Elliot Lawrence • Gene Krupa - More Mulligan Arrangements

 

Elliot Lawrence

Plays Gerry Mulligan Arrangements

Marc Myers: Whose idea was it for you to record a full album of Gerry Mulligan’s arrangements in 1955?

Elliot Lawrence: Sol Zaentz of Fantasy called us because we didn't have a recording contract with a label. He asked if I wanted to record for Fantasy. Those were the arrangements I had bought from Gerry. At the time, he needed money so he offered to write a few new ones for me. I said yes and I bought them from him. The album helped him raise some cash.

*from an interview for JazzWax, February 2016*

Elliot Lawrence, who led a swing-oriented big band after the swing era had already passed its prime, primarily worked in the studios in the 1950s. This reissue from the Original Jazz Classics series (which has not yet surfaced on CD) was one of Lawrence's few jazz dates of the decade. Utilizing a dozen Gerry Mulligan charts (seven of the songs were also composed by Mulligan) and an all-star crew of young modernists (including trumpeter Nick Travis, trombonist Eddie Bert, altoist Hal McKusick, and Al Cohn on tenor), the results are quite pleasing. Although Mulligan himself does not play, his presence is very much felt on songs such as "The Rocker", "Bweebida Bwobbida", "Strike Up the Band", and "Apple Core". Other highlights include tributes to Zoot Sims ("The Swinging Door") and Lester Young ("Mr. President"). *Scott Yanow*

Elliot Lawrence loves jazz. When he was an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania (he won the Thornton Oakley Award, given each year to the undergraduate who has contributed most to the arts, and won only once before in the field of music), he had himself a swinging band, which used to gig around the Eastern seaboard, blowing up quite a jumping storm. After he'd been graduated, he went to radio station WCAU, where he continued his swinging ways, despite the fact that studio bands are supposed to be strictly commercial. It paid off, though, because soon people started noticing his band much more than they did other studio groups, and finally offers became so frequent and attractive that Elliot and men left WCAU, bowed in at the Hotel Statler in New York, and automatically became a name band!

In that early Philadelphia outfit there was a young saxophonist, a redheaded, wide-eyed, enthusiastic youngster named Gerry Mulligan. Even then he was an arranger, and, encouraged by Elliot, who has done a great deal of writing, himself, Gerry began turning out a batch of manuscripts for the band. And when the gang left the studios, Gerry went with it, and he continued to write for it for several years thereafter, even after he’d quit playing baritone so that he could concentrate exclusively on arranging.

These then are the twelve tunes that comprise an LP of truly superior blowing of truly superior arrangements. The playing is by a bunch of modern, musicianly musicians, led by one of the most talented and enthusiastic leaders of big band modern jazz and penned by a composer-arranger whose contributions to the same medium have been tremendous. It's the first collection of several by Elliot Lawrence which Fantasy plans to issue in the months to come, and it's also the first that shows what a surprisingly blowing and exciting band Elliot Lawrence has been keeping under wraps for much too long. *George T. Simon (liner notes)*

1 - The Rocker

(Gerry Mulligan)

2 - Bye Bye Blackbird

(Henderson, Dixon)

3 - Happy Hooligan

(Gerry Mulligan)

4 - Mullennium

(Gerry Mulligan)

5 - My Silent Love

(Suesse, Heyman)

6 - Bweebida Bwobbida

(Gerry Mulligan)

7 - Strike Up The Band

(G. and I. Gershwin)

8 - Apple Core

(Gerry Mulligan)

9 - Elegy For Two Clarinets

(Gerry Mulligan)

10 - The Swinging Door

(Sims, Mulligan)

11 - But Not For Me

(G. and I. Gershwin)

12 - Mr. President

(Mulligan, Lawrence)

Elliot Lawrence (piano); Bernie Glow, Al De Risi, Dick Sherman, Nick Travis, Stan Fishelson (trumpets); Al Robertson, Eddie Bert, Paul Seldon, Ollie Wilson (trombones); Freddie Schmitt, Tony Miranda (French horns); Al Cohn, Charlie O'Kane , Eddie Wasserman , Hal McKusick, Sam Marowitz (saxes); Buddy Jones [#2, #4, #5, #6, #7, #10, #11], Russ Saunders [#1, #3, #8, #9] (basses); Don Lamond (drums).

Recorded at Fine Sounds, New York City, July 1955.

***

Gene Krupa

Plays Gerry Mulligan Arrangements

Gerry Mulligan joined the Gene Krupa band in February, 1946, and remained about a year. He arranged for the band all that time, played alto for a couple of months and tenor for about two more. The arrangements he did during that year —when he was 19— are both interesting in themselves and illuminating in the context of the way his writing has developed since. He did about 24 altogether.

At the age of 17, Mulligan had already started arranging professionally — for Johnny Warrington's band at the Philadelphia radio station, WCAU; for Tommy Tucker on Gerry's first road trip; and then for Elliot Lawrence, who had taken over the WCAU orchestra.

"The Krupa band, however", Mulligan recalls, "was the most professional band I'd ever written for. They were so professional they sometimes scared the hell out of  me. They had no trouble playing anything I wrote. Having that skilled a unit to write for was a new and a challenging experience". 

Before he heard these versions of the arrangements he'd done for Krupa, Mulligan had feared that twelve years would make them sound much too dated for comfort, but he was hearteningly surprised to hear that they still stand up. "There were a lot of things", he said, "I thought I hadn't tried until I started writing for Claude Thornhill, but now I hear that I'd already been doing them with Gene's band". 

Mulligan feels he learned a great deal from his year with Krupa, not only about writing and playing, but about people. The band traveled throughout the country, and the experience broadened Gerry considerably. He was also fond of Gene personally, and appreciated the fact that Gene let him write as much as he did — and used most of it. Krupa, in turn, liked Mulligan because he always stood up for what he believed, and knew what he wanted to do. 

Adding this album to your Mulligan-Krupa collection should prove to be an instructive pleasure. It gives —in high fidelity— a cross-section of an important year in Mulligan's history; and it also indicates that Krupa had the prescience to keep the 19-year-old with the band, and —up to a point— give him his head. *(Liner notes)*

Gerry Mulligan was only 19 in 1946 when he joined Gene Krupa's band, playing a bit of alto and tenor sax, but primarily serving as an arranger. But the Verve LP Gene Krupa Plays Gerry Mulligan Arrangements wasn't made until 1958, long after Mulligan went out on his own. Although there are solo features built into the framework of each piece, Mulligan was quite confident in his ability to showcase the entire band as well. Mulligan's "Disc Jockey Jump" became a hit for Krupa, though it wasn't recorded until after he left the band. The vague liner notes fail to identify any of the musicians in Krupa's big band, which includes Jimmy Cleveland, Hank Jones, Barry Galbraith, Kai Winding, and Phil Woods, though Woods' alto sax solos are easily identifiable to his fans. Baritone saxophonist Danny Bank is a bit disappointing compared to what Mulligan could have recorded on the instrument, though it would have been unlikely that the composer would have been interested in rejoining Krupa, even for one record date, at the time it was recorded. It's surprising that this excellent LP remained out of print for so long, particularly with the strong resurgence of interest in all aspects of Mulligan's work since his death in 1996. *Ken Dryden*

Gene Krupa and Gerry Mulligan —hardly a pairing that we would have thought of— but one that works surprisingly well here, and which showcases Mulligan's increasing fascination for larger group settings! The album features Gene on drums with a set of players that include Kai Winding, Urbie Green, Phil Woods, Hank Jones, and Barry Galbraith – but the real star of the set is Gerry, who's not playing here, but conducting the larger group of jazz players through charts that are all his own, and which display the same love of fluid ensemble horn parts that he used in his own smaller combo work. There's a lot more brass in the mix than you'd usually get from Gerry —which gives the album a bit more of a Krupa kick— and Gene also gets some nice space to show himself on drums. *dustygroove.com*

1 - Bird House

(Mulligan)

2 - Margie

(Conrad, Robinson, Davis)

3 - Mulligan Stew

(Krupa, Mulligan)

4 - Begin The Beguine

(Porter)

5 - Sugar

(Pinkard, Alexander, Mitchell)

6 - The Way Of All Flesh

(Mulligan)

7 - Disk Jockey Jump

(Krupa, Mulligan)

8 - Birds Of A Feather

(Mulligan)

9 - Sometimes I’m Happy

(Youmans, Caesar, Grey)

10 - How High The Moon

(Lewis, Hamilton)

11 - If You Were The Only Girl

(Ayer, Grey)

12 - Yardbird Suite

(Parker)

#1, #2, #3, #12:

Al DeRisi, Ernie Royal, Doc Severinsen, Al Stewart (trumpets); Eddie Bert, Jimmy Cleveland, Billy Byers, Kai Winding (trombones); Sam Marowitz, Phil Woods (alto saxes); Frank Socolow, Eddie Wasserman (tenor saxes); Danny Bank (baritone sax); Hank Jones (piano); Barry Galbraith (guitar); Jimmy Gannon (bass); Gene Krupa (drums). Gerry Mulligan (arranger & conductor).

Recorded at Fine Studio, New York City, October 20, 1958.

#4 to #11:

Al DeRisi, Marky Markowitz, Ernie Royal, Doc Severinsen, Al Stewart (trumpets); Jimmy Cleveland, Willie Dennis, Urbie Green, Kai Winding (trombones); unknow (tuba); Sam Marowitz, Phil Woods (alto saxes); Frank Socolow, Eddie Wasserman (tenor saxes); Danny Bank (baritone sax); Hank Jones (piano); Barry Galbraith (guitar); Jimmy Gannon (bass); Gene Krupa (drums). Gerry Mulligan (arranger & conductor).

Recorded at Fine Studio, New York City, October 21 and 22, 1958.