Stan Getz spent much of his career on Verve, and recorded nearly all of his landmarks there, beginning in the early '50s and extending to 1967's
Sweet Rain. Therefore, even a two-hour compilation of his best work on Verve will be incomplete and fragmentary at best. The two-disc
Gold set, however, tries very hard indeed, and ends up providing a crude summation of what made
Getz so special to cool jazz and, later, Brazilian forms. Much of the first disc includes highlights from his co-billed albums, including those with
Dizzy Gillespie,
Lionel Hampton,
J.J. Johnson, and
Oscar Peterson, as well as the standouts from his early album projects
The Steamer and Focus. The second disc is predominantly Brazilian, beginning with seven cuts from his early-'60s explosion of work that culminated with the pop album hit
Getz/Gilberto and its Top Ten single, "The Girl from Ipanema." Later projects with
Bill Evans (from 1964) and
Herb Alpert (1989) end the compilation with some degree of closure. At best,
Gold is a serviceable launching pad to the investigation of a great jazz career. ~ John Bush