Stan Getz was more than the saxophone's answer to velvet. He was a man whose tone could make silence ache—and whose life left scorched earth behind every melody. Stan Getz is a hauntingly intimate portrait of one of jazz’s most seductive and self-destructive figures. Drawing from eyewitness accounts, out-of-print interviews, tour diaries, and unreleased session logs, this book strips away the mythology to reveal the man behind the horn: brilliant, broken, cruel, and human.

From the Bronx tenements to Parisian clubs, from the cool jazz scenes of L.A. to the fevered studios of Rio, Getz moved like a ghost—backing legends like Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and João Gilberto, yet always floating just outside the frame. His sound—warm, vaporous, evasive—became synonymous with bossa nova. But for Getz, that global hit was no triumph. It was camouflage.

Through 30 uncompromising chapters, The Sound That Slipped Away confronts the violence beneath the beauty, the addictions behind the lyricism, and the bitterness behind the acclaim. This is no sanitized biography. It’s a jazz historian’s reckoning told in the voice of a sideman who saw it all and cleaned up nothing.

Perfect for readers of jazz history, serious music biography, and fans of true behind-the-scenes accounts, this book swings, mourns, and testifies. If you think you know Stan Getz, this will make you listen again.