Brad's Take:
Jazz Samba was the first major bossa-nova to come out of America. It hit number 1 on the Billboard Pop Album charts, and even won Stan Getz a Grammy for Best Jazz Performance in 1963 for the song "Desafinado."
Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd make a great team on this album. Stan's sax playing mixed with Charlie's amazing guitar playing make for a very cohesive record. Neither of them step on the others toes, and they compliment each other very well throughout. There's even moments where they let the bass player and drummer have a shot at the spotlight by backing off almost completely to let them jam out some solos.
I've heard one or two Stan Getz albums before this one. They were more bebop sounding, and less bossa-nova sounding. I prefer the classic bebop style over this, I'm afraid, but this still is a great album front to back. Although it's not my typical cup of tea, I wouldn't plug my ears if I heard this in a restaurant.
Dad's Take:
This one is new to me, the first totally unfamiliar album I've listened to for these reviews for a while. Jazz with a samba flavor turns out to be a pretty decent combination. Like Brad, I really like the bass solos on some of these pieces.
"Desifinado," I guess, is the classic track here, but I really like the track, "Samba Dese Days," a fun, upbeat number on which both Getz and Byrd really show their chops. Byrd's guitar solo is just plain amazing. "O Pato" is just as good, although considerably different.
That's the way this album works. Solid track after track, all easy to listen to, and always with that samba backdrop. This might not be my favorite jazz record we've listened to, but it's easy to hear why it's included on this list of classic albums. It's different than anything else I've ever heard, with its (as far as I know) innovative combination of jazz and samba. Although I'm really not a big samba fan, I found this record enjoyable throughout. It would be good background music when I write certain kinds of stories or scenes. It's easy to listen to and enjoyable. I feel like it expanded my musical horizons a bit, helping me realize I like samba more than I thought I did, and I want to listen to this one some more to get to know it better.
What better praise can you give a new record than that?
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