It’s about time I feature a rendition of perhaps my favorite jazz standard: “Stella By Starlight.”<\/p>\n
This particular version is by the one and only Stan Getz<\/a>, featuring his collaborator pianist Kenny Barron<\/a>, as well as Alex Blake<\/a> and the untouchable\u00a0Terri Lyne Carrington<\/a>. Filmed at the 1990 Umbria Jazz Festival, this performance is similar in style to that found on one of my absolute\u00a0favorite<\/span> jazz albums, 1989’s\u00a0Anniversary<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(w. Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid<\/a>, and Victor Lewis<\/a>). On that album, “Stella” is perhaps the crown jewel. (I wrote a “New Listen” post on its sister album Serenity<\/a><\/em>\u00a0here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n This performance follows Anniversary<\/em> by a few years – it was recorded in ’87 – and Stan looks (and, to some extent, sounds) a bit more frail. (He died in ’91.) But he and the band are still swinging, and Getz’s fourth chorus is definitely worth the price of admission. Barron is also featured, but we only hear a couple of Blake’s choruses before the clip cuts out. (It’s a shame, because I’m sure Terri Lyne did some damage at the end. After all, of the three times I’ve seen Herbie<\/a>, she’s stolen the show each time to some extent.) Despite the compromised video\/audio quality – it looks to be a VHS transfer – you should still get a kick out of this. I know I do.<\/p>\n