Stan Getz started playing professionally at the age 15 in New York, and when he was only a year older made his first recording, as a sideman with Jack Teagarden. After playing in several important big bands, including those of Stan Kenton (1944-5) and Benny Goodman (1945-6), in 1947, he joined Woody Herman's Second Herd, where with his fellow saxophonists Zoot Sims, Serge Chaloff, and Herbie Steward he formed the famous reed section known as the Four Brothers.

In 1948 his ballad improvisation on Ralph Burns's Early Autumn established him instantaneously as a major improviser in advanced swing style. After leaving Herman the following year Getz began to lead his own small groups and immediately, started to dominate jazz popularity polls for his instrument, as he did for many of the next 25 years.

In the mid-1950s Getz's career was interrupted by difficulties associated with his addiction to drugs. He spent the latter part of the decade working from Scandinavia, where he performed and recorded with local musicians and with other American expatriates such as Oscar Pettiford and Kenny Clarke. After returning to the USA in 1961 he attempted a comeback with the album Focus, which included outstanding arrangements by Eddie Sauter. In the following year, with Charlie Byrd, he initiated a fusion of jazz and bossanova which captured the public's fancy and brought Getz a considerable amount of popular acclaim. The movement, however, was short-lived.

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