roof

Under One Roof

  1. Ain't It The Truth - Mainstream
  2. Westwood Walknotes - Sextet 1955-56
Gerry Mulligan, Dave Bailey, Bob Brookmeyer, Jon Eardley, Peck Morrison, Zoot Sims

January 25, 1956

 LINER NOTES

Welcome beneath this roof of mine! Welcome, this vacant chair is thine!, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said. The welcome mat in the present occasion comes to you through the courtesy of EmArcy Records, and the roof under which it leads you is not soundproof but musically foolproof, designed in a symmetrical and attractive pattern by six outstanding artists.

In a sense "Under One Roof" is a battle of vocal versus instrumental modern music, except for the rather important fact that it proves that star vocalists and top instrumentalists can be presented in this fashion without any suggestion of contention. On the contrary, the good taste and discernment that guides a record-buying fan to the latest release of a Sarah Vaughan, a Dinah Washington or a Patti Page will almost inevitably go hand in hand with an appreciation for the contributions of men like Mulligan, Rugolo and Auld.

Westwood Walk and Ain't it The Truth are both from the fertile mind, the pen, and the baritone saxophone of Gerry Mulligan, whose sextet has left a long trail of broken records (box office not phonographic) from here to France and Italy during the past year. With Jon Eardley on trumpet, Bobby Brookmeyer on trombone, Zoot Sims on tenor saophone, Dave Bailey on drums and Peck Morrison on bass. Gerry here invokes the chugging, swinging ensemble sounds and the loose-jointed solo feeling that inhabits everything with the Mulligan touch. Westwood Walk is Gerry's own tune while Ain't It The Truth is his rewrite of an old Basie opus.

Whether your taste runs to the vocal or the instrumental in contemporary sounds and, as we pointed out earlier, the chances are that it runs both ways you'll certainly find yourself warmly and comfortably protected, not to mention thoroughly well entertained, as you join this galaxy pf top-notch artists in their happy sojourn under one roof. What does the term "Four Brothers" mean to you? If you are under twenty-one, its significance may be a little vague, though you must be aware that the phrase has some magic connotation as a part of jazz history. If you are in your late twenties or over, you can hardly be unaware of the particular style of saxophone voicing that earned this nickname in the Woody Herman band of the late 1940s.