Jazz Articles about Gerry Mulligan

Gerry Mulligan and the Concert Jazz Band: Gerry Mulligan at the Village Vanguard

by Joel Roberts
November 1, 2002

Anyone who's ever complained that so-called “cool jazz" artists don't know how to swing should check out this one from Gerry Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band. The 13-piece group was sure swinging hard one Sunday afternoon at the Village Vanguard in December 1960.

What sets this ensemble apart isn't so much the compositions (though they're a fine mix of standards and originals) or even the star quality of the soloists (though Mulligan, Clark Terry, Bob Brookmeyer and others provide some memorable ...

Gerry Mulligan Quartets: In Concert

by Derek Taylor
July 1, 2001

Gerry Mulligan’s pianoless quartet with Chet Baker is commonly cited as an early artistic apogee in the careers of both its frontline participants. Less widely lauded, Mulligan’s other quartet with valve trombonist/pianist Bob Brookmeyer, which followed on the heels of the Baker association, was every bit as creatively prosperous and this pair of concerts reissued by Pablo paints their sonic portrait in bold colors.

Both engagements were Norman Granz productions as part of his widely popular Jazz At the Philharmonic ...

The Gerry Mulligan Quartet: Zurich 1962

by Jack Bowers
May 1, 2001

Another entry in TCB’s Swiss Radio Days series of concert performances by well–known Jazz artists, many of them from the U.S., taped for broadcast on Swiss Radio. For this date at Zurich’s Kongresshaus in October ’62, baritone maestro Gerry Mulligan’s quartet included young valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer (now a 71–year–old elder statesman), bassist (and more recently best–selling author) Bill Crow and drummer Gus Johnson who passed away in February 2000. Although Mulligan’s quartets were for the most part pianoless, Brookmeyer ...

Gerry Mulligan: The Art Of Gerry Mulligan: The Final Recordings

by AAJ Staff
December 1, 2000

Five years after his last album was recorded, Gerry Mulligan’s sound once again is being released by Telarc Jazz on a compilation of re-releases from his last albums. The Art Of Gerry Mulligan: The Final Recordings not only shows that Mulligan’s unparalleled talent for accessible improvisation remained intact, even as his health declined, but also suggests that his wide range of creative interests remained unpredictable.Musically curious throughout his lifetime, Mulligan didn’t find comfort in a niche from which ...

Gerry Mulligan: Gerry Mulligan and the Concert Jazz Big Band feat. Zoot Sims

by Glenn Astarita
April 1, 2000

The latest release from the excellent Swiss based “TCB” label and their “Swiss Radio Days” Series is Gerry Mulligan and the Concert Jazz Big Band – featuring Zoot Sims, recorded live in Zurich, Switzerland 1960. Aided by a surprisingly wonderful recording thanks to the then, state of the art audio equipment utilized for many of these performances, Mulligan’s – piano-less – and somewhat legendary Big Band would normally present a major challenge for an arranger. Ordinarily, the lack of a ...

Gerry Mulligan: Mullenium

by Jack Bowers
October 1, 1998

Here’s baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan as big–band conductor/composer/arranger/player with his own ensemble and others led by Elliot Lawrence and Gene Krupa. These radiant sessions, recorded between 1946–57, show that Gerry was comfortably at home in any setting from pianoless quartet to full–fledged orchestra (big bands, in fact, were his early proving ground) and serve as a touching reminder of how much was lost when he left us in January 1996 at age 69. When Gerry arranged “How High the Moon” ...

Various Artists: Monterey Jazz Festival: Forty Legendary Years

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 1, 1997

In my wilder, more unforgiving days, I might have merely typed up the personnel and set list and submitted only that in review of Monterey Jazz Festival: Forty Legendary Years, and argued to the powers-that-be that if the reader couldn’t comprehend its abundant magnificence of music from the unadorned facts, my descriptive and persuasive prowess would be of slight use.

I must have grown either more wise or more foolish since then.

Make no mistake: Monterey Jazz Festival: Forty Legendary ...