POSTSCRIPT
In December 1957, Pacific Jazz's Dick Bock came to New York for several weeks of a marathon recording schedule that included a Bob Brookmeyer album, two Chet Baker sessions and four Gerry Mulligan sessions. Brookmeyer's Street Swingers (see Mosaic Select MS-009) and three of the Mulligan albums were issued in the next year. But the Chet Baker material, save one track issued on a Playboy Jazz anthology and the Mulligan session with the Vinnie Burke string quartet sat in the vaults until the 1990s.
All of these sessions reflected a great deal of creative conceptualization and planning. The Mulligan projects begin with a logical idea, the reunion of Gerry and Chet Baker. The quartet is completed by Dave Bailey who had been Mulligan's drummer in a variety of ensembles since 1955. Bassist Henry Grimes was the newest member of the regular Mulligan quartet at the time. Recorded over three sessions, this reunion yielded twice the amount of material issued on the original album. What's most curious about this project is the material chosen. Early standards like My Heart Belongs to Daddy and Jersey Bounce are the kind of material more likely to spring up in the 1954-56 Mulligan quartet with Bob Brookmeyer. Besides two Mulligan originals, the material is all standards of varying vintage.
The crown jewel of this set is The Gerry Mulligan Songbook. Bill Holman arranged six celebrated Mulligan compositions from various stages of his career for a sublime sax section that consisted of Lee Konitz, Alien Eager, Al Cohn, Zoor Sims and Mulligan, superbly anchored by Freddie Green, Grimes and Dave Bailey. Mulligan wrote and arranged a seventh Crazy Day for the occasion. The writing and solos are excellent throughout. The stereo and mono versions of three tunes differ. The stereo release of Disc Jockey Jump had the solos of Lee Konitz and Al Cohn edited out, but we were able to assemble a full version in stereo. The stereo version of Crazy Day has a different opening ensemble and Mulligan solo than the mono version. The stereo version of Turnstile has a different Mulligan solo and the solos of Eager, Konitz and Cohn, the last chorus of eight-bar exchanges, and the two choruses of four-bar exchanges have been edited out. In both cases, the mono and stereo versions are included here.
The most unusual date here is the one with the Vinnie Burke String Quartet, which consists of guitar, violin, cello and bass, wirh Mulligan and Dave Bailey. Eight of the nine selections were slated to come out as Stringtime, a cover was created and an edited version of The Preacher came out on a Pacific Jazz sampler for disc jockeys, but the album never materialized. The strings with pizzicato violin and cello on the melodies add a light, open texture to the arrangements.
The string quartet (Dick Wetmore on violin, Calo Scott on cello, Paul Palmieri on guitar and Burke on bass) made an album for ABC-Paramount in January of 1957. That session and this one are the only recorded appearances of Paul Palmieri. Boston-based violinist Dick Wetmrte, also an accomplished cornetist and cellist, made his debut as a leader for Bethlehem in 1955. He later worked with Anthony Ortega and Nat Pierce. Calo Scott became a staple in the New York jazz circles, working with Mal Waldron, Ahmed Abdul-Malik, John Handy, Gato Barbieri and Archie Shepp among others. Vinnie Burke was a ubiquitous presence on the New York jazz and studio scenes in the "50s and '60s, but his greatest career moments were in the Tal Farlow trio with Eddie Costa.
Annie Ross Sings a Song of Mulligan was the first and best of three albums that this extraordinary singer made for World Pacific. Her unerring sense of pitch and musicianship made her ideal for jazz settings, especially one such as this with no chordal instrument to provide a tonal center. At the December sessions, she plays with the reunion quartet; enough material was recorded for an album, which was prepared for release. But Mulligan had second thoughts about some of the performances and, in September 1958, took his current quartet with trumpeter Art Farmer, bassist Bill Crow and Bailey into the studio with Ross to re-record This Is Always and I've Grown Accustomed to His Face and cut three more tunes, which replaced some of the 1957 material when the album was finally released.
These four wide-ranging projects recorded in the space of two weeks glimpse the enormous palette from which Gerry Mulligan drew throughout his career.
- MICHAEL CUSCUNA
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New Material (not on Songbook CD or Stereo LP):
