Great Jazz Albums (IMO) #19

Stan Getz.  Stan Getz at Storyville Volumes 1 & 2 (1951).  Stan Getz is one of those saxophone players whose sound is immediately recognizable.  In fact, Getz's nickname was "The Sound," because of his uniquely beautiful tone.  Getz recorded some great cool jazz albums in the 1950s and is widely known for his role in popularizing bossa nova in the 1960s, with such seminal albums as Getz/Gilberto.  Another claim to fame is his discovery of the great Horace Silver at a club in Hartford, CT.  The Storyville recordings were from a live show at the legendary nightclub in Boston (now home to a Pizzeria Uno.)  They capture Getz with a quintet early in his career at, as has been said, the "height of his creative abilities."  There are some great tunes, including Thou Swell, Jumping With Symphony Sid, Parker 51 and Pennies From Heaven.  As one critic put it, "there is nothing like hearing a jazz giant brimming with energy and vitality."
[Related posts:  Really Great Jazz Albums,  #1 (Hank Mobley); , #2 (Horace Silver), #3 (Sonny Rollins), #4 (Sonny Clark), #5 (Dexter Gordon), #6 (Cannonball Adderley), #7 (Bill Evans), #8 (McCoy Tyner), #9 (Clifford Brown), #10 (Sinatra), #11 (Monk), #12 (Kenny Dorham), #13 (Coltrane), #14 (Duke Ellington), #15 (Miles Davis), #16 (Wayne Shorter), #17 (Dinah Washington); #18 (Sarah Vaughan)]