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Gerry Mulligan Quartet With Chet Baker Portrait BLUE classic line saban crescendo 7258

 

1. My Funny Valentine
2. Bark for Barksdale
3. Moonlight in Vermont
4. The lady is a Tramp
5. Turnstile
6. Makin’Whopee
7. Cherry
8. Love Me or Leave Me
9. Swing House
10. Jeru
11. The Nearness of You
12. I May Be Wrong
13. I’m Beginning to See the Light
14. Tea for Two
15. Five Brothers
16. Bernie’s Tune
17. Lullaby of the leaves
18. Walking Shoes
19. Freeway
20. Frenesi
21. Nights AT the turntable
22. Aren’t You Glad You’re You
23. Line for Lyons
24. Carioca

Gerry Mulligan – Baritone
Chet Baker - Trumpet
Carson Smith – Bass
Chico Hamilton – Drums
Bobby Whitlock – Bass (16 to 24)
Larry Bunker – Drums (6 to 15)

The Gerry Mulligan Quartet is one of the most famous of all jazz outfits, although it lasted only just over a year. It was a year in which many never to be forgotten tracks were to be recorded by the group. Gerry Mulligan was at his most creative as both Saxophonist and Arranger and Chet Baker was on top of his form. Mulligan had the idea of the Quartet without a piano because he thought it would free up the horns, With musicians of the calibre of Mulligan and Baker it could hardly fail, their ability to improvise instant counterpoint is still remarkable today. The lack of piano however put a great deal of extra responsibility on the bass player and drummer and Carson Smith and Bobby Whitlock and Larry Bunker and Chico Hamilton respectively handle the task with neat, crisp rhythm section lines.

Eight of the tracks are Mulligan originals although some of them pre-date the Quartet. I first heard the band in 1953, just before starting as a National Serviceman in the RAF and I thought they were the ‘coolest thing’ I had ever heard. Chet Baker was unknown in the UK at this time, but a couple of years later he was winning ‘Down Beat’ polls. Both Mulligan and Baker had their problems with narcotics; although Mulligan conquered the ‘demons’ and went on to have a magnificent career in music. Baker was not so fortunate and suffered many setbacks in his remaining career; he still managed to play the trumpet beautifully even after losing all his teeth. He died in rather strange circumstances falling from an Amsterdam hotel window in 1988.

This collection is essential for all serious collectors of jazz, the music still sounds fresh some 50 years after it was recorded, the playing is immaculate and the group instantly identifiable. It holds the listener’s attention with ease despite the limited instrumentation. It is hard to pick out particular tracks, because each contains something interesting, but the treatment of Tea for Two is particularly interesting, as is the counterpoint on Five Brothers. You can’t select a worst track because there isn’t one!

Don Mather

 

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