• VOCE ON MULLIGAN
• NEW MULLIGAN RECORDINGS
• NEW CDS FEATURING GERRY MULLIGAN ' S COMPOSITIONS
• NEW MULLIGAN RADIO OR INTERVIEW
• NEXT MULLIGAN 's EVENTS
• NEXT TRIBUTE CONCERTS

I thank Steve Voce very much for agreeing to copy extracts of his interviews about Nice La Grande Parade" 1982 and with Dave Glenn , done in I983. Nice 1982 "Mulligan' s band was in my view the most effective big band on display. He has an off-putting theatricality on stage, not helped by the fact that he will dress like Hamlet and wear his hair like King Lear, but musically he is virtually without fault, and will not tolerate fault for a moment in others.

One of the drawbacks at Nice is the arrogance displayed by the stage jobsworths who travel from festival to festival. This year the sound 'boys displayed the absolute confidence of the totally incompetent as they happily destroyed the sound balance of many of the groups. Last year these problems were sorted out after the first night, but this year they persisted for several days as the mini-shorted cretins propelled every bass player and drummer over and. above the surrounding band. Particular trouble came from a spectacular operator at the garden stage who had not, one presumes, met Mulligan before. However, I feel he will not easily forget his encounter with the gaunt baritone player.

Mulligan' s band is playing far better than on its last British visit and I was lucky to hear on the last night of the festival a set which one of the trombonists, Dave Glenn, said was a particularly on-form one. The main soloist has to be Gerry, who would be head and shoulders above the rest of any band. His writing is so good, the band play so beautifully and he solos so well that there is never any feeling of a lack of solo strength, and in fact on the night in question there was excellent work from tenorist Gary Keller, a mature soloist who takes the Zoot Sims role. Glenn himself snatched a bit of Brookmeyer' s action with a couple of solos, but the main trombone work is given to Ed Neumeister. The trumpets showed great muscle and all four came out together for one searing number which had them all easily moving in the top reaches of the range whilst still phrasing with taste and dexterity.

The programme was much as before, with Gerry taking Barney Bigard' s solo on Across The Track Blues, and indeed using most of the titles from the band's last album on DRG. It is platitudinous to point to Mulligan' s ability to construct melodies: his gift in this respect coupled to the brilliance of his improvisations in solo mark him as one of the great men of his age - a musically unblemished run of almost 40 years at such a high level only happens amongst giants. Mulligan will spend hours perfecting just a few bars with his band - I know a man who had to quit the band because he couldn't stand that - but the toil pays off, and the section sounds were glorious."

Dave Glenn

Dave Glenn, who plays some of the solo spots historically allotted to Bob Brookmeyer and is second chair trombone in the Gerry Mulligan concert band, has been with the group since Mulligan reformed it five years ago. He talks to Steve Voce.

'When Gerry decided to put the band on a permanent footing, he had the problem of getting us to learn the book. With everyone living in New York he did have some advantage in regard to rehearsals, but he knew that people would be sending in deps or not turning up for one reason or another - so he gave us a free paid vacation to Guadeloupe.

'It was a paradise island. We stayed at the Club Med, where everything was done for you, and Gerry had us rehearse for nine hours a day! We never got to see the sunset and maybe got up to an hour on the beach each day. It was frustrating, but it was good in terms of learning the book. By shanghai-ing the whole band like that, we got off to a good start. Three or four months later he took us back to the same place and we only rehearsed a couple of times a day, so we did finally get our holiday.

'New York's still my focal point. The Mulligan band does most of its work there playing for a week or two weeks once in ~ while - but it's by no means all the time so we have to play other gigs as well.

'That salsa band was good experience. In that kind of music you play high and loud all night long, and by the end of the gig I'd be exhausted and my lip would be about to collapse. To give you a comparison son, when you play a job with Gerry's band you usually feel better when you come off the stand than when you went on! Gerry's book isn't demanding on physical stamina but it's so different from any other band's book that I ever saw. It takes a lot more self-control and good taste than most books, because things are subdued. There's a lot of little fine things to concentrate on a lot of dynamics and subtle things. Some of the chord voicings are thick enough that you have to really pay attention to what you're doing and find out where you are in the chords to keep things in tune. It's very challenging, but in a different way.

'Gerry's been pretty productive, especially recently. He's come with three or four really good new charts. The band really enjoys playing them. The other baritone player in the band, Tom Boras, has been doing some arrangements of jazz tunes, too.

'Gerry is demanding. He definitely knows what he wants and if he's not getting it he doesn't feel badly about pointing that out, even on stage! But he's by and large very just. When things are screwed up, he'll let you know in a positive way. Recently he's been really good and very easy to work for. I think he's getting used to having to deal with this many people again, and the band is playing better, which is the main thing.

'Usually it takes about an hour and a half or so to play a new chart and for him to weed out the sections that he likes and the ones that he doesn't like. It could even be several months and several re-workings before he has what he wants. He's notorious for changing parts, even in a chart that's three or four years old. He loves to make changes and re-workings, which is good, because it keeps the music real fresh, and usually the changes are improvements. He is a perfectionist, certainly more than anyone else I've ever worked for.

'The musicians come from varied backgrounds. The lead alto, Chuck Wilson, is the only other guy from North Texas State, which is pretty unusual. And there are several people from Berklee in the band at the moment. When you consider that we work with Gerry for a third of our time or less, then you'll appreciate we fan out all over for our other jobs. Unfortunately the band hasn't played a club in New York in about three years now, so lately the band mostly travels. It's really a shame about New York. Really the only club that's suited to the band is the Village Vanguard, and Mel Lewis's band has got that one nailed down, so there's really no place to play...........

'There's a young band in New York that I play in, along with Laurie Frink, the lead trumpet in Gerry's band, and Chuck Wilson, the lead alto player. It's led by Ed Palermo, who writes all the arrangements, and we just recorded an album. It's a real good band. We've been playing every Monday night at a place called Seventh Avenue South that's owned by the Brecker Brothers. We've been there over a year now. It's a very interesting band. Four trumpets, three trombones and five saxes. The saxes double a lot because there's a lot of woodwind writing. Ed's really influenced by Prokofiev and Stravinsky, and there's a lot of interesting writing in that regard. He uses a lot of Latin rhythms, too, because he played with Tito Puente for a number of years......

We've done a lot of touring with Mel Torme;. Last year we had a string of concerts with Mel and George Shearing. It was a George Wein package and it seemed to work really well. Even though the band doesn't get a chance to stretch out, everybody has a real good time because it's such a good show. Mel wrote all his own arrangements and they really work for him, they're so good.

'Even after all these years Gerry continues to amaze me. He's the greatest cat I've ever heard in playing counter lines to a melody. When we were working the gigs with Mel they'd play things with the quartet, with Mel taking over Chet' s role. The counter lines were different every night and they were brilliant. It's been a great advantage to be around Gerry for a period of time because, as a young player, a big tendency is to over-play, to ramble on and on and play a million notes and there's no phrase endings. It's like when you're talking and you just ramble on and don't say a thing. Gerry has the experience and great melodic ability so that everything he plays makes sense. When he finishes a phrase he can take a breath and go on to the next phrase - he's not running out of breath, and his whole melodic sense is such a great thing for young players to learn from. He'll start with a theme in his solo and he'll use that theme, or variations on that theme through the whole solo and everything makes total logical sense. It's enjoyable to hear compared with somebody just running notes and notes and scales and scales.

'There were a couple of nights when he was angry at something and he would start playing and it would almost sound like "Trane". He would be coming up with some new sounds that I never heard him play before.

'He is definitely hooked into jazz as far as late "Trane", and there are some times when things get to be almost free form. This is one of those rare big bands where things can happen spontaneously, and the whole band goes with it. We do seem to be able to flow with what's going on. and aren't afraid of going out on a limb. Gerry likes to be able to pull a chart from the back of the book that we haven't played for three months - or maybe this band has never played it. It's a matter of attitude and having confidence that you can pull something off. If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. It's no big deal.'

Since our conversation Dave has toured Japan with Gerry's band and played a Japanese festival with Ed Cherry and Tony Williams. He returned to Japan and also visited Korea, the Philippines and Hawaii with Lou Rawls. In addition to playing with Mulligan in New York, he is currently rehearsing with Toshiko and Lew Tabakin who have moved from Los Angeles to New York and are in the process of reassembling their big band there.

Steve Voce ENGLAND

NEW CDS WITH GERRY MULLIGAN

1. MULLENIUM

is part of Columbia/Legacy's 20-bit digitally remastered Collector's Choice Series Their catalog number is 65678.
Personnel includes: Gerry Mulligan (baritone saxophone); Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims, Charlie Rouse, Bob Brookmeyer.

1. Thruway - (take 6)
2. Motel - (bonus track, take 5)
3. All The Things You Are
4. Mullenium
5. Thruway - (take 7)
6. 6 Motel - (bonus track, take 4)
7. Elevation
8. Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
9. Disc Jockey Jump
10. How High The Moon
11. Disc Jockey Jump - (alternate take)

More information about the "Mullenium" CD
19-20 april 1957 : Gerry Mulligan Orchestra
The alternate of "Thruway" was previously issued on Columbia CL 1765 . Its timing is different ( 8mn47s ) / ( 8mn23s ) . The timing of the soli are also different .
The alternate of "Motel" is new for me . Gerry wrote a beautiful arrangement of his own composition .
The alternate of "Disc Jockey Jump" was also previously issued on CD ( CBS 461096-2 )
Nevertheless , my very favorite title of this CD is "All the things you are" which is one of the most marvelous arrangements of the jazz story .
The genious of Gerry is there !!

as recorded by the Gerry Mulligan All-Star Tribute Band...
I just wish that the major labels could release such fine productions as the one I've been listening to this afternoon.
Lee Konitz-Alto, Bob Brookmeyer- Valve Trombone, Randy Brecker- Trumpet & Flugelhorn, Ted Rosenthal - Piano, Dean Johnson - Bass , Ron Vincent - Drums.

1. Bark for Barksdale
2. Theme for Jobim
3. Elevation
4. My Funny Valentine
5. Rocker
6. Walkin Shoes
7. Moonlight in Vermont
8. Line for Lyons
9. Festive Minor
10. Bernie's Tune
11. Curtains

As you can see from these titles, all periods in Gerry's career are represented musically as well as in personnel. This is an homage truly to savor and especially in that no attempt is made to duplicate the sounds of the various Mulligan groups. I place it a tribute to the composer and arranger. Interestingly, "My Funny Valentine" ; so closely indentified with Chet Baker is given a treatment by Brecker and cast which is straight out of Miles Davis. Also, it's certainly good to hear that "old Lion" Brookmeyer roaring back .
My hats are off to Arkadia for a superlative job. As an added bonus, the liner notes are first class in writing, photos and lay-out...I can't think of seeing a better insert.

Bob Camfiord . USA
Thanks to Bob for his agreement to use this review .

1. The Carl Fontana / Arno Marsh Quintet

"Live at Capozzoli's" , WOOFY WPCD 51 Carl Fontana (tb) , Arno Marsh (ts) , Brian O' Rourke (p) , John Leithman (b) , Dick Berk (d) 2 & 3 august 1997 They played "DISC JOCKEY JUMP"

2. Mel Torme & friends DCC 631

previously issued on Finesse Records , Mel Torme trio features Gerry Mulligan on : The Real Thing and on a medley "Line for Lyons-Venus De Milo-Walking Shoes"

3. Stan Kenton Orchestra TKO Records members Edition UAE 30542

Walking Shoes (2mn19s) , Youngblood (4mn36s) This is a compilation without information !!!!

4. Scott Hamilton - Bucky Pizzarelli Duet

Concord CD 4799-2 : "Remember Zoot Sims : The Red Door" This duet plays the very nice Sims-Mulligan 's composition : The Red Door

5. "Below Zero" Alan Barnes & Dave Newton Trio Concord 4842 :

Alan Barnes (bs) , Dave Newton (p) , Matt Miles (b) , Steve Brown (d) They play two Mulligan's songs : Song for Strayhorn , K4 Pacific

RADIO , TV RECORDINGS ABOUT GERRY MULLIGAN

1. November,2nd,1991 Gerry Mulligan Quartet

Stockholm , Nacka Radio Broadcast Gerry Mulligan (bs) , Bill Charlap (p) , Dean Johnson (b) , Dave Ratajzak (d)

1. Curtains (8mn18s)
2. , Midas Lives (7mn05s)
3. Line for Lyons (7mn40s)
4. For an Unfinished woman (10mn11s)
5. Out back of the barn ( inc) (9mn44s+1mn38s)
6. Sun on Stairs (inc)(5mn40s)
7. I never was a young man (3mn58s)

2. October,30th,1993 Gerry Mulligan Interview

Umea , Sweden Radio Broadcast ( timing : 10mn)

3. October,30th,1993 Gerry Mulligan Quartet

Umea , Sweden Radio Broadcast Gerry Mulligan (bs) , Ted Rosenthal (p) , Dean Johnson (b) , Ron Vincent (d)

1. Curtains (11mn11s)
2. Out Back of the barn (10mn55s)
3. Noblesse (8mn42s)
4. Bernie's tune (8mn55s)
5. Georgia (4mn30s)

4. October,19th,1968 Dave Brubeck-Gerry Mulligan Quartet

London , Royal Festival Hall , Jazz Expo Private recording Dave Brubeck (p) , Gerry Mulligan (bs) , Jack Six (b) , Alan Dawson (d)

1. Out of nowhere (12mn34s)
2. The Duke (7mn36s)
3. Out of the way of the people (10mn57s)
4. These Foolish Things (11mn14s)
5. Jumping Beans (inc) (2mn02s)
6. New orleans (6mn21s)
7. St Louis Blues (6mn34s)
8. Lullaby of Mexico (8mn09s)
9. X (5mn49s)
10. Things ain't what they used to be (4mn32s)

NEXT MULLIGAN 's EVENTS

1. Bud Shank 's band

Fresh Sound : " After You , Jeru " Recorded in December 1998 , this Cd will be issue in the spring of 1999 . The band was honored by the presence of Franca Mulligan who came out of New York and attended the session

2. ***TCB records of Switzerland

will be releasing a Mulligan orchestra cd in february 1999 in europe. Recorded in Basel (TCB number 02122 green spine..)
John Good is their agent in New Zealand

NEXT TRIBUTE CONCERTS

1. In Milano :

January 27th,1999 : A workshop entitled "Gerry in Milano" was created in april 1998 in Milano , this is the first Tribute concert performed by this Big Band with many guests.

2. In Washington:

April,6th , 1999 : In the Library of Congress , a new Tribute to Gerry Mulligan featuring Bob Brookmeyer , Nick Brignola , Bud Shank , Ted Rosenthal

3. The Three Baritone Saxophone Band

will perform in Europe ( Germany, England , Italia in late march and early april 1999 .