1. All About Rosie
2. Weep
3. I Know, Don't Know How
4. Chuggin'
5. Summer's Over
6. Israel

July 10 or 11, 1961

 LINER NOTES

But this album marks an arrival of another sort. On this set the band first presents concert jazz compositions. written or scored especially for the group, and having more contemporary music dimension than before.

The writers selected by Gerry for the task were George Russell, Johnny Carisi, Gary McFarland, and Bob Brookmeyer.

Composer/arranger George Russell drew wide critical acclaim for his All About Rosie, originally commissioned for a concert of contemporary music at Brandeis University. The composition is in three sections, and is based on a children's play song which Russell recalled from his youth.

"I asked George to write something for the band." Garry said. "And when he turned in All About Rosie I almost died. I was haunted by the recording he made of the piece with that fantastic piano solo by Bill Evans. But I think the band really did it here. I don't think George could get a better reading. And the way the saz section plays is fantastic!

"All About Rosie may have boon written originally as variations on a children's song, but I think of the three parts this way: Rosie's Early Life, Rosie's Blues, and Rosie Steps Out. The way George wrote it for us, Rosie's grown up!"

Johnny Carisi has played trumpet with such bands as Glenn Miller's Air Force orchestra. Claude Thornhill, Charlie Barnet, and George Handy, and has bean a top composer of modern jazz and contemporary musical compositions. Carisi wrote Israel for the now-legendary "Birth of the Cool" sessions which Miles Davis and his group (including Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax recorded for Capitol Records in 1949 and 1950. For the Concert Jazz Bend, Carisi scored Israel for a large ensemble but successfully retained the vital elements which originally made it so compelling.

Israel is one of my favorite pieces," Gerry noted. "It's a great piece of construction. I've always loved the way it hangs together.

This Concert in Jazz introduces the work of Gary McFarland. a young composer/arranger who was invited to a band rehearsal by Bob Brookmeyer, and who stayed around to impress Gerry and Bob with his work. Just 27 years old. Gary has studied at the Burklee School in Boston and at The School of Jazz in Lenox. Mass. His appearance is audible proof of the sincerity of Gerry's hope to use his orchestra to discover and develop new writers and players.

"Weep was the first thug Gary brought to us' Gerry said. "We tried it and we liked it. Chuggin' is a tune Gary wrote for a review. When he played it for us it sounded perfect for the band. It has a real Duke feeling "

One of the prime factors involved in the knitting together of The Concert Jazz Band is the long-time collaboration and friendship between Gerry and Bob Brookmeyer. They have played together in Gerry's groups for years, and have developed an almost instinctive awareness of each other's musical thought. In fact, some of the simultaneous free improvisation played by Gerry and Bob are among the most remarkable and rewarding moments in jazz.

The small-group collaboration has extended into the Concert Jazz Band, where Brookmeyer's gully, lyrical trombone is an important solo voice in the orchestra. In addition, Bob's writing and arranging is invaluable in setting the style and sound of the band as conceived by Gerry. Two of Gerry's compositions in this album were arranged by Brookmeyer. and demonstrate the close musical kinship of the two musicians.

"I Know, Don't Know How was written for the sextet," Gerry said. "And, as I recall, it was partly improvised. Bob orchestrated the last chorus of the sextet's version and included it in this arrangement for the band.

"Sumer's Over is a song I wrote that has a lovely lyric by Judy Holliday. It's slightly sad and wistful. You know, the feeling you have, when Summer and the good times are gone, and Winter is coming on."

The program presented in this album represents a most logical step in the band's recorded history.

We wanted this to be more a writer's album than what we had done before." Gerry noted "The first album was cut in the studio with staples out of our book. It wasn't particularly concert material The second album was of the band in person, with the feeling you get at a live date. Here we have concert material, some of it pretty extended, and we have a band playing it that is a band rather than a good gathering of musicians.

"I think," Gerry mused. "that this band feels so much like a band now that we can play pieces like these for ourselves and feel how they would build for an audience"

The band's performance breathes life into the statement of purpose Gerry made recently to writer Burt Korall in a magazine interview. "The band is the product of seven years of thinking and trying," he said "Typical instrumentation - seven brass, five reads. four rhythm - didn't work out; the sound was too heavy and full. The flexibility I had been so happy with in the small band was missing. We finally came up with our current set up six brass, five reeds, drums, and bass which allows for variety of tone color, and the flexibility and clarity of a small band.

"We actually consider the brass as five brass - three trumpets and two trombones and a bass trombone. Five is a lighter feeling section for ensemble sound. And the reeds actually break down to an ensemble of a clarinet, alto sax, tenor, and baritone."

More than anything, this album proves that the band has achieved that lightness and flexibility so valued by Garry, and that it has arrived at the point where it can tackle intricate and extended works without sacrificing the sensitive qualities which have been the hallmark of Mulligan 's style over the years.

DOM CERULLI New York 1961