    F#7 
And when she passes, each one she passes goes, "Ahhh." 
 
 
 Fm7 
When she walks, she's like a samba 
      G7 
That swings so cool and sways so gentle, 
      Gm7                  F#7                    Fm7 
That when she passes, each one she passes goes, "Ahhh." 
 
Bridge: 
F#7M      F#7             C9 
Oh, but I watch her so sadly; 
F#m7                   D9 
How can I tell her I love her? 
 Gm                         Gm7 
Yes, I would give my heart gladly, 
         Am7                      Dm7(b5)   
But each day when she walks to the sea, 
     Gm7                         F# 
She looks straight ahead, not at me. 
 
 
Fm7 
Tall and tan and young and lovely 
    G7 
The girl from Ipanema goes walking, 
    Gm7                 F#7 
And when she passes,  I smile, 
               Fm7   F#7                Fm7    F#7 
But she doesn't see,     no she doesn't see, 
               Fm7 
No she doesn't see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJkxFhFRFDA

Gilberto Astrud and Doris Day

F - C#    F - C#

1. Olha que coisa mas linda mas cheia,

de graca e ela menina que vem,

Gm C F - C#

e que passa num doce balanco a caminho do mar.

2. Moca do corpo dourado do sol

de Ipanema, o seu balancado e mais

Gm C F

que um poema, e a coisa mais linda que eu ja vi passar.

F# B7

Ah! Por que estou tao sozinho?

F#m D7 Gm D#

Ah! Por que tudo e tao triste? Ah! A beleza que existe.

Am D7 Gm C

a beleza que nao e so minha, que tambem passa sozinha.

3. Ah! se ela soubesse que quando ela

passa, o mundo sorrindo se enche

Gm C F - C#

de graca e fica mais lindo por causa do amor.

4. Tall and tan and young and lovely,

the girl from Ipanema goes walking,

Gm C F - C#

and when she passes, each one she passes goes "ahh" !

5. When she walks she's like a samba

that swings so cool and sways so gentle,

Gm C F

that when she passes, each one she passes goes "ahh" !

F# B7

Oh, but he watches so sadly

F#m D7

How can he tell her he loves her?

Gm D#

Yes, he would give his heart gladly,

Am D7

but each day when she walks to the sea,

Gm C

she looks straight ahead, not at he.

5. Tall and tan and young and lovely,

the girl from Ipanema goes walking,

Gm C F

and when she passes, she smiles and just doesn’t see.

C# F - C# F

She just doesn’t see, she just doesn’t see …

Midi http://hajioff.com/webmusik/jazz/ipanema.mid

Stan Getz and Kenny Barron (a memorable performance)

The best write up I have seen on Getz so far. Have a look, http://jazz342.tripod.com/getz_gilberto.html

I absolutely LOVE this song, The Girl From Ipanema. How about you?

"Jazz washes away the dust of every day life." -- Art Blakey

Dave Mc Kenna

Image via Wikipedia

* Dave McKenna

Jazz pianist Dave McKenna was best known for his solo work and his trademark left-handed bass style. He began his musical career at the young age of 15 when he started playing with Boots Mussulli. In the years that followed, he collaborated with the likes of Charlie Ventura and Woody Herman's Orchestra.

In 1954, after returning from two years in the army, McKenna began working with musicians such as Gene Krupa and Stan Getz. He made many recordings as an accompanist, but most markedly as an unaccompanied soloist. In 1966, McKenna and his family moved to Cape Cod, and he began to work less frrequently with bands and more often as a solo pianist, performing mainly in the New England area. During the 1980's, he was the pianist in residence at the Copley plaza Hotel in Boston. McKenna once said of himself, "I don't know if I qualify as a bona-fide jazz guy. I play saloon piano. I like to stay close to the melody." His modesty seemed a contrast to the vibrant piano playing he was best known for.

* Musical Style

Dave McKenna was a jazz pianist. He was known for his "three-handed swing", and was the leading proponent of solo piano style.

"His musical presentation relies on two key elements relating to his choices of tunes and set selection, and the method of playing that has come to be known as "three-handed swing".

McKenna liked to make thematic medleys, usually based around a key word that appears in the titles, such as teach, love, women's names, dreams, night or day, street names, etc. There may be ballads and up-tempo songs blended together with standards, pop tunes, blues, and even TV themes or folk material.

McKenna's renditions usually began with a spare, open statement of the melody, or, on ballads, a freely played, richly harmonized one. He often stated the theme a second time, gradually bringing more harmony or a stronger pulse into play.

The improvisation then began in earnest on three levels simultaneously, namely a walking bass line, midrange chords and an improvised melody. The bass line, for which McKenna frequently employes the rarely-used lowest regions of the piano, is naturally being played in the left hand, often non-legato, to simulate an actual double bassist's phrasing, the melody in the right. The chords are interspersed using the thumb and forefinger of the right hand or of both hands combined, if the bass is not too low to make the stretch unfeasible. Sometimes he also adds a guide-tone line consisting of thirds and sevenths on top of the bass, played by the thumb of the left hand.

His famous four-to-the-bar "strum" is achieved by the left hand alone, playing a bass note (root/fifth/other interval) plus third and seventh, leading to frequent left-hand stretches of a tenth, which is why these voicings frequently appear arpeggiated, with the top two notes being played on the beat, the bass note slightly before. These voicings are often subtly altered every two beats, for variety. This playing style is frequently mistaken for a stride piano, which it is clearly not, as it is of a four-beat nature, as opposed to the two-beat "oom-pah" of true stride piano, as exemplified by Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, and the like. McKenna usually reserves all-out stride for sections where a bassist would play half notes, i.e. ballads and Dixieland-tinged material. The result is the sound of a three piece band under one person's creative control.

McKenna can weave a spontaneous melodic line, usually with lots of chromaticism and blues licks, over the bass line. The bass can be anything from single notes to repeated chords like a rhythm guitar to a full-blown stride piano, the latter often reserved for the height of a song's development.

The characteristic that perhaps most distinguishes McKenna's playing is his sense of time. One of the most commonly cited difficulties of solo jazz piano is the need to provide a compelling time feel, in part by emulating the rhythmic landscape normally provided by three or four players in a small group. By conceiving of multiple "parts" and playing them with distinct volume levels and time feels (often with right hand chords ahead of the beat and the melody behind the beat), McKenna showed a unique ability to reproduce the small group sound on the piano."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_McKenna

* Listen to Tracks from Dave McKenna and McPartland

http://www.answers.com/topic/piano-jazz-mcpartland-mckenna

Art Tatum, often considered the greatest soloist in jazz piano history, praised McKenna as someone he considered a complete musician.

Dave McKenna was born in 1930 and passed away on October 18th, 2008 at the age of 78.