Verve 82132
Producer: Creed Taylor
Track listing: Desafinado / Samba Dees Days / O Pato / Somba Triste / Samba De Uma Noto So / E Luxo So / Baia
March 9, 1963
1 week stereo
Prior to 1962, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd had well-respected careers in jazz circles. Getz had played with such jazz luminaries as Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Woody Herman before venturing out on his own in the late 1940s, while Byrd studied under the classical guitar master Segovia and played with Woody Herman in 1959. Despite their standing in the jazz world, however, neither Getz nor Byrd had charted a title on the pop album in the rock era. That would change, however, after Byrd returned home from a 1961 South America tour.
“I didn’t play with any of the big-name people,” says Byrd. “I didn’t get to meet any of the composers or prominent stars, but I played with some very good Brazilian musicians who were familiar with these songs,” says Byrd. “By the time we got back home, we had included about four or five of these tunes in our repertoire and they were very well received.”
In his engagements in Washington, D.C., clubs, Byrd realized that jazz fans like the sounds of samba and bossa nova. “I thought maybe I could do a record of that material, but I had no idea it would end up on the pop charts.”
When Byrd’s acquaintance Getz dropped in to Washington for a club gig, Byrd invited the saxophonist over to his home for lunch. “I played these tapes for him and played some tunes that I knew, and he got very excited,” Byrd recalls. “He said, ‘Why don’t we do it for my label?’ I didn’t have anything going at the time that was as exciting as doing an album with Stan Getz, so I agreed.”
Jazz Samba was recorded in Pierce Hall at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. on February 13, 1962. Getz was on tenor sax, Byrd was on guitar, and they were backed by Byrd’s band, consisting of bassist Keter Betts, Byrd’s younger brother Gene on bass and guitar, and Buddy Deppenschmidt and Bill Reichenbach drums. The decision to use two drummers was inspired by the Brazilian jazz combos, Byrd says. Remarkably, Getz did not rehearse with Byrd and his band prior to the recording session, “We just talked about it a little bit in a hotel room and then went and recorded the album,” Byrd says.
As for the unusual recording location, Byrd says the room had good acoustics. “I recorded with the engineer Ed Green at various places around town he didn’t like a dull studio sound,” Byrd says. In fact, a hall at a Washington Jewish community center was the original location chosen for the sessions “But there was a bus stop right near it so we had to move to another place. There was nothing spiritual in choice,” Byrd quips.
By the time Jazz Samba reached the top spot in its 23rd week on The 50 Best Sellers Stereo chart, the album had inspired a full-blown Latin music craze. Titles such as Joe Hornell and His Piano Orchestra’s Fly Me to the Bosa Nova Pops, Laurindo Almeida and the Bossa Nova All Stars’ Viva Bossa Nova, and Getz’s and Enoch Light and His Orchestra’s identically titled Big Band Bossa Nova albums, were all present on the album. Jazz Samba also spawned a hit single, as “Desafinado,” co-written by Carlos Jobim, reached number 15.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of March 9, 1963
1. Jazz Samba, Stan Getz / Charlie Byrd
2. West Side Story, Soundtrack
3. Fly Me to the Moon and the Basso Nova Pops, Joe Hornell and His Piano Orchestra
4. Moving, Peter, Paul and Mary
5. Moon River and Other Great Movie Themes, Andy Williams