One of the more remarkable aspects of
Stan Getz's 1972 masterpiece is just how organic he was able to keep the sound. The band surrounding
Getz on this Columbia date was led by
Chick Corea with his
Return to Forever (electric) bassist
Stanley Clarke, drummer
Tony Williams, and Brazilian master percussionist
Airto. With the exception of
Clarke, all the rest had played with
Miles Davis in his then-experimental electric bands.
Corea's
Return to Forever was just getting itself off the fusion ground, while
Williams had been with
John McLaughlin and
Larry Young in
Lifetime on top of his experience with
Davis. But make no mistake, this is a
Stan Getz record, his gorgeous tenor tone furiously and fluidly playing through all of
Corea's difficult changes on
Corea's Latin carnival jam "La Fiesta" and shapeshifting his way through mode changes on "Five Hundred Miles High" and the bonus version included on the CD, along with another version of the title track and an ensemble recording of "Crystal Silence" (which
Corea would later record with
Gary Burton). The nucleus for the bedrock of
Return to Forever was in the
Getz laboratory of extended complex harmony and a strict adherence to melodic improvisation. The two versions of "Five Hundred Miles High" here are striking in that the one included on the album moves along with near samba pacing with wailing solos by
Getz. But the unreleased one moves along at the shimmering, crystalline, and slower loping speed that the
Return to Forever band did with
Flora Purim on vocals.
Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" is the space in which
Getz teaches the band about dynamic, texture, and ambience -- he even has
Clarke bowing his bass. This band, combining as it did the restlessness of electric jazz with
Getz's trademark stubbornness in adhering to those principles that made modern jazz so great, made for a tension that came pouring out of the speakers with great mutual respect shining forth from every cut -- especially the steamy Latin-drenched title track. Along with
Sweet Rain recorded for Verve,
Captain Marvel is the finest recording
Getz made in the 1970s. ~ Thom Jurek