Gerry Mulligan, 'Rebirth of the Cool' - 1991

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“When the seminal gatherings for the Miles Davis Orchestra first took place in 1947, Gil Evans was the old man at thirty-five; Miles Davis was twenty-one; and Gerry Mulligan was still only twenty years old.  He had already contributed excellent arrangements to the Elliot Lawrence and Gene Krupa bands, and, as has been mentioned earlier, one of his charts, "Disc Jockey Jump," had become a hit after having been recorded by the Gene Krupa Orchestra.  Even at that early age Mulligan was circulating among the best of the swing and modern musicians, including Charlie Parker.  Both his performing talent and his precocious genius were clearly recognized by his colleagues.

Mulligan, like Evans, gained his compositional skills and arranging craft not at a college or conservatory but on his own, for he left high school for the road. His performance abilities as the premiere baritone saxophone soloist are well known by most jazz fans, but it is a lesser known fact that he was also a truly versatile single-reed instrumentalist, playing other saxophones as well as the clarinet at a remarkably high professional level. ….

Of the twelve numbers recorded by the Miles Davis Orchestra for Capitol Records in 1949 and 1950, the largest number—six—were arranged by Mulligan, three were composed by him, and he also played on all the tracks. In addition, he composed and arranged another piece for the band, ")oost at the Roost." On the basis of these accomplishments, he must be credited as a major architect of the Miles Davis nonet and as a founding father of the style and movement called cool jazz. In the immediate period after these recordings, he, like Miles Davis, faced a difficult time artistically and financially, and in 1951 he hitchhiked from New York to California while seeking greater opportunities in jazz.  His chance soon came, just as did Davis's, but these two men, who remained friends over the years, followed dissimilar musical paths from this point on.”

• Frank Tirro, The Birth of the Cool of Miles Davis and His Associates [2009]

“The phrase ‘jazz repertory’ has many definitions and dimensions. Perhaps the most basic is: the study, preservation and performance of the many diverse musical styles in jazz. In recent years, the phrase most often applies to big bands and jazz ensembles performing classic and new music written for reeds, brass, and rhythm section in various sizes and combinations.” 

- Jeffrey Sultanoff, Bill Kirchner, ed., The Oxford Companion to Jazz [p.512]

“There has been some rewriting of the history books on behalf of Mulligan and pianist/arranger John Lewis vis-a-vis the original Birth Of The Cool. Mulligan is on record as feeling that the project was subsequently hijacked in Miles Davis's name. Though Miles 'cracked the whip', it was Lewis, Gil Evans and Mulligan who gave the music its distinctive profile. In 1991, Mulligan approached Miles regarding a plan to re-record the famous numbers, which were originally released as 78s and only afterwards given their famous title. Unfortunately, Miles died before the plan could be taken any further, and the eventual session featured regular stand-in Roney in the trumpet part. With Phil Woods in for Lee Konitz, the latter-day sessions have a crispness and boppish force that the original cuts rather lacked. Dave Grusin's and Larry Rosen's production is ultra-sharp  …. An interesting retake on a still-misunderstood experiment, Re-Birth sounds perfectly valid on its own terms.”

• Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Ed.

Interestingly, the first decade of Gerry’s career ended with his major involvement in what collectively came to be famously known as The Birth of the Cool recordings. The last year of his career began with recordings that he labeled The Rebirth of the Cool. 

Whatever the back story or, if you will, motivation, Gerry’s enduring friendship with Dave Grusin, co-owner of GRP Records along with Larry Rosen, resulted in a four-decades-later make-over of the 1949 Birth of the Cool recordings with some additions and subtractions in both the compositions and the personnel.

As explained in the commentary that opens this piece, Gerry had approached Miles Davis about a reunion to produce a new and different version of the original recordings. Of course, we can only surmise how this revisit by two of the principals associated with the original recordings might have turned out, but in a way, Miles’ ultimate declination and subsequent death brought forth other possibilities.

As Richard Cook and Brian Morton note - “Phil Woods in for Lee Konitz, the latter-day sessions have a crispness and boppish force that the original cuts rather lacked. Dave Grusin's and Larry Rosen's production is ultra-sharp  …. An interesting retake on a still-misunderstood experiment, Re-Birth sounds perfectly valid on its own terms.”

And David Badham in the 1992 November edition of Jazz Journal was pleased to note “ … that this reprise of Miles Davis's landmark session was 38 percent longer than the original. Almost exactly 43 years after the original Move date for Capitol, these come up absolutely fresh and vital, and quite as good as anything produced since in this vein. Personally, I have always regarded the original sessions as Gerry Mulligan’s not Miles Davis’s since he arranged seven of the 12 numbers and was by far the most impressive solo voice! If anything he is even better now, so I wel­come this issue wholeheartedly.”

More information about how and why The Rebirth of the Cool came about is contained in these liner notes by Leonard Feather that accompanied the GRP CD [GRD-9679].

“It all began in a basement room behind a Chinese laundry on West 55th Street in New York. Gil Evans, who lived there in the late 1940s, was a magnet for some of the forward-looking musicians of the day: Charlie Parker ("Bird"], the composers Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, George Russell and John Carisi, saxophonist Lee Konitz, and, of course, Miles Davis.

"Everyone seemed to gravitate to Gil's place," Gerry Mulligan recalls. "We all influenced one another, and Bird influenced us all."

Bebop had brought startling innovations to jazz. Gerry, Miles, Gil and others foresaw the possibility of a new dimension that would allow an orchestral vision integrating bop's characteristics with written elements.

As Gerry pointed out, "We wanted the arrangers to have useful orchestral colors to work with, at the same time retaining the lightness and freedom of a small band." After much deliberation, this is the instrumentation Gil and Gerry decided on.

"One of the things that made it practical to use instruments such as tuba and French horn in the ensemble was that there were players who were already trying to adapt their instruments to a new approach. When Gil first told me about Bill Barber, he said Bill liked to transcribe Lester Young solos for tuba!"

Much of the inspiration stemmed from the Claude Thornhill Orchestra, to whose library both Evans and Mulligan had contributed. In fact, it was Gil who brought the, then, 19 year old Mulligan into the Thornhill orbit.

But it was Miles Davis who, as Gerry explained it, "...put the theories to work, called the rehearsals, hired the halls, and generally cracked the whip."

Move, Jeru, Godchild and Budo were recorded January 21, 1949, and were released as two 78s. Venus de Milo, Boplicity, Israel and Rouge were cut three months later, and the final session in March of 1950 yielded Moon Dreams, Deception, Rocker and Darn That Dream. In 1954, eight of the tunes were released on a 10 inch LP. Three years later a 12 inch LP, with all 11 instrumentals (omitting the vocal Darn That Dream), appeared under the Birth of the Cool title by which the sessions have been known ever since.

In the summer of 1991, in Rotterdam, Gerry told Miles he was planning to play the music again. Miles, who was very enthusiastic about the concert at the Montreux Festival two weeks before, (where he had played many of the great works Gil Evans had written for him, with an orchestra assembled by Quincy Jones), said to let him know when it was going to be. and maybe he would do it. Sadly, it was not to be.

With Miles' death the decision to find a suitable trumpet for this demanding role resulted in the selection of Wallace Roney, whose career had reached a high point when he joined Miles in an historic duet at the Montreux concert. Thus he was a logical choice for the "Re-Birth" project.

Gerry says, "He really understands something about Miles' melodic sense. He did some astounding melodic things on this album."

Gerry and Bill Barber were on all three of the original sessions, and John Lewis was on the last two. Gerry recalls, "John was Ella Fitzgerald's accompanist and it was just our bad luck that Ella was scheduled to record the same day as our first session!"

Lee Konitz, who was on all the early sessions, was originally scheduled to join the "Re-Birth" recording, but due to previous commitments that had him on the other side of the globe, it was impossible to get everybody together at the same place at the same time. "When Lee asked me who was going to take his place on alto, and I told him Phil Woods would like to do it, Lee laughed and said, 'I think you just invented the 'Birth of the Hot!"'

Gerry went on to say, "Phil told me he'd always wanted to play this music, so it was like a dream come true for him. He plays some absolutely fantastic solos and adds a great spirit to the whole project!"

Rounding out the "Re-Birth" group are trombonist Dave Bargeron and French hornist Dave Clark, both of whom were associated with Gil Evans in later years.

Gerry called on old friend and colleague Mel Torme to sing Darn That Dream, the one vocal in the collection. "Mel was happy to do this," Gerry says. "He always loved this instrumentation, and later on, my Tentet. In fact, he made an album with a similar instrumentation and we've talked for years about doing an album together along similar lines, which we'll get  around to eventually. When I told him we were doing this, he was eager to take part."

As these notes go to press, Gerry is planning a tour of the summer festivals with his Tentet, the instrumentation presented here, plus the addition of another trumpet and a clarinet. "We're introducing the band at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago (where Gerry is currently Artistic Director of their "Jazz in June" series), at the Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, and Carnegie Hall in New York.

The Birth of the Cool concept (which, in fact, was by no means as cool as the name implied!) lives on, some 40 years after Miles and Gil and Gerry and their fellow dreamers put their innovative ideas on record. It might well be added that the cool was not reborn, since for anyone who recalls its pristine

glory, it never really went away!”

-Leonard Feather

And here is an in performance review of the music by John Pareles that appeared in the June 30, 1992 NY Times 

Review/Jazz Festival; From Gerry Mulligan, 'Rebirth of the Cool'

“Each jazz era finds its own ancestors. Now that many musicians and audiences are turning toward music that prizes structure as well as solos, it's appropriate that Gerry Mulligan has decided to revive the arrangements he wrote and played with the Miles Davis Nonet more than 40 years ago. The music was collected in 1957 on an album titled "Birth of the Cool," and on Friday night Mr. Mulligan and a "tentet" (the nonet's lineup plus an extra trumpeter and saxophonist) performed at Carnegie Hall for a JVC Jazz Festival concert called "Rebirth of the Cool."

At the end of the 1940's, Davis, Gil Evans, Mr. Mulligan and other musicians were looking for a next step after be-bop, which had depended on small groups and extensive solos. They wanted to create ensemble arrangements that would reflect the convoluted harmonies and whiplash rhythms that be-bop had wrought. With Davis as leader, they assembled a nine-piece group that played a few club dates between 1948 and 1950, to a largely indifferent response among nonmusicians. But the recordings, made in 1949 and 1950, have endured. Musicians including Mr. Mulligan and another member of both the original nonet and the current tentet, the alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, have both worked with similar groups in the intervening decades. The tentet also included Bill Barber, another nonet member, on tuba.

For "Rebirth of the Cool," which preceded a European tour by the tentet, Mr. Mulligan followed an established jazz-repertory approach. He used the original arrangements and tempos while adding new solos, some of them variants on the recorded ones.

The two sets covered half the "Birth of the Cool" album, including Johnny Carisi's modal blues "Israel," Mr. Mulligan's arrangements of George Wallington's "Godchild" and his own "Jeru," Evans's arrangements of Chubby MacGregor's and Johnny Mercer's "Moon Dreams" and Davis's "Boplicity," and John Lewis's arrangements of Bud Powell's and Miles Davis's "Budo" and Denzil Best's "Move." The concert also included pieces from Mr. Mulligan's own repertory, among them "Blueport" by Art Farmer, the tentet trumpeter who had the unenviable task of taking on Mr. Davis's solos.

Jazz repertory can bring to life compositions that were muffled by the limitations of early recording. But the "Birth of the Cool" recordings are relatively recent, and the tentet had Carnegie Hall's acoustics to contend with. The hall makes trouble for amplified music, even at the relatively restrained volume of the tentet. Compared with the intimate recordings, much of the detail of the arrangements was smudged.

Even so, a new chance to hear the music was welcome. Mr. Mulligan and Mr. Konitz were both in fine form, Mr. Mulligan gruff and swaggering on baritone saxophone, Mr. Konitz leisurely and oblique on alto. And even after 42 years, the arrangements remain enigmatic, a corrective to the brassy extroversion of the big-band era. They use saw-toothed lines and close, dense harmonies, often played by instruments clustered in the low and middle registers (and thickened with French horn and tuba); they mull over the tunes, occasionally opening up to let a soloist step forward. The Evans arrangements are oddest of all, wrapping gauzy timbres around dissonances few other arrangers would even try, much less get away with.

For an encore, the tentet played "Satin Doll," and its relaxed symmetry was a reminder of all that the "Birth of the Cool" had willfully and gracefully sidestepped. The tentet also included Rob McConnell on valve trombone, Mike Mossman (who took some pointed solos) on trumpet, Ken Soderblum on saxophone and clarinet, Bob Routch on French horn, Ted Rosenthal on piano, Dean Johnson on bass and Ron Vincent on drums.”

Finally, the following was from a time when Jazz, if it got mentioned at all in a major newspaper, got mentioned briefly. Hats off to Zan Stewart for trying.

Pop, Jazz Reviews : Mulligan Breathes Life Into Old Work at Ford

BY ZAN STEWART

JUNE 22, 1992 LA Times

“Gerry Mulligan’s performance with an 11-piece band before a sell-out crowd at the John Anson Ford Theatre on Saturday proved once again that a contemporary airing can breathe an amazing amount of life into a work composed long ago.

The renowned baritone saxophonist and composer went back 40 years, reviving selections transcribed from the memorable 1949 and 1950 “Birth of the Cool” sessions led by Miles Davis, and which Mulligan recently re-recorded. On those sessions, Davis, along with Mulligan and others, examined be-bop-based material with a fresh sound, pitting the higher timbres of trumpet and alto sax against such low brass as trombone, French horn and tuba.

Mulligan’s aggregation, which included such esteemed jazzmen as trumpeter Art Farmer and alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, duplicated the instrumentation of the originals, except for the addition of an extra trumpet and a tenor sax-clarinet part. The band’s vibrant renditions of such well-preserved items as “Godchild,” “Boplicity” and “Moon Dreams” clearly demonstrated that these are not simply museum pieces, that they indeed have lasting power.

“Jeru” was distinctive for its dynamic climax, where the brass and reed sections tossed snappy lines back and forth. “Israel” began with the melody rendered by the low brass, then came the piercing brightness of trumpet and alto sax. Gil Evans’ dramatic arrangement of the oozingly slow “Moon Dreams” ended with a wall of soft sound, where instruments darted in and out, changing the work’s timbral color. The soloists were first-rate. Farmer’s ingenuity was quietly breathtaking as he took a series of brief phrases and strung them together into complex wholes. Konitz applied his one-of-a-kind sound, seemingly flat but really full of juice, to stretched-out notes and relaxed phrases that ran counter to the bubbling rhythm of a tune such as “Israel.” Mulligan swung with vitality and accessibility.”

Konitz Meets Mulligan: Lee Konitz and The Gerry Mulligan Quartet

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“Gerry Mulligan was also involved in the Birth of the Cool—you had quite a lot of contact with him over your career.

I always thought of him as an ally. He appreciated my playing, and I appreciated his, and especially his writing, very much. I played his arrangements with Claude Thornhill, and Stan  Kenton. The occasions that we had together, they were very fruitful. 

Was he an intuitive player?

Gerry was a great musician, also a great composer and arranger. My favorite playing of his was with the Birth of the Cool. He also recorded a free version of "Lover Man" with me and a trio with Peggy Stern that was very intuitive and really inspired. He was pretty much an intuitive player, but maybe too conscious of making an impression on his audience — and that means functioning other than intuitively.”

- Andy Hamilton, Lee Konitz: Conversations on the Improviser’s Art [2007]

“When the Kenton band was at the Palladium in Los Angeles, Gerry asked me to come and sit in with his quartet at the Haig on our nights off. I loved

the pianoless concept, and I have worked in many similar groups over the years. I had heard stories about Chet not reading, but I was never in a situation to check that out. I had also heard that he didn't know chord changes, but I remember seeing him at a piano, playing changes to tunes, so that wasn't true. On my recordings with the quartet, I actually rejected "Too Marvelous for Words" because it didn't seem to fit into Gerry's context. …  Looking back, Gerry and I didn't play that much together, but he was very encouraging to me in the early days, and I always felt he was an ally. We even got high together for the first time because we had that kind of close relationship.”

- Gordon Jack, Fifties Jazz Talk: An Oral Retrospective [2004]

“While all the other instruments during the great days of bop produced important musicians in addition to the leading representative on the respective horn, the alto saxophone had to wait for the start of the cool era for a considerable figure to emerge: This was Lee Konitz, who came out of the Lennie Tristano school. The abstract, glittering alto lines played by Konitz around the turn of the forties on his own and Lennie Tristano's recordings later became more singable, calmer, and more concrete. Of this change, Lee says that then "I played more than I could hear"... Konitz has absorbed and incorporated into his music many of the jazz elements since then - and some of Coltrane and of free jazz - and yet he has always remained true to himself. He is one of the really great improvisers in jazz.” 

- Joachim Berendt, The Jazz Book [1983] as quoted in Peter Ind, Jazz Visions: Lennie Tristano and His Legacy [2005]

“My [Gerry Mulligan] whole job, because we had left the piano off, was to establish always the sound of the chord progression that was moving through the piece, and to do that with my harmony line in relation to the bass line, which always had to be able to state something basic about the way the rhythm line moved—didn't have to just play roots of the chords that you always had to do on the bottom, but you could move through them in such a way that the implication of the chord was always there. So then, even though it wasn't obvious to the ear and it wasn't spelled out, the impression was there, and what we were doing was giving the impression of chord progression because of the way we were touching on those notes.”

- Gerry Mulligan with Ken Poston, Being Gerry Mulligan: My Life in Music, [2023]

“Most of the more casual generalizations about Lee Konitz - cool, abstract, passionless, untouched by bebop - were last relevant about 40 years ago. A stint in the Stan Kenton band, the musical equivalent of Marine Corps boot camp, toughened up his articulation and led him steadily away from the long, rather diffuse lines of his early years under the influence of Lennie Tristano, towards an altogether more pluralistic and emotionally cadenced approach. Astonishingly, Konitz spent a good many of what should have been his most productive years in relative limbo, teaching when he should have been playing, unrecognized by critics, unsigned by all but small European labels (on which he is, admittedly, prodigal). Despite (or because of) his isolation, Konitz has routinely exposed himself over the years in the most ruthlessly unpredictable musical settings, thriving on any challenge, constantly modifying his direction.” 

- Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Edition [2002]

“Stimulation of his colleagues by consistent application of his peregrine personality is very likely the most wicked weapon in Gerry Mulligan’s deadly arsenal. He has played probably in front of more groups that lingered on in a recurring state of instant disintegration behind him than any other major Jazzman. Not that Gerry plans it this way, he just seems to have been possessed rather frequently of or by an impish natural talent for annoying others to an extent that is much more often productive than destructive.

How this quality operated in his work with Lee Konitz, I have no way of knowing but I believe after hearing this record, that someone constructed a small conflagration under Lee when he sat in with Gerry’s quartet at The Haig in Los Angeles on the night of January 25, 1953. And since the expert at artistic arson, Gerry Mulligan, was present, I think we may have solved this minor mystery.”

- Daniel Halperin, original liner notes to Lee Konitz Plays With the Gerry Mulligan Quartet [PJM -406, 1957]

I enjoy combing the Jazz literature to glean new perspectives on something I’m writing about for the blog and such is the case with the lead-in quotations to one of my all time favorite recordings Konitz Meets Mulligan: Lee Konitz and The Gerry Mulligan Quartet [Pacific Jazz LP PJM 406 and Capitol CD CDP 7 46847 2].

Although issued in 1957, the recordings were actually made in 1953 and the playing on them by alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and trumpeter Chet Baker should be considered in the context of the relative newness of the “modern” - as distinct from - the Swing Era style of Jazz exhibited by the 12 tracks that make up the album. The version of Modern Jazz practiced by Konitz, Mulligan, Baker and others on the West Coast during the 1950s is often referred to as the “Cool School.”

Given the relative recency of Modern Jazz, a style that evolved largely during and directly after the close of World War II - an approach which relied on improvising on the harmony of a song rather than the previous Swing Era emphasis on the melody - it is amazing how accomplished the playing by the horns is on this recording. Kudos should also be shared with bassist Carson Smith and drummer Larry drummer for their smooth rhythmic backing, where again, a new, somewhat understated style of keeping the beat and insuring the forward motion - the swing - of the music was required.

Young musicians taking on the challenge of the latest Thing has been a part of the Jazz tradition since its inception, but this Modern Jazz stuff was complicated and it is remarkable how consummate the playing and the music is on this album.

“The Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker, despite its prolific recorded output and its impact on jazz and the American public, lasted for less than one year. Ensconced as the house band at The Haig in Los Angeles and able to record at its own discretion for Pacific Jazz (as well as single sessions for two other labels), this revolutionary, pianoless quartet crafted its own repertoire and arrangements and built a solid, prolific legacy.

Midway through its existence, the quartet settled on its finest bassist and drummer, Carson Smith and Larry Bunker respectively. At this junction. Mulligan, who had formed this unit through serendipity, luck and circumstance, sought to expand his musical horizons beyond this foursome, which had been an unexpected and overnight success well beyond the bounds of the usual jazz audience. He assembled and recorded on Capitol Records a tentette that was an outgrowth of the famous Miles Davis Nonet, a group that also recorded for Capitol, and for which Gerry had been a player, composer, arranger and founding member.

Another diversion from the quartet grew out of that group. By January of 1953, when he recorded the tentette. Mulligan felt confident that his quartet was ready to record live at their Los Angeles home The Haig. Dick Bock started bringing down his portable tape recorder to capture the band for possible record releases. One night. Lee Konitz, who was then a member of the confining, pompous, ponderous Stan Kenton Orchestra, came to the club to sit in. Konitz and Mulligan had worked together in 1947 with Claude Thornhill's band and in 1949 and 1950 with Miles Davis’ Birth Of The Cool Nonet. And they would work together again in December of 1957 on a Gerry Mulligan Songbook recording.

The sequence of events in January of 1953 are not clear. The results are that Konitz sat in with the Mulligan quartet at The Haig for a night for six tunes and went into a studio with the quartet for three more tunes and also to the studio at Phil Turetsky's house with Joe Mondragon subbing for Carson Smith for two tunes and an alternate take. Because of liner note information given by producer Dick Bock, it was assumed that these three sessions took place in June of '53. But actually, several of the titles were released months before then. And in June, Konitz was thousands of miles away from Los Angeles earning his living with the Stan Kenton Orchestra.

Regardless of dates, this series of recordings was a major event. Lee Konitz had already become a major voice because of his rigorous training and experience with Lennie Tristano and because of several triumphant record dates that he had led including a version of George Russell's "Ezz-thetic" with Miles Davis. But on these sessions, Lee Konitz excelled and soared with an inspired fluency and lucidity that had never before been fully realized in his work.

Essentially, the Mulligan quartet with Baker provides with its own very distinctive identity a backdrop that highlights and inspires Konitz as the principal soloist. The Haig recordings start off this Compact Disc collection, and they include an previously unissued version of "Bernie's Tune" which was first discovered by and issued on Mosaic Records in 1983. As one might expect, the repertoire here is a set of standards that any professional musician should know. But what they do with it is something else again. The first two titles “Too Marvelous For Words" and "Lover Man" are especially stunning vehicles for Konitz.

"Almost Like Being In Love'.' Mulligan's "Sextet" and "Broadway" are by the same working quartet and Konitz and were recorded at a professional Los Angeles recording studio, while "I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me" (another Konitz spectacular) and both takes of "Lady Be Good" were done at Phil Turetsky's homemade studio with Joe Mondragon in place of Carson Smith.

It may have been that after several months with Kenton. that Lee Konitz was starved to play some real creative music or it may be that Mulligan's creative atmosphere and Baker's raw. instinctive talent inspired Konitz to greater heights. Whatever the circumstances or motivations, this is one of the finest bodies of work by Lee Konitz, a consistent and immensely creative jazz artist. It is also a testament to the Mulligan-Baker quartet which was as vital and innovative as any New York band of its time.

Now on CD in complete form for the first time is the full encounter between soloist Lee Konitz and the Gerry Mulligan-Chet Baker Quartet. A rare and special musical occasion indeed.”

— Michael Cuscuna

The Fabulous Gerry Mulligan Sextet [Fresh Sound CD 418-419] - Alun Morgan

© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Born in Wales in 1928, the esteemed British author and critic Alun Morgan [d. 2018] became a Jazz fan as a teenager and was an early devotee of the bebop movement. In the 1950s he began contributing articles to Melody Maker, Jazz Journal, Jazz Monthly, and Gramophone and for twenty years, beginning in 1969, he wrote a regular column for a local newspaper in Kent. From 1954 onward he contributed to BBC programs on Jazz, authored and co-authored books on modern Jazz and Jazz in England and wrote over 2,500 liner notes for Jazz recordings.

Alun was a gentle and genteel person with many significant achievements as a Jazz writer and critic during his long career.  His writing style is succinct, accurate and easy to read and understand. Held in the highest regard by the British Jazz community, it’s an honor to have the writings of Alun Morgan featured once again on these pages.

Our thanks to Jordi Pujol, the owner-operator of Fresh Sound Records for the preview copy of The Fabulous Gerry Mulligan Sextet [Fresh Sound CD 418-419].  Founded in 1983 in Barcelona, Spain, the Fresh Sound catalogue has an exceptional selection of recordings from the Golden Age of Modern Jazz and you can visit the collection on offer by going here.

“The well-known author, lecturer and historian Bob Reisner began holding Sunday jam sessions at the Open Door in New York's Greenwich Village (at West Third Street and Washington Square South) on April 26, 1953. It soon became a focal point for jazz; Charlie Parker was a frequent visitor and participant. It was also a place where young, up-and-coming soloists could perform, one of whom was trumpeter Jon Eardley from Altoona, Pennsylvania. Years later Jon told Pat Sullivan in a Jazz Monthly magazine interview that "one night there were three trumpeters on the stand: Tony Fruscella, Don Joseph and me. Gerry Mulligan and his wife were in the audience. When we'd finished Gerry's wife, Arlyne, came over and asked me, 'how many white shirts do you have?' It was a way of inviting me to join the band. The following Friday, Gerry gave me about 16 LPs and a record player and I had to learn the lot by Monday when we opened in Baltimore." All this took place in the autumn of 1954 and Eardley was to work with the Mulligan Quartet and the later Sextet for nearly two years... with a few breaks in-between.

The formation of the Sextet came about originally as a one-off concert staged at Hoover High School in San Diego shortly before Christmas 1954. During October and November of that year, the Stan Getz Quintet plus the quartets of Mulligan and Dave Brubeck were part of a Norman Granz package titled Modern Jazz Concert, headed by Duke Ellington and his orchestra. The concert personnel appeared at fifteen locations across the United States, from Carnegie Hall in New York to the closing appearance at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Mulligan's quartet was completed by Jon Eardley, bass player Red Mitchell and drummer Frank Isola. The Getz Quintet contained valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, who had worked with Gerry in the early months of 1954. Although Getz returned to the east coast after the Modern Jazz Concert tour ended, Brookmeyer remained in Los Angeles and was available for the San Diego school musical event. It was an opportunity for Mulligan to write for, and play in, a six-piece band rather than the quartet lineups which had been his main force since August 1952 when he launched the foursome with Chet Baker. In some ways, the famous west coast Mulligan Quartet was something of a setback in his career. Although highly rewarding in terms of finances and personal publicity, it was not the direction Gerry wanted to take. Left to his own devices, he would have preferred to write for—and lead—a big band.

In Chet Baker he had an ideal frontline partner who had an intuitive grasp of what was required and could produce just the right musical lines which interlocked with, or complemented, those produced by Gerry. The original quartet was disbanded in June 1953 when Mulligan was found guilty of narcotics possession and given a custodial sentence. Released on Christmas Eve 1953, his immediate aim was to reform the quartet with Chet Baker, if only to give himself some breathing space and an income. But while Gerry had been serving his six months at the Peter Pitchess Honor Farm in Saugus (thirty miles north of Los Angeles), Baker had formed a quartet with pianist Russ Freeman which was a musical and financial success. Actually, they had recorded in April — two months before Gerry left the scene. The May 6 Down Beat carried a review of "The Lamp Is Low" and "Maid in Mexico." This session at Gold Star Studio is listed in all discographies as late July. The discrepancy can probably be traced to Dick Bock, who wasn't the most organized man when it came to hard facts about his sessions. When the two men met after Mulligan's release, Chet demanded a weekly salary of four hundred dollars to rejoin a reformed quartet. Gerry terminated the discussion at this point.

The baritone saxist then telephoned Bob Brookmeyer in New York, asking him to fly out to Los Angeles with "a New York rhythm section." Bob arrived with bass player Bill Anthony and drummer Frank Isola, two men who had worked with Brookmeyer in the Stan Getz Quartet. Mulligan reformed the Tentette he had employed for recording purposes a year earlier and played one concert with the group at the Embassy Auditorium in Los Angeles. A few weeks later he flew back to New York. He then replaced Anthony with Red Mitchell and this was the quartet which remained in being until Gerry fulfilled his contract to play at the Third Salon du Jazz in Paris at the beginning of June 1954. However, the idea of a larger group was never very far from Gerry's thoughts. He must have looked back with pleasure on that evening in San Diego when he played alongside not only Jon Eardley, Bob Brookmeyer, Red Mitchell and Larry Bunker, but the sixth member of the group: the constantly-swinging Zoot Sims. At that time, Zoot was resident in Los Angeles, having left the Stan Kenton band in November 1953. Amazingly, this outstanding musician had difficulty in finding regular musical work and was forced to take any available employment. Ed Michel, an ex-bass player who lived in California during the early Fifties and later worked in the record industry, once told me Zoot was so frustrated at this time he was prepared to sit-in with any kind of band just to play. "I've seen him playing with a Latin-American band, his knuckles covered with green paint because he'd been painting fences that day in order to make some money."

The San Diego concert remains a highlight in the Mulligan discography. It was recorded direct to two-track by sound engineer Phil Turetsky, who had recorded the very first Mulligan-Baker Quartet recordings. "Bernie's Tune" and "Lullaby of the Leaves" were done on an Ampex tape recorder in August 1952 in his bungalow on Wonderland Park Avenue off Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the Hollywood hills. The transfers heard here present the best sound yet achieved and preserve the immediacy of the live recording. The Hoover High School concert commenced with five tunes played by a quartet (Mulligan, Eardley, Red Mitchell and Chico Hamilton) which have not been included here as this album concentrates on the Sextet's music.

The complete Sextet is heard on the following numbers: "Western Reunion," "I Know, Don't Know How" and the "Ellington Medley" which includes "Flamingo" on which Bob Brookmeyer switches to piano. There is an atmosphere of pure musical joy here, particularly on the saxophone duet of "The Red Door." Mulligan shows that the baritone saxophone need not be a cumbersome instrument as he treats "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" with loving care. I think we can assume that Gerry wrote "Western Reunion" specifically for the San Diego concert, and as a tribute to the meeting of Gerry and his old-time friend Zoot... probably a play on the telegraph company Western Union. If "I Know, Don't Know How" sounds familiar it is because Mulligan has done a little recycling. For the eight bar A section of this A-A-B-A construction tune, Gerry has used the middle-eight of his earlier composition "Line for Lyons." Perhaps the most stunning track is "I'll Remember April" which features Zoot Sims at his very best, superbly backed by a brilliant rhythm section with Larry Bunker   proving that exciting and driving drumming need not necessarily be loud. Brookmeyer again plays piano and it should be pointed out his keyboard work is not simply a useful "double" on occasions. Bob once worked as a full-time pianist with the band of Tex Beneke, and in 1959 he and Bill Evans made a brilliant two-piano album (The Ivory Hunters) together. Brookmeyer had taken the place of Chet Baker in Gerry's new quartet at the beginning of 1954; he was never happy with the arrangement although he pointed out to author Gordon Jack in his Fifties Jazz Talk: An Oral Retrospective (Scarecrow Press, 2004), "this was the official start of Gerry as a well-dressed, successful bandleader.

When he first arrived in California, he just wanted to play and write, but when he went on the road with the quartet he became a bandleader." Bob's problems with the Mulligan Quartet were musical ones. "I knew how good the group had sounded with Chet Baker, and I thought it really needed a trumpet, not a trombone. In other words, somebody higher up because Gerry and I were so close in sound."

Things came to a head at the Paris Salon du Jazz (also known as the Salle Pleyel Concert) at the beginning of June 1954. Even to we outside observers, it was sometimes obvious that Bob and Gerry were frequently at musical loggerheads and it was no surprise to learn Brookmeyer had given his notice and left the quartet after the Salon du Jazz. He returned to the United States, recorded an album for Dick Bock's Pacific Jazz label in Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey studio with pianist John Williams and his ex-Mulligan colleagues. Red Mitchell and Frank Isola, then flew west to work (briefly) at The Haig club in a band he formed with Zoot Sims. As for Gerry, he continued with the quartet which now had trumpeter Jon Eardley as a replacement for Brookmeyer. Jon never tried to sound like Chet Baker; his tone was hotter and he could dig back into the Swing Era for ideas when the music called for it.

This quartet lasted until the end of 1954. Pacific Jazz taped the unit at two concerts, the first at Stockton High School; then a month later came the San Diego appearance by the group plus Brookmeyer and Sims. After that, Gerry disbanded and returned to New York to write some new music. The first half of 1955 found him appearing on the Steve Allen Show and various other gigs, often accompanied by Jon Eardley. In July 1955 he played at the Newport Jazz Festival where he appeared as a guest with both the Chet Baker and Dave Brubeck quartets as well playing with a pick-up group containing Miles Davis, Zoot Sims and Thelonius Monk. By August of that year he was ready to form his new sextet and had secured a contract with EmArcy, the newly formed jazz subsidiary of Mercury Records, headed by Bob Shad and Jack Tracy.

After a series of rehearsals, Gerry's sextet went on tour, opening at Cleveland's Loop Lounge on August 29. then proceeded with a one-week engagement at Boston's Storyville that lasted until September 18. Then, back to New York to record the September 21-22 sessions, and after a successful engagement at Basin Street, the group continued on the road, hitting the East and Midwest circuit, stopping only to record the October 31 session. The tour ended after a week at the Rouge, a night club in River Rouge, Michigan, on December 11.

The majority of the music on the enclosed Compact Discs comes from this most productive period and is played by one of the finest small groups ever to be formed and led by Mulligan. It benefited from its exemplary personnel (which remained virtually the same throughout the eighteen months of it’s existence), Gerry's impeccable leadership plus his understanding as composer and arranger. It gave him the sound palette he needed with a range from the top notes on the trumpet plunging more than three octaves to the lowest notes on baritone and valve trombone. Of equal importance was how the skillful writing often made the band sound bigger than it really was. Mulligan told Ira Gitler, "with the four horns we did a lot of clubs, a lot of concerts. It was a nice, hot band for playing theaters. We'd start with the four horns grouped around the microphone and by the time we were into the show we'd be all the way across the stage. I'd be at one end, then Bobby and Zoot, and the trumpet just spread all the way across. Really a ball."

The albums Jack Tracy supervised for EmArcy made use of some pre-existing pieces rearranged for the Sextet such as "The Lady Is a Tramp," "Bernie's Tune," and "Makin’ Whoopee" as well as material recently written by Mulligan for the new group. The impact of his music on both audiences and record buyers was the same, and in 1957 Ralph J. Gleason, reviewing the Sextet's first album for Down Beat magazine, awarded it the maximum of five stars. He drew attention to "the times, usually as an interlude towards the end of a number, when (Gerry) is able to direct the horns into a boiling and bubbling stew which can raise me right off the floor. I have heard no one else but Dizzy Gillespie do this particular thing successfully." Mulligan could take full credit for such matters. As Zoot Sims told Ira Gitler, "Mulligan doesn't do anything unless it's set, rehearsed. You know, it's all that playing together. Gerry's very well organized. He won't go on the road or in a club until it's set. That's the way I like it." Gleason continued his review. "As further evidence of his structural proficiency, his second chorus on piano in 'Blues' seems to be an almost classic example of construction, moving, as it does, from simplicity to full complexity without once losing definition. You will not want to miss this LP."

In later years, Bob Brookmeyer stated that the Sextet was Gerry's favorite group, even more satisfying than the quartet with Chet Baker or the various editions of his magnificent Concert Jazz Band. This six piece band comprised the most suitable group of players and had rare flexibility enabling it to tackle music from a range of eras and sources. For example, the highly successful "Ain't It the Truth" is Mulligan's interpretation of a number dating back to July 1942 when composed and arranged by Laverne "Buster" Harding for the Count Basie orchestra. It turned out to be the Count's last official recording session for twenty-nine months. (The AFM imposed a record ban which came into effect four days after "Ain't It the Truth" and six other titles were recorded.)

At the other end of the scale Mulligan's Sextet used pieces seldom played by jazz units. A prime example is "La plus que lente" first recorded by the Sextet in October 1955; and again the following September with trumpeter Don Ferrara replacing Jon Eardley. (This later recording was the only occasion Ferrara worked with the group.) The title translates as "Slower than Slow" and is based on something Gil Evans transcribed from music written by the French Impressionist composer Claude Debussy. It is largely an ensemble piece, beautifully played by the Sextet which maintains the almost ethereal mood of the music. It bears out the assertion of critic and musicologist Max Harrison in 1959 that "the real nature of (Mulligan's) subsequent achievement was hinted at early in his career by his facility in arranging and his concern with unity. In addition to the personal expression of his solos, what Mulligan has given jazz is a fresh ensemble style. Whereas men like Armstrong and Parker, in forging a new mode of solo utterance, give us primarily themselves. Mulligan like Gil Evans has given his fellow musicians a new way of thinking about playing together, a new approach to the jazz ensemble" (from These Jazzmen of Our Time, Victor Gollancz, 1959).

The Sextet was a success wherever it played in the United States; then in the spring of 1956, the six musicians embarked for Europe aboard the Italian passenger liner Andrea Doria to play dates in France, Germany, Italy, et al. While in Paris, Gerry bought a soprano sax and Zoot an alto at the Selmer factory.

On some dates they came across Chet Baker, who was also touring Europe at the time and there is at least one recorded German transcription (from Landstuhl) of Baker sitting in with the Sextet. When the band returned to the United States, Jon Eardley left and the last studio records by the group in September had Don Ferrara on his only appearance with the Sextet. The final date was at the Preview Lounge in Chicago by which time Oliver Beener had the trumpet role. Zoot Sims left to freelance in New York before teaming up with Al Cohn while Mulligan reverted to the quartet format, partnered by Bob Brookmeyer.

Although the life of the Mulligan Sextet was comparatively short, it was a most important phase in Gerry's musical development. In April 1957, he was commissioned by Columbia Records to assemble a big band and provide original arrangements for a recording session. For some reason, most products of the session were not released for twenty years by which time Mulligan's own Concert Jazz Band had performed widely in both the United States and Europe. In almost every manifestation of the CJB, the triumvirate of Mulligan, Brookmeyer and Sims was present indicating the importance of the personnel chosen for the Sextet.

Of paramount importance to the Sextet was that original concert held at San Diego's Hoover High School. More than half a century after the event. Bob Brookmeyer confirmed that rehearsals indeed did take place in Los Angeles before the group traveled the one hundred and twenty-five miles south for the event. And he recalled that the poster in front of the auditorium simply stated, "Gerry Mulligan and His Band," giving no mention of precisely what the audience might expect to see and hear that evening. After the opening numbers by the quartet, the appearance of Bob and Zoot for the remainder of the concert was a well-orchestrated surprise. As may be heard here, the music was a revelation and is now enhanced by improvements made in the remastering for this Fresh Sound release. It can be said that this collection is a fitting tribute to the undoubted genius that was Gerald Joseph Mulligan.”

— Alun Morgan May 2006