A legendary chapter in jazz history returns to vinyl this Record Store Day Black Friday with The Sound in San Francisco: Live at Keystone Korner, a remarkable collection documenting a May 1976 residency by the Stan Getz Quartet with special guest João Gilberto. Resonance Records will release the set as an exclusive three-LP edition on November 27, 2026, bringing together recordings that capture two giants of jazz and bossa nova in an intimate club setting.
Recorded at San Francisco's legendary Keystone Korner and preserved in the club's archive by owner Todd Barkan, the performances offer a fascinating snapshot of Getz and Gilberto more than a decade after their groundbreaking collaboration on Getz/Gilberto. The original tapes were transferred and initially restored and mastered by George Klabin and Fran Gala in 2016, with Bernie Grundman newly mastering the material for this vinyl edition. The three 180-gram LPs are pressed at 33 1/3 rpm by Le Vinylist in Québec City.
The recordings have an unusual history. Resonance previously issued the material across two releases in 2016: Getz/Gilberto ’76, which gathered performances featuring Gilberto, and Moments in Time, which focused on Getz performing with his quartet. The Sound in San Francisco brings those two projects together for the first time, while also marking the first vinyl release of Moments in Time. Copies of Getz/Gilberto ’76 on vinyl have already become highly sought after, making this new three-LP edition particularly appealing to collectors.
The musical reunion itself was a rare event. Although Getz and Gilberto had helped introduce bossa nova to an international audience with their landmark 1964 recordings, they worked together surprisingly few times. Beyond those historic sessions and a 1975 studio reunion, the Keystone Korner engagement represents only one of a handful of occasions when the two performed together. Their final shared engagement would come at the 1978 Newport Jazz Festival.
Gilberto's performances at Keystone Korner capture the understated beauty that made him such an influential figure. His versions of “Aguas de Março,” “Chega Saudade,” and “Doralice” are lively without losing their characteristic delicacy, while “E Preciso Perdoar,” “Retrato Em Branco E Preto,” and “Rosa Morena” reveal his extraordinary ability to make a performance feel intimate even in a live club environment.
The setting was also significant. The Keystone engagement was designed in part to promote the reunion album The Best of Two Worlds, and Barkan was willing to pay substantially more than his usual weekly artist budget to bring the musicians to the club. The investment paid off as audiences turned out in force to witness the reunion.
But The Sound in San Francisco is not simply another Getz/Gilberto release. Roughly half of the collection documents Getz leading a remarkable modern jazz quartet featuring pianist Joanne Brackeen, drummer Billy Hart, and bassist Clint Houston. The group moves effortlessly between hard-swinging performances such as “Summer Night” and “Morning Star,” lyrical ballads including “Peace” and “Infant Eyes,” and the unusually funky “Cry of the Wild Goose” by Kenny Wheeler.
These performances reveal Getz in a different environment—surrounded by musicians who were not content simply to accompany him. Brackeen recalls a fearless band that would take the music wherever it could go, while Hart remembers the atmosphere as both celebratory and deeply respectful. The musicians understood that they were sharing the stage with icons, but they also brought their own adventurous personalities to the music.
That combination makes the quartet recordings just as compelling as the Gilberto material. Getz, then 49, was at an interpretive peak, balancing his unmistakably lyrical tenor sound with the freedom and daring of a modern jazz ensemble. The performances show a bandleader willing to challenge himself and his musicians rather than simply recreate the sound that had made him famous.
The deluxe LP and CD editions also feature extensive contextual material, including essays by acclaimed jazz journalists James Gavin and Ted Panken, recollections from Barkan and bossa nova legend Carlos Lyra, testimonials from surviving quartet members Joanne Brackeen and Billy Hart, and reflections from Getz's late son, Steve Getz. Together, these contributions place the Keystone performances within the broader story of Getz, Gilberto, and the remarkable cultural impact of bossa nova.
The timing makes the release even more significant. 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the Keystone Korner engagement, the 60th anniversary of Getz/Gilberto #2, and the 99th anniversary of Stan Getz's birth. With Getz's centenary approaching in 2027, The Sound in San Francisco arrives as an especially fitting celebration of an artist whose career continually evolved without sacrificing his unmistakable musical identity.
For jazz collectors, bossa nova devotees, and anyone drawn to historic live recordings, The Sound in San Francisco: Live at Keystone Korner offers something unusually rich: the chance to hear João Gilberto and Stan Getz reconnect in an intimate club, while also discovering Getz stretching out with one of the most adventurous quartets of his later career. It is both a reunion document and a portrait of an artist still pushing forward—and a fitting addition to Resonance Records' remarkable tradition of bringing important jazz recordings back into the spotlight.
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