Verve Select proudly presents Quintets: The Clef & Norgran Studio Albums, a 3-CD, 45-track set that’s the first-ever collection of Stan Getz’s earliest recordings for Norman Granz, the founder of the Verve family of labels. Incredibly, two-thirds of this collection has never been on CD, and it is now available for the first time in nearly 60 years – in a beautifully packaged, wonderfully detailed box set that is a long-overdue tribute to a jazz superstar’s fine early recordings.
In 1952, Stan Getz was a young jazz cat on the rise, noticed for his cool, inventive playing – what fans called “The Sound” – and was signed to Norman Granz’s growing roster of class artists, releasing 78-rpm singles and 10-inch LPs on the Clef and Norgran labels, precursors to Verve Records. What Quintets does for both his and Granz’s legacies is present the recordings in their original 10-inch LP form – Stan Getz Plays, The Artistry of Stan Getz, the Interpretations series of three LPs – and adds the singles not on the LPs and other bonus material from the sessions. While Getz in the period from late 1952 through early 1955 recorded with a core quintet – particularly with trombonist Bob Brookmeyer – included in the bonus material are quartet dates featuring drummer Max Roach. Most appealing for the jazz fan is the discovery of three previously unreleased alternate takes recently discovered in the Verve vault.
Tying the entire story together is a detailed essay by Grammy® nominee Ashley Kahn, which is complemented by a full list of the group’s singles and EPs, a chronological discography of the sessions, and an alphabetical index of the set’s songs. Quintets also reproduces all of the rare LP and EP artwork, featuring classic David Stone Martin illustrations and Phil Stern photographs. The cover art of the package is, like the acclaimed Verve Select packages from Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole, a new, original illustration by famed artist Bart Forbes.
