© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.
Gordon Jack is a frequent contributor to the Jazz Journal and a very generous friend in allowing JazzProfiles to re-publish his insightful and discerning writings on these pages.
Gordon is the author of Fifties Jazz Talk An Oral Retrospective and he also developed the Gerry Mulligan discography in Raymond Horricks’ book Gerry Mulligan’s Ark.
In a message to me, Gordon shared the following background information regarding this piece:
“The Mulligan Quartet at Newport 1957 was intended for a CD sleeve-note that has never been released. It gave me the opportunity of highlighting Mulligan's other activities that year at a time when the quartet's repertoire was evolving.”
The following article has been submitted for consideration to the Jazz Journal, but has yet to be published by the magazine.
For more information and subscriptions please visit www.jazzjournal.co.uk
© -Gordon Jack/JazzJournal, copyright protected; all rights reserved; used with the author’s permission.
“Gerry Mulligan’s original 1952 quartet with its rich tapestry of contrapuntal interplay created a thoroughly fresh and distinctive ensemble sound. As a soloist with his delicate Lester Young-like touch on the baritone he liberated the instrument from the relative obscurity of the saxophone section. He was also able to improvise sympathetic backgrounds for Chet Baker and subsequent replacements that almost had the hallmark of a written arrangement. His baritone became an accompanying voice providing subtle harmonic comments which added cohesiveness, form and structure to every performance.
After Baker left the group, Bob Brookmeyer took over and that quartet with Red Mitchell and Frank Isola made its recording debut in June 1954 at the Paris Jazz Fair where they were the chief attraction. Their appearances were hugely successful but Brookmeyer who had a falling-out with the leader left the group immediately on their return to the U.S. Gerry recruited Tony Fruscella to take his place and the new quartet with Mitchell and Isola again on bass and drums did two weeks at Basin Street followed by an appearance at the first ever Newport Jazz Festival in July 1954 where they followed the Oscar Peterson Trio onstage. Stan Kenton was the Master of Ceremonies that year - “No other small combination of recent years has attracted the same amount of enthusiasm here and abroad as this quartet” – was a small part of his exuberant introduction. I once asked Mulligan why Fruscella did not stay with the group, “One concert was enough for me to realise that having Tony traveling with me and being onstage together night after night would have driven me crazy. It was too bad it didn’t work out because he was such a lovely player”.
Mulligan had been impressed with Jon Eardley when he heard him at Bob Reisner’s Open Door and at Frank Isola’s suggestion he was hired for the rest of 1954. Jon’s ebullient sound and striking ideas were to remain a feature for the next two years because he remained with Gerry when he expanded to a sextet with Zoot Sims and Bob Brookmeyer added to the line-up. Fresh Sound has reissued their Complete Studio Recordings together with the famous San Diego Concert in a three CD box set (FSR 417). It is an impressive release demonstrating just why the sextet was one of Mulligan’s favourites of all his small groups.
With one exception (Joe Benjamin taking Bill Crow’s place) the quartet that appeared at Newport in 1957 was the one Gerry Mulligan organised when he disbanded his sextet in 1956. This group remained together throughout 1957 appearing at other outdoor locations like Stratford, Ontario, the Great South Bay Festival on Long Island, the Hollywood Bowl and Boston’s North Shore Jazz Festival. They were also one of the headliners at the first jazz concert in the Theatre under the Stars in New York’s Central Park. They toured Europe and I heard them at London’s Festival Hall where one of their new selections – Open Country – proved to be extremely popular with U.K. audiences. For the U.K. dates a group including Bert Courtley, Eddie Harvey, Don Rendell, Jimmy Skidmore, Ken Moule, Arthur Watts and Allan Ganley opened proceedings for the quartet.
Gerry also often appeared as a single during the year. At Newport he sat in with the newly formed Jimmy Giuffre Three and Norman Granz organised an all-star jam session at the nearby Viking Hotel with Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Mulligan, Nat Pierce and Cannonball Adderley. Rex Stewart pressed him into service for a Fletcher Henderson Reunion at the Great South Bay Festival where he also performed with the Yank Lawson -Bob Haggart Dixieland band on an extended “Jeepers Creepers”. (The September issue of Jazz Today had a picture of him performing with the band wearing Bermuda shorts). He was in the saxophone section with Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Ben Webster accompanying Billie Holiday on a memorable Fine and Mellow in the CBS TV special – “The Sound Of Jazz”.
1957 was also a prolific year for Mulligan as a recording artist with several notable sessions including dates with Manny Albam, Harry Edison, Paul Desmond, Thelonious Monk, Phil Sunkel, Chet Baker, Annie Ross, Vinnie Burke and Stan Getz. The latter recording could have been even better had the protagonists not been persuaded to switch horns on three numbers. His big band made its debut in April 1957 although most of the material was not heard until 1977. We have Henri Renaud to thank for its belated release. It includes Gerry’ exquisite reworking of “All The Things You Are” featuring Don Joseph who was one of his favourite trumpeters. There was also an all-star saxophone date with Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and Allen Eager titled optimistically, “The Gerry Mulligan Songbook Volume 1”. Unfortunately the wait for subsequent Songbook volumes proved to be in vain.
By the late-fifties it was clear that he had become one of the music’s major figures. In Downbeat’s 1956 Poll Winners edition Ralph Gleason said, “I wish there was a separate category in which Gerry Mulligan could be placed for his unique contribution to jazz.” In the same magazine Paul Sampson of the Washington Post said, “I think John Lewis and Gerry Mulligan are the most creative figures in jazz today”. A few years ago his long time drummer Dave Bailey put it even more succinctly when he told me, “Gerry was hotter than a firecracker at the time”. This was confirmed in Metronome’s 1959 Poll to find the most popular jazz musicians of all time. Mulligan finished third behind Miles Davis and the winner, Charlie Parker.
On Saturday night July 6th. 1957 a record crowd of 12,400 fans was packed into Freebody Park, Newport, Rhode Island where Willis Conover was the M.C. Turk Murphy opened proceedings. Chris Connor followed performing a well-received seven song set including the lovely “When The Wind Was Green” which she had just recorded with the Ralph Burns orchestra. Dave Brubeck’s quartet played selections from their 1956 “Jazz Impressions Of The U.S.A.” album together with “These Foolish Things” and “I’m In A Dancing Mood”. Teddy Wilson featured staples from his repertoire like ”Airmail Special” and “Stompin’ At The Savoy” before inviting Gerry Mulligan to sit-in for a hard swinging “Sweet Georgia Brown”. This was recorded by Norman Granz together with the quartet’s ”My Funny Valentine” and “Utter Chaos” and released on MGV 8235 – subsequently reissued on Avid AMSC987. The Dizzy Gillespie big band climaxed the evening by first accompanying Eartha Kitt and then performing Mary Lou Williams’ “Zodiac Suite” with the composer. Granz released twelve albums from the 1957 Newport concerts on the Verve label and he also took part in an onstage panel discussion with Gerry Mulligan, George Shearing, George Avakian, Nat Hentoff, and John Levy.
Mulligan appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival the following year with his new quartet featuring Art Farmer, Bill Crow and Dave Bailey. Bob Brookmeyer was there too with the Jimmy Giuffre Three along with Jim Hall and part of both group’s 1958 contributions have been immortalised on Bert Stern’s celebrated “Jazz On A Summer’s Day”. Mulligan performed “As Catch Can” and Giuffre played “The Train And The River”.
The balance of this CD presents previously unissued Newport material and although the provenance is uncertain, it is a fascinating glimpse at how the quartet’s repertoire was evolving at the time. The first three bars of the “Birth Of The Blues” introduction are unfortunately missing here. The song which is not a blues at all was recorded by the quartet on their 1956 Storyville album. It came from the “George White Scandals of 1926” and was co-written by Gerry‘s father-in-law at the time Lew Brown, who was a member of the famous DeSylva, Brown and Hendersen song-writing team. An obscure pianist from Washington D.C. by the name of Bernie Miller wrote “Bernie’s Tune” and Gerry who seldom quoted from other songs hints at “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” at the start of his third
chorus. His quartet with Chet Baker, Bob Whitlock and Chico Hamilton had put “Bernie’s Tune” on the map with their 1952 Pacific Jazz recording although Charlie Parker had recorded it on two occasions in the forties. It began life as “Bobby Socks” when Boyd Raeburn’s band recorded it in
1944 with an arrangement by Bobby Lenihan who had studied with Eddie Finckel. Serge Chaloff was in the saxophone section on what was his first recording date. “Motel” - one of countless originals based on “I Got Rhythm” – segues into Gerry’s theme song “Utter Chaos”. Early in 1952 Gerry and his girl-friend Gail Madden had hitch-hiked from New York to Los Angeles in search of work. “Walkin’ Shoes” recorded later that year is a reference to their cross country means of travel. Mulligan performed the lovely “Laura” twice at the Paris Jazz Fair in 1954. It is a perfect vehicle for his full, rounded tone but he never seems to have performed it again after 1957. It was written for the 1944 film of the same name featuring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney but the complexity of David Raksin’s harmony really needed Johnny Mercer’s evocative lyrics to turn it into a hit. Cole Porter once claimed that it was the one song that he most wished he had written. “Frenesi” is one of Gerry’s rare excursions into Latin-American territory.
When Bob Brookmeyer joined the quartet in January 1954 he contributed two of his own outstanding originals – “Rustic Hop” and “Open Country” – which he had recorded with Stan Getz’s quintet. Both were heard on Mulligan’s Storyville album and “Open Country” remained in Gerry’s repertoire until the early sixties. It has been recorded on 29 occasions by a variety of artists including Alex Welsh, John McLaughlin, Ed Bickert, Humphrey Lyttelton and Pete Christlieb. “Lullaby Of The Leaves” along with “Bernie’s Tune” was famously introduced on the first 78 rpm recording released by the quartet in 1952. Like “Laura” it seemed to disappear from the repertoire after 1957. “Bweebida Bobbida” was premiered with “Ides’s Side” on Gerry’s first date as a leader in 1951 for the Prestige label when Gail Maddon made some discreet appearances on maracas. It is another “Rhythm” contrafact which later became a staple of Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band in an arrangement by Bob Brookmeyer. “Line For Lyons” is one of Gerry’s most well- known compositions. It was dedicated to the West Coast disc-jockey Jimmy Lyons who went on to organize the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1958. The middle eight became the basis of another of Gerry’s originals – “I Know Don’t Know How”. “Utter Chaos” reminiscent of Benny Goodman’s “A Smooth One” was Mulligan’s theme song throughout the fifties and early sixties. It was also orchestrated by Bill Holman in a laid-back arrangement for the CJB.
His 1952 recording of “My Funny Valentine” with Chet Baker was responsible for popularising what had been an obscure Rodgers and Hart song from the 1937 show “Babes In Arms”. Despite recordings by Cab Calloway, Mel Torme’ and Eddie Condon it was Gerry’s recording that really introduced “Valentine” to the jazz world. Carson Smith who played bass on the date told me that both Gerry and Chet were unfamiliar with the tune at the time. Carson sat down at the piano and sketched a simple arrangement which received considerable air-play and almost became Chet Baker’s theme song. In 1953, Frank Sinatra gave “My Funny Valentine” a seal of approval on his first Capitol L.P. – “Songs For Young Lovers” – and the rest as they say is history. “Funny Valentine” became so popular with night club singers that according to Alec Wilder’s book - “American Popular Song” - the owner of a famous East Side New York club had a clause inserted in vocalists’ contracts forbidding them to sing it. Tom Lord’s discography currently lists 1618 versions of the song by jazz musicians.”
Gordon Jack.
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