One of his best LPs from a very creative and innovative period,
In Stockholm
is wonderful almost in spite of itself.
Getz
recorded this date for
Norman Granz
in December of 1955, after returning from a several-months-long period of recuperation in North Africa due to a crippling illness -- the combination of pleurisy and pneumonia.
is in the company of three Swedish jazzmen: pianist
Bengt Hallberg
, bassist
Gunnar Johnson
, and drummer
Anders Burman
. The program is made up of standards and a mix of ballads and faster bop-flavored tunes. The bluesy
"Indiana"
kicks the date off with a brief solo tenor intro.
's trademark tone is warm, rich, and full. His real foil on the track is
Johnson
, whose bop playing is on the money.
Hallberg
is knottier and very formal, and
Burman
is merely keeping time, but it hardly matters since it's a blues. The ballads here are what work best, however, as evidenced by
"Without a Song,"
"I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You,"
"Everything Happens to Me,"
and the utterly lovely reading of the
Yip Harburg
-
Harold Arlen
tune
"Over the Rainbow."
The set closes on two uptempo numbers, the sprightly
"Get Happy,"
introduced with a solo by
in full-on blues mode, and the bubbly, shuffling
"Jeepers Creepers,"
which sounds breezy, light, and airy. The thing is, however, that
's lyricism is at a peak here. He can solo right inside the melody with his phrasing, yet accent the actual songs these tunes were taken from. This is top-notch
all the way through. ~ Thom Jurek