The Soft Swing


The Soft Swing is an album by saxophonist Stan Getz and recorded in 1957 and first released on the Verve label. According to the liner notes by Stewart Clay on a 2016 CD re-release, it was the only studio session in which Getz collaborated with Mose Allison, although some Mutual broadcasts from the Village Vanguard and the Red Hill Inn are included as bonus tracks of the re-release. "Although none of Allison's compositions are played here", wrote jazz critic Alun Morgan about The Soft Swing, "Mose's George Wallington-like solos add piquancy to the occasion. Such an instance can be heard on the broadcast track that closes our CD , on which Stan Getz sits out, which is 'Ain't You a Mess'."
The original liner notes by Nat Hentoff, co-editor of The Jazz Review, claim that Getz was "at an unusually provocative stage in his career" and had developed "a style that was clearly his own". However, in the 2016 liner note quote from Morgan, Morgan noted a Lester Young influence on all tracks that he felt was more strong than previously and particularly on "To the Ends of the Earth". "The twelve-bar 'Down Beat' commences, rather unusually, with stop chords while Kern's much-played 'All the Things You Are' is taken slower than we have come to expect in recent years". The original liner notes indicate: "All elements of... style -- tone, time, phrasing and conception -- complemented each other logically. The result was an organic completeness in his musical... personality, that is relatively rare in jazz.... The only significant change in Getz's work in the past five years has not been a change in his essential style so much as a strengthening and deepening of it in emotional and rhythmic terms".
The 2016 liner notes also quote from a 2010 JazzWax interview by Marc Myers:

Track listing

All compositions by Stan Getz, except as indicated
  1. "All the Things You Are" - 7:35
  2. "Pocono Mac" - 8:36
  3. "Down Beat" - 4:45
  4. "To the Ends of the Earth" - 6:31
  5. "Bye Bye Blues" - 6:15
;Bonus tracks
  2. "All [God's Children Got Rhythm]" - 6:03 Bonus track on 2016 CD reissue by Phono
  3. "Flamingo" - 4:18 Bonus track on 2016 CD reissue by Phono
  4. "Is It True [What They Say About Dixie?]" - 3:27 Bonus track on 2016 CD reissue by Phono
  5. "Time After Time" - 5:00 Bonus track on 2016 CD reissue by Phono
  6. "To the [Ends of the Earth (Nat King Cole song)|To the Ends of the Earth] #2" - 4:20 Bonus track on 2016 CD reissue by Phono
  7. "Stars Fell on Alabama" - 4:03 Bonus track on 2016 CD reissue by Phono
  8. "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" - 3:36 Bonus track on 2016 CD reissue by Phono
  9. "Bronx Blues - 0:36 Bonus track on 2016 CD reissue by Phono
  10. "Jordu - 3:57 Bonus track on 2016 CD reissue by Phono
  11. "Lover Man" - 4:45 Bonus track on 2016 CD reissue by Phono
  12. "Ain't You a Mess" - 2:44 Bonus track on CD reissue by Phono

    Personnel

On the original album :
On the 2016 CD reissue by Phono:
Tracks 6 and 7 :
Same as tracks 1–5.
On the 2016 CD reissue by Phono:
Tracks 8, 9, 10, and 11 :
On the 2016 CD reissue by Phono:
Track 12 :
On the 2016 CD reissue by Phono:
Tracks 13, 14, 15, and 16 :