1. Sweet Georgia Brown
2. My Funny Valentine
3. Utter Chaos

July 6, 1957

 LINER NOTES

My choosing Mulligan for a contrast was by no means accidental. He and his booming baritone provide a remarkable study - not only in opposites, but in historical linkage.

The format of this album - recorded live at the 1957 edition of The Newport Jazz Festival - was very carefully chosen. First there is the Teddy Wilson Trio; later, the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Bridging the two: Mulligan with the Wilson Trio. Now that says a mouthfull: Teddy Wilson and his rhythm section of Milt Hinton, bass; and Specs Powell, drums; swing politely, with every hair in place; Mulligan and Bob Brookmeyer, on valve trombone, get a loose-fitting groove going over a piano-less rhythm section of Joe Benjamin, bass; Dave Bailey, drums. The two polar extremes merge when Wilson's trio provides the rhythmic backing for Mulligan. The idea is valid, and justifies the very existence of a jazz festival; the ideas run a predictable gamut from the swing era to the cooler climes of bop.

Teddy Wilson, drawing inspiration from "Fatha" Hines, Fats Waller and Art Tatum, espouses a brand of two-handed piano that boasts some of the cleanest runs this side of Oscar Peterson. What is lacking in harmonic daring, in classics such as Stompin' At The Savoy, Airmail Special, Basin Street Blues and I Got Rhythm is compensated for by group cohesiveness and flawless technique.

The tune that represents the transition Sweet Georgia Brown - finds a restrained Mulligan and a hard-comping Wilson coming together in a masterpiece of compromise. Gerry reveals his jazz roots; Teddy shows he can look ahead.

As for the two tunes that comprise the Mulligan Quartet offering - My Funny Valentine and his theme, Utter Chaos - the two voices weave in and out of the melody, alternating functions as lead and harmony, completely free to explore the chordal patterns of the tunes without the restrictions of a keyboard.

It's a great history lesson taken from a memorable festival. More important, there are great sounds preserved in a memorable recording.

- Harvey Siders
West Coast Editor
Down Beat Magazine

To jazz fans Newport is more than sailing, beautiful homes, a lovely city in a jewel-like setting, society weddings, and coming out parties. It is a shrine. For Newport, Rhode Island, is where the jazz festival originated in 1954, and since has grown into a worldwide event, not only for jazz fans, but for jazz itself.

Neither riots, nor rain, nor rock and roll. nor pop singers, nor society folk, nor lack of sleeping accommodations, nor critical hassles, nor even the split of the original producers, could stay the Newport Jazz Festival from its appointed sounds. It survived all crises, plus a host of imitators, most of which have by now disappeared. And today, a decade after its original launching, George Wein's Newport Festival has become so firmly established that it will probably run forever.

The festival has prospered because the music performed at Newport over the years has become a monument to jazz, its traditions and musicians. There is hardly a major jazz talent, of any school of jazz; who has not performed at Newport at one time or another. More than half of all jazz presented at Newport has been recorded, enabling jazz fans to trace the meaning of Newport and the scope of jazz via these records.

The timelessness of the music played at Newport is evident through these recordings, featuring the Oscar Peterson Trio and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. They were made in 1957 at Freebody Stadium and they are as rewarding today as they were those exciting nights seven years ago when the Peterson combo and the Mulligan group appeared on stage before roaring, enthusiastic audiences.

Oscar Peterson, the greatest jazzman Canada has produced, made his U.S. debut with Norman Granz' Jazz At The Philharmonic troupe in 1949, and ever since then has been a favorite with U.S. fans. He was born in Toronto in 1925, and started his piano studies at an early age. He absorbed such great pianists as Earl "Fatha" Hines, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, Erroll Garner and Mel Powell, but developed a piano style that is distinctively his own. In a sense he combines the best of everything that has happened in jazz piano. The other members of the trio that night were Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass. Ellis joined the trio in 1953, following in the footsteps of Irving Ashby and Barney Kessell. Before joining Oscar Ellis was a member of the Soft Winds Trio. He was born in Texas in 1921 and hit the big band scene with Glen Gray's Casa Loma band in 1941. Perennial poll winner Brown has been with Oscar since the pianist's Carnegie Hall debut in 1949. He was born in Pittsburgh in 1926 and came to New York to play in one of Dizzy Gillespie's early bop bands. His sound and conception have influenced a generation of bass players.

The brilliant set played here by the Peterson combo July 7, 1957 opens with a rapid, romping version of Will You Still Be Mine, followed by the lovely and moody Joy Spring, dedicated to the late trumpeter Clifford Brown. A Gal In Calico, the Glenn Miller hit of the 1940's is played winningly by the trio, and they end the set with a break neck version of 52nd Street Theme.

Gerry Mulligan is one of the few jazzmen who has been able to bridge the wide cleft between traditional and modern jazz. His roots are deep, reaching back into the mainstream of jazz, yet his outlook is modern and his baritone sax work has often been called avant garde. Back in 1948 he teamed with Miles Davis and Gil Evans to create a memorable series of jazz scores which Davis cut for Capitol and which are generally credited with establishing the cool school of jazz. In 1962 he started experimenting with a pianoless quartet which made a strong impact in the 1950's. The quartet on these recordings features trombonist Bobby Brookmeyer, Joe Benjamin on bass and Dave Bailey on drums. Brookmeyer, with his tasteful valve trombone work, was a perfect collaborator for Mulligan, and he has been the catalyst on numerous occasions when superior jazz has been played by the combo.

Sweet Georgia Brown features a traditional Mulligan jamming in Dixie-style with the Teddy Wilson Trio, the combo that preceded his quartet on the Freebody Park stage. When the Wilson group filed off, Brookmeyer, Benjamin and Bailey joined Mulligan, as spelled out here by compere Willis Conover, for a touching and pensive performance of the standard My Funny Valentine. They end the set with a stylish reading of Utter Chaos, in a manner that belies the title. This beautifully organized, pianoless quartet, with its intricately arranged figures and equally intricate improvisations, shows how traditional jazz and modern jazz can meet and fuse into a unified whole. Mulligan has forged ahead in many areas since this recording was made at Newport, and his big band of 1962 made a profound impression on the jazz scene; but his work with Brookmeyer, Benjamin and Bailey will always remain one of the shining periods of his full career.

Bob Rolontz