Gerry Mulligan

[A Lark Ascending]

I've been really enjoying Gerry Mulligan of late. Did a search and the threads there seem specialised to particular recordings.

Here's what I have at present:

• 
  
  
• Gerry Mulligan Quartet - w/Chet Baker(Blue Note comp 1952-3)
  
• Konitz Meets Mulligan (1953)
  
• The Original Sextet (Lonehill comp 1955-6)
  
• Mulligan Meets Monk (1957)
  
• Mosaic Select (1957-8)
  
• What is there to say ? (1959)
  
• Concert Jazz Band Live - Olympia (1960)
  
• At Village Vanguard (1960)
  
• Complete studio Recordings - w/Bob Brookmeyer (Lonehill comp 1962)
  
• Complete Sextet Studio Recordings (Lonehill comp 1963-4)
  
• Night Lights (also on the above)
  

Obviously gets a bit difficult dealing with overlaps with the Lonehills.

What would you recommend as marvellous other discs? I have my eyes on things like the discs with Ben Webster and Stan Getz. Also interested in things from the later years like 'Walk on the Water' and 'Idol Gossip' (which are easy to nab off e-music).

Many thanks in anticipation.

Edited January 31, 2010 by Bev Stapleton

[Head Man]

I've been really enjoying Gerry Mulligan of late. Did a search and the threads there seem specialised to particular recordings.

Here's what I have at present:

• 
  
  
• Gerry Mulligan Quartet - w/Chet Baker(Blue Note comp 1952-3)
  
• Konitz Meets Mulligan (1953)
  
• The Original Sextet (Lonehill comp 1955-6)
  
• Mulligan Meets Monk (1957)
  
• Mosaic Select (1957-8)
  
• What is there to say ? (1959)
  
• Concert Jazz Band Live - Olympia (1960)
  
• At Village Vanguard (1960)
  
• Complete studio Recordings - w/Bob Brookmeyer (Lonehill comp 1962)
  
• Complete Sextet Studio Recordings (Lonehill comp 1963-4)
  
• Night Lights (also on the above)
  

Obviously gets a bit difficult dealing with overlaps with the Lonehills.

What would you recommend as marvellous other discs? I have my eyes on things like the discs with Ben Webster and Stan Getz. Also interested in things from the later years like 'Walk on the Water' and 'Idol Gossip' (which are easy to nab off e-music).

Many thanks in anticipation.

A couple of his late albums that I really like are:

'Lonesome Boulevard' (recently reissued as a 'Verve Original')

and

'Age Of Steam' (originally on A&M but hard-to-find now. It may be available on e-music)

Also the 'Gerry Mulligan meets Ben Webster' album is excellent - I'm not so keen on the 'Gerry Mulligan Meets Stan Getz.

In fact I find that there's virtually no Mulligan that's not interesting and most of the music he's produced is outstanding. Good hunting!

[sidewinder]

Also the 'Gerry Mulligan meets Ben Webster' album is excellent - I'm not so keen on the 'Gerry Mulligan Meets Stan Getz.

There was a fantastic Verve twofer from the mid/late 90s that included all of the Mulligan/Webster material, with alternates. Probably long OOP now though.

My favourite Mulligan was actually a series of 3 UK Verve vinyl issues - 'Gerry Mulligan Meets The Sax Giants, Vols 1-2', which compiles the 50s material with Desmond, Hodges and Getz over 3 albums.

The CBS session 'What Is There To Say' with Art Farmer is well worth seeking out too. As is the now OOP Mosaic with the Concert Jazz Band material.

Edited January 31, 2010 by sidewinder

[BillF]

Also the 'Gerry Mulligan meets Ben Webster' album is excellent - I'm not so keen on the 'Gerry Mulligan Meets Stan Getz.

I agree! Mulligan's pairings with Paul Desmond and with Hodges are also excellent. There's also a marvelous session with saxophone stars called The Gerry Mulligan Songbook. But the ultimates for me are the 1952-53 Quartet, the 1956 Sextet and the Concert Jazz Band, which you've already got, Bev. (Don't know the content of the Mosaic, so you may have more than I realise.)

The CBS session 'What Is There To Say' with Art Farmer is well worth seeking out too.

Ah,yes! Forgot that one. And the earliest Mulligan-led session I really like is the Dektette of 1951 with "Four Mothers" etc.

[sidewinder]

I also quite like the recreation of 'Birth Of The Cool' on GRP. Enough of the original players to capture some of the original and a bit more fidelity than the original. Plus Mel Torme !

[brownie]

You've got Mulligan pretty well covered!

I would suggest adding the Mulligan quartet with Bob Brookmeyer Paris concerts from 1954

I also have a fondness for this Astor Piazzola-Mulligan collaboration:

[JSngry]

Carpe diem!!!! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Age-Steam-Gry-Mulligan/dp/B00002401Z/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1264934872&sr=1-3

Other than that, add the two Mulligan/Desmond colabs & for my money you've got the "essentials" covered.

[MartyJazz]

The record sessions have pretty much been covered. I would simply differ in one respect, in that to my ears, I very much like the collaboration with Getz particularly on the tracks that they play their chosen instruments, e.g., "That Old Feeling", in which the interplay between the two men is terrific. (There are also three lesser tracks in which the men switch horns).

I would just add that there is a wonderful video of Mulligan with Webster on the Dinah Shore TV show back around '59 or so. They play superbly, and at one point, Mulligan quotes a portion of Webster's well-known "Cottontail" solo from the original Ellington recording, much to the delight and surprise of Webster. Well worth seeing.

Edited January 31, 2010 by MartyJazz

[Stereojack]

It's hard to go wrong with almost any Mulligan. A lot of great sides have been mentioned already. Although I've owned them for years, I recently rediscovered the three sextet albums recorded for Mercury/Emarcy, plus two LP's of outtakes issued in Japan. Are these covered by the Lonehill set?

The album with Ben Webster is a desert island disc, but just about all of his collaboration albums are noteworthy (Getz, Desmond, Hodges). Unlike some musicians, Mulligan seemed to thrive in these pairings.

The Mosaic set of the Verve big band sides is first rate, as are the various live recordings from the 1960 Europe tour. The Zurich concert (on TCB) is stellar, with Zoot in rare form!

[brownie]

It's hard to go wrong with almost any Mulligan. A lot of great sides have been mentioned already. Although I've owned them for years, I recently rediscovered the three sextet albums recorded for Mercury/Emarcy, plus two LP's of outtakes issued in Japan. Are these covered by the Lonehill set?

I do not have the Lonehill reissues but I have the Fresh Sound 3CD set The Fabulous Gerry Mulligan Sextet'. A beautiful reissue which incorporates the full San Diego concert by the sextet and the sextet studio sessions, complete with the exceptions of several alternate takes ('Broadway', 'Demanton', 'Everything Happens to me' and 'The Lady is a Tramp') of their October 1955 session.

[Joe]

I'm a big fan of the two volumes of CALIFORNIA CONCERTS, with a basic band of Mulligan, Jon Eardley on trumpet, Red Mitchell and Chico Hamilton, sometimes augmented by Bob Brookmeyer and Zoot Sims. Shows off Mulligan's range, I think, as well as any other recordings from this period (1954).

AT STORYVILLE -- Mulligan, Brookmeyer, Bill Crow and Dave Bailey -- is a kind of a sentimental favorite... the first Mulligan recording I ever bought.

Oh, and I also very much like the collaboration with Astor Piazzolla.

Edited January 31, 2010 by Joe

[Shawn]

A couple favorites of mine....

[RD44]

I would also recommend the 1957 collaboration with Annie Ross on Pacific Jazz "Annie Ross sings A Song With Mulligan"

I like the Getz collaboration except that it sounds like it was recorded in The Mersey tunnel, at least on my 1991 Verve CD.

My favourite Mulligan track is Blueport by the Concert Jazz Band at the Village Vanguard. The exchanges with Clark

Terry are some of the wittiest moments in jazz.

[GA Russell]

In the mid-60s Mulligan recorded for Limelight, a Mercury label.

I particularly like an album he made with Zoot Sims called Something Borrowed, Something Blue. I don't believe that it has ever been released on CD, but some tracks from it were included in a compilation, I believe the Compact Jazz cd.

[A Lark Ascending]

Many thanks for all the responses.

I get the idea that I'm not missing any major gems.

Will use this thread to guide any further exploration.

[JSngry]

I get the idea that I'm not missing any major gems.

You are if you don't have Age Of Steam...a real gem and totally unique in Mulligan's output as it shows him not jsut confronting but embracing (successfully, I think) electricity & rock/pop rhythms & textures. It works anbd works well.

Just my opinion.

I also forgot about California Concerts. The original LP was a true gem (major or not). The two two CDs are maybe a bit too much, but there is much of merit there, especially the Quartet sides with Eardley & Chico Hamilton, which have a degree of free-spirited, open-ended improvisation not always present in Mulligan's studio quartet recordings.

[Free For All]

I got Age of Steam some time ago in the DVD/CD format. In addition to the audio recording there's a DVD with masterclasses and downloadable sheet music of the tunes. Nice extras!

[BillF]

If your tastes run to Mulligan the arranger, there was a great LP of just that title on which the best tracks IMHO were "Disc Jockey Jump" and "How High the Moon" by the Gene Krupa Orchestra of 1946, which included Gerry.

[BruceH]

I'm a sucker for any and pretty much all of his collaborative albums...the Ben Webster, Desmond, Hodges, Monk, hell even the Getz I actually like quite a lot. They may have seemed like a publicist's notion, but as Stereojack so rightly said Mulligan seemed to thrive in these settings.

[Ken Dryden]

One thing that surprised me about Mulligan: he told me that he was not in favor of reissues with restored songs and previously unissued material. I figured that he would have had doubts about Dick Bock and his excesses for editing, which were at their worst on Jim Hall's debut CD Jazz Guitar.

It is a shame that Concord/Jazz Alliance never got around to issuing his appearance (on piano only) on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz.

[Peter Friedman]

The date with Ben Webster is ESSENTIAL, as are the Concert B recordings on Verve/ Mosaic.

Some that I don't believe were mentioned in this thread are quartet dates with a piano player.

I like these very much.

Jeru - CBS (with Tommy Flanagan)

Dream A little Dream - Telarc (with Ted Rosenthal)

Midas Touch - Concord (with Ted Rosenthal)

[Ken Dryden]

Mulligan wasn't that happy with the Monk record, as it took place on a whim when he accompanied Monk to see Orrin Keepnews. He would have felt comfortable with more time to rehearse.

I'm surprised no one mentioned his meetings with Brubeck, but that always seems to bring out the naysayers. Mulligan told me he was very pleased with those records and enjoyed playing with Dave.

[AndrewHill]

Carpe diem!!!! http://www.amazon.co...64934872&sr=1-3

Other than that, add the two Mulligan/Desmond colabs & for my money you've got the "essentials" covered.

I was so happy when I found this used at Half Price for $6 and rushed to get in the cd player only to feel somewhat underwhelmed by the affair. I feel like I should like this album, but I haven't warmed up to it. I'll try again to see if it clicks.

[JSngry]

Different strokes and all that, of course, but I think that Mulligan had a great grasp of the textural capacities of the instrumentation and, whether consciously or not, made a great "pop-jazz" record for the 70s, just as (and in the same sense as) his records w/Baker were great "pop-jazz" records for the 50s.

Interesting cross-section of players too...two generations of "west-coast jazz" finding common ground...

[Larry Kart]

My favorite Mulligan recording probably is his 1957 Columbia big band version of "All the Things You Are," with a lovely solo by Don Joseph and a sublime orchestral out chorus. Don't know if it's on CD, but it can be downloaded here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013AYCR8?tag=jazzcom-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B0013AYCR8&adid=12NHGYH7VJFBH7V6H261&