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Books in BriefStan Getz: A Life in Jazz By Donald L. Maggin Morrow, $25 By Bill Beuttler (The New York Times Book Review, August 11, 1996) The tenor saxophonist Stan Getz made his stage debut on harmonica as a 12-year-old schoolboy. The performance unnerved him, Donald L. Maggin writes, but didn’t stop him from finishing “Oh! Susanna.” The rest of Getz’s life was lived much the same way, according to Mr. Maggin’s well-researched but uninspired biography. No matter how badly he kept befouling his personal life with drinking, drugging, wife beating or philandering, Getz managed to remain focused on music. That dedication won him jazz stardom: his hit single “The Girl From Ipanema” helped introduce the bossa nova craze of the 1960’s. He annually won the popularity polls conducted by jazz magazines and continued performing and recording up to his death from liver cancer in 1991, at the age of 64. Mr. Maggin recounts Getz’s successes and troubles in detail — at times in excessive detail. Still, “Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz” provides a useful introduction to this influential musician’s life and work. © Bill Beuttler |
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