Themes
Songs
Chronology
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Collection Themes Songs Chronology | |
Dream A Little Dream | |
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| Dean Johnson, Gerry Mulligan, Ted Rosenthal, Ron Vincent April 14-15 & 28-29, 1994 | |
LINER NOTES |
| Nobody Else But Me I fell in love with this tune the first time I heard it. Jerome Kern, who wrote the song with Oscar Hammerstein II, had a knack for injecting harmonic interest in a tune, and yet making it sound simple. A great example of this is"All the Things You Are," which wanders all over the place but still is a melody that every one can remember. In this tune there is a modulation in the harmonic progression in the fifth and sixth bars that's unusual and very satisfying. Home (When Shadows Fall) Our rendition of this tune is perhaps a little more down home than the original intention of the author. I remember hearing the tune on the radio as a child, and, as a matter of fact, it was written by Peter Van Steeden who was the band leader on the Fred Allen Radio Show. Dream a Little Dream Mama Cass made this song her own when she recorded it some years ago, and understandably so. It's a tune that's fun to play and has more harmonic and melodic interest than one might first suspect. There's a little harmonic twist right in the fourth bar that makes it all worthwhile. I'll Be Around Alec Wilder was often a neighbor of mine at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. We became great friends, and he wrote two pieces for chamber groups, featuring baritone saxophone. I'll Be Around is probably his best known song, for which he wrote both words and music. Ted and I play it here as a duet, just baritone and piano. They Say It's Wonderful Irving Berlin had a long career in songwriting, and his songs reflect the period in which they were written. For instance, this song is from a later period of his writing from a show called Call Me Madam, which I remember very well. I always thought it was every hip-sounding tune from Berlin, and I think that it represents the fact that he kept listening to what was going on around him. The Real Thing This is a tune of mine for which Mel Torme wrote a lyric. We play it here for the first time as an instrumental. Noblesse Ray Noble was a song writer and a band leader for whom I had great admiration. He came here in the thirties from England, and subsequently his band was home to many famous musicians of the time, including Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Claude Thornhill, and many more. He wrote a number of memorable tunes of which the best known to jazz audiences is "Cherokee." Noblesse is my tribute to Ray Noble. Here's That Rainy Day This is another complex song that doesn't sound complex. As you may gather, I love songs that have some interesting twists in the harmonic progression but manage to sound accessible all the same, and this is another example with modulations right in the first couple of bars. Even though it goes through a number of keys, it's still very memorable. Georgia On My Mind This is a wonderful song by Hoagy Carmichael that I first played on a record date with Jay McShann, and I think of Jay every time I play it. My Funny Valentine Our original version of this featured Chet Baker on trumpet and was one of the first recordings of the pianoless quartet. It's a wonderful Rodgers and Hart song that I enjoy doing here as a duet with Bill Mays on piano. As Close as Pages in a Book Bill Mays has played with the Quartet many times over the years, and so when he came to visit us at the studio when we were recording this album. I immediately sat him down and recorded a pair of duets with him, the above mentioned My Funny Valentine and As Close as Pages in a Book. This piece by Sigmund Roniberg is interesting and unusual to me because I always think of Sigmund Romberg as a writer of operettas, and he is certainly much better known for pieces in the "Stout-Hearted Men" genre. So this very Americansounding song is unexpected. My Shining Hour This is a very pretty tune by two of our finest song writers, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. I always regret not getting to write with Johnny. We talked of it many times but the opportunity never arose. Walking Shoes This is another tune that was recorded by the original pianoless quartet. I also wrote an arrangement of it for the Stan Kenton Band, among others. The title derived from the fact that I had recently hitchhiked to California. Song For Strayhorn I had great admiration for Billy Strayhorn and his music. He wrote beautiful melodies and could then turn around and write a swinging band chart such as "Take the A Train." I'll remember always Billy playing and singing "Lush Life" at home in the living room in the late fifties. Song For Strayhorn is my tribute to him. -Gerry Mulligan |
| Collection Themes Songs Chronology | |
