Stan Getz's Mouthpiece?

[Luke Oldham]

Does anyone know what kind of mouthpiece and reed Stan Getz used?

Luke Oldham

--
No discipline seems pleasent at the time but painful.
(Bobby McFerrin)

[Luis Scheker]

lol...@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca (Luke Oldham) writes:

He used an Otto Link hard rubber (8* or 9, I believe) mouthpiece.

Luis
lu...@iglou.com

[PhilipT100]

Stan used a Link hard rubber mpc #5 and extra hard Lavoz reeds.

[Lester22]

However, in addition to the Link [the facing of which is correct, as well
as the reeds], he used a Berg Larsen at several different times. Not sure
of the facing though.

Addendum: I tried the setup on my horn to see if I could come close to
his unparallelled tone. Not even close. Oh well. :)

In jazz,

Bob

[GarysSTRAP]

Well, the hard rubber Link is right, but the reeds Stan usually used were
Vandoren, 3 or 3.5.

I had a chance to play his horn durnig the Bossa Nova period in Los
Angeles.
Stan, Maury Stein (a music store owner), and I were hanging out together
and
I drove Stan and Maury to the Steve Allen Show where Stan was scheduled to

play Desafinado. When Stan took his horn out to warm up, something was
wrong with the horn. In the ensuing panic, Maury asked me to go pick up
"Little
Mac" McLaughlin, a prominent repairman on the LA scene.
Mac threw some tools into a little black bag, and we rushed back to the
studio
as fast as we could get away with. Mac did his thing with the horn, Stan
played
a few notes, and everything was fine.

Stan put the horn down on his sax stand directly in front of me, and the
three of them, Maury, Stan and Mac, disappeared behind the curtain. I saw
them reappear
out of ear shot way over on the opposite side of the studio. The
temptation to try Stan's horn was too great to pass up, so I picked it up
and played one note on it,
rather softly, to find out what his set-up felt like. To my amazment, it
completely choked, and I was barely able to get a sound out of it. I had
been under the impression that Stan used an open set-up with a stiff reed,
but this was not the case.
At the time I had been using a metal Link 7* with a hard LaVoz reed. and
Stan's
set-up was much closer than mine, (smaller opening and softer reed).

I have often looked back on this experience with great bewilderment and
wondered how Stan was able to get such a big beautiful sound. He must
have
used very little or no pressure on the mouthpiece.

Gary LeFebvre
Gary's Belt Loop Saxophone Strap

[PhilipT100]

Sorry to disagree with the reed thing about Stan Getz. He may have
occasionaly used a vandoren reed (which I am not sure about),but I am
absolutley certain about the fact that was using the Lavoz extra hard
reeds for at leat 20 years, which sometimes he had to special order.

[William R. Barner]

GarysSTRAP (garys...@aol.com) wrote:
: Well, the hard rubber Link is right, but the reeds Stan usually used were
: Vandoren, 3 or 3.5.

I recall a column in the "Saxophone Journal" about mouthpieces. This
particular column, devoted to Otto Link, contains old Link advertisments
listing well-known players and the Link mouthpieces they used. All these
swing-era players were using the number 4 or number 5 rubber or metal
mouthpieces. I believe the trend toward wider tip openings is a more
recent one; certainly post-bop.
I have read interviews with Dave Liebman and Mike Brecker where both talked
about trying to use John Coltrane's setup--number 10 metal Link with hard
reed--and not getting the result desired. Both were advised that they
didn't need to work so hard to get a good sound. Brecker actually
developed a sort of air-leaking-from-the-back-of-the-throat problem. The
result was his work with Dave Gardala to make an easier to play
mouthpiece for him.