Stan Getz — jazz (saxophone) with roots in the Russian Empire
Stan Getz was born Stanley Gayetski on 2 February 1927 at St Vincent's Hospital in Philadelphia. His father, Alexander (Al), was born in Mile End, London, in 1904, and his mother, Goldie Yampolsky, in Philadelphia in 1907. His connection to the Russian Empire runs through his grandparents.
His father's parents, Harris and Beckie Gayetski, came from the Kiev area of the Russian Empire, now in Ukraine. According to his biographer Dave Gelly, both sets of grandparents, the Gayetskis and the Yampolskys, set out westward from Kiev in 1903; the Gayetskis settled in Whitechapel, in the East End of London, where Harris worked as a tailor, and the English marriage index records a Harris Gayatsky marrying in Mile End in October 1903. Al was their first child. In 1913 or 1914, sources differ, the family emigrated to the United States, and the name Gayetski became Getz. They settled first in Philadelphia and during the Depression moved to New York.
He took up the saxophone as a boy and at fifteen went on the road with Jack Teagarden's band, Teagarden becoming his legal guardian so that he could tour. In the mid-1940s he played with Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. In 1947 he joined Woody Herman's Second Herd as one of the saxophone section known as the Four Brothers, and his solo on Ralph Burns's Early Autumn, recorded in 1948, made his name. His light, lyrical tone, modelled on Lester Young's, earned him the nickname The Sound.
After years leading his own groups in the United States and Europe, he recorded Focus (1961) with string arrangements by Eddie Sauter. In February 1962 he and the guitarist Charlie Byrd recorded Jazz Samba, an album of Brazilian bossa nova that reached number one on the American album chart; Desafinado won him the Grammy for best jazz performance. He then recorded with Antônio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto, and at the Grammy Awards of 1965 Getz/Gilberto won Album of the Year and The Girl from Ipanema Record of the Year.
He went on to work with Chick Corea, Bill Evans and Jimmy Rowles. He died in Malibu, California, on 6 June 1991, aged sixty-four.
"Paternal grandparents Harris and Beckie Gayetski left the Kiev area for London's East End around 1903; their son Al was born in Mile End in 1904. The family moved to Philadelphia in 1913 or 1914, where the name became Getz."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Kiev area, Kiev Governorate (now Ukraine)
His paternal grandparents, Harris and Beckie Gayetski, came from the Kiev area of the Russian Empire, settled in London's East End and moved to the United States in 1913 or 1914; according to his biographer Dave Gelly, his mother's parents, the Yampolskys, also came from Kiev.
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Kiev area, Kiev Governorate (now Ukraine). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.