Stanley The Steamer has been gone close on quarter-of-a century, so late-comers can be excused for assuming that Stan Getz's career only really kicked in with his 1962 million-selling bossa nova album Jazz Samba and timeless singles such as ‘Desafinado’, ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ and his lengthy involvement with Clef/Verve. Quite the contrary, the music he made for Roost a decade earlier (1950-1952), originally established this charismatic artist as a true tenor sax top gun. With everything lasting no longer than the duration of a ten-inch 78RPM single, the little solo space that exists is split pretty evenly throughout between Stan and pianists Al Haig, Horace Silver, Duke Jordan or guitarist Jimmy Raney. While these sessions are memorable for the likes of ‘Hersey Bar’, ‘Yesterdays’ ‘Strike Up The Band’ and ‘Split Kick’, perhaps the most well known selection comes from a date headlined by guitarist Johnny Smith, namely ‘Moonlight In Vermont’. A combination of an exquisite tone, flexible improvisations and the ability to make everything sound so easy may have earned Getz the ‘Captain Cool’ tag, but this in itself could be deceptive. As these recordings reveal, Stanley the Steamer could be cooler than December, but hotter than July. Here, Getz said more in one side of a single than many others strived to achieve in a whole lifetime's work.