• The Jazz School •

A nice bop compilation featuring three different sessions as below:

Art Mardigan Sextet featuring John Williams on piano: a refreshing bop session with unique sound colour; Paul Gonsalves Sextet featuring Clark Terry: a bit corny, but also a nice mainstream session; and two tracks by Joe Gordon Quintet: Gordon's brilliant trumpet blows so great, and Art Blakey's propulsive rhythm gives the entire mood of this great hard-bop session.

Strictly personal rating (to what extent I could enjoy this album); 8 out of 10.

*Matsubayashi "Shaolin" Kohji [microgroove.jp]*

There are sixteen students in this class of the Jazz School; sixteen young men whose grades are impeccable, whose studies have clearly qualified them for a successful and distinguished career. 

At the head of the class for the first four exercises is a member of the drums Corps, a familiar figure by the name of Arthur Mardigan.

Art is a native Detroiter, born in December, 1923 and a name band musician since the age of nineteen, when he joined Tommy Reynolds. After Army service in 1943-44 he spent a year with Georgie Auld's group, then went home to Detroit for a while before entering the New York scene, where he was a part of many noteworthy 52nd Street combos under the leadership of Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Allen Eager and Kai Winding. In addition, Art worked off and on with Woody Herman and Elliot Lawrence. In 1954, when Pete Rugolo came east to form a band for a tour, Art was a cornerstone of that all-star ensemble.

Featured with Art on his four performances here are Don Joseph, a cornetist who's been a familiar figure around New York jazz circles for several years; Milt Gold, a trombonist who has seen service with such name bands as Stan Kenton's and Claude Thornhill's; and Al Cohn, the tenor saxophonist and arranger who has been rising rapidly to jazz eminence in the past year. Heard with Mardigan in the rhythm section are John Williams, the 25-year-old pianist from Windsor, Vermont, best known for his work with Stan Getz; and Teddy Kotick, a 27-year-old bass man who has been prominent on the New York scene with Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, Buddy De Franco and a flock of other combos. 

Class dismissed.

A new group moves in: at the head of this class is Paul Gonsalves, tenor saxophonist from Brockton, Massachusetts. Raised in Pawtucket, R.I., Paul started his musical life as a guitarist at the age of sixteen, in 1936; later, switching to tenor saxophone, he became popular as a featured member of the Sabby Lewis orchestra, a well known Boston group, with which he made his record debut.

A three-year hitch in the Army, from 1942 to '45, was followed by a stint in the Count Basie orchestra, and a brief fling in Dizzy Gillespie's final big band. Then, early in 1951, Paul joined the great Duke Ellington orchestra, of which, except for a few weeks in Tommy Dorsey's band in 1953, he has been a member ever since. 

Paul's colleagues on this, his first record session under his own leadership, include Clark Terry, another great Ellingtonian of several years standing and sitting; Porter Kilbert, baritone saxophonist, who worked briefly on alto with Ellington in 1951; Junior Mance, a gifted 27-year-old pianist from Chicago, best known for the fine work he has done as Dinah Washington's accompanist; Eugene Miller on drums; and the inimitable, poll-winning bassist of erstwhile Woody Herman fame, Greig Stewart "Chubby" Jackson. 

... dismissed...

Time now for graduation exercises. The class is headed by Joseph Henry Gordon, another brilliant New Englander on the modern jazz scene. Born in 1928 in Boston, Joe worked as a sandwich boy on the Boston-Albany railroad as recently as 1947, but later in that same year made his professional bow with his own combo at Boston's Savoy Ballroom, where the above-named Sabby Lewis was a frequent favorite. Joe also worked as a sideman with Sabby, as well as with a variety of other groups, from Georgie Auld to Charlie Mariano, from Charlie Parker to Lionel Hampton.

Heard with Joe on these sides are Charlie Rouse, a tenor man from Washington, D.C., who was with Duke Ellington in 1949-'50; Junior Mance, reappearing on piano; Jimmy Schenck on bass; and the pride of Pittsburgh, winner of the 1953 New Star award in the critics’ poll, Art Blakey on drums.

So these are the men you will meet in the Jazz School. It seems superfluous to point out that every last man of these sixteen students has graduated, as he deserves to, summa cum laude. 

*(from the liner notes)*

Side 1

1 - I've Found A New Baby

(Plamer, Williams)

2 - Moroccan Blues

(Al Cohn)

3 - Old Gold

(Milt Green)

4 - Golden Touch

(Quincy Jones)

5 - Evening Lights

(Joe Gordon)

Side 2

6 - It Don't Mean A Thing

(Mills, Ellington)

7 - Take Nine

(Paul Gonsalves)

8 - Everything Happens To Me

(Adair, Dennis)

9 - Don't Blame Me

(Fields, McHugh)

10 - Body And Soul

(Heyman, Sour, Green, Eyton)

#1 to #4: Art Mardigan Sextet

Don Joseph (cornet), Milt Gold (trombone), Al Cohn (tenor sax), John Williams (piano), Teddy Kotick (bass), Art Mardigan (drums).

Recorded in New York City, May 20, 1954.

#6 to #9: Paul Gonsalves Sextet

Clark Terry (trumpet), Porter Kilbert (alto sax), Paul Gonsalves (tenor sax), Junior Mance (piano), Chubby Jackson (bass), Eugene Miller (drums).

Recorded (probably) in Chicago, Illinois, February 6, 1954.

#5 and #10: Joe Gordon Quintet

Joe Gordon (trumpet), Charlie Rouse (tenor sax), Junior Mance (piano), Jimmy Schenck (bass), Art Blakey (drums).

Recorded at Fine Sound Studio, New York City, September 3 (#10) and 8 (#5), 1954.

 

Gerry Mulligan - The Arranger / Mullenium

Everybody knows that Gerry Mulligan is a saxophonist —most often to be heard on the baritone sax— but he’s also a pianist, a composer, an arranger and a bandleader. This album focuses on two important stages in the course of his career as an arranger. The first aspect is exemplified by four items which are representative of his manner in the late 40's, when he was only twenty years and worked for Gene Krupa and Elliot Lawrence. The following four pieces, so far unissued except for "Thruway", were recorded in the late 50's. by a big band an together by Gerry in New York.

During the ten years between those two series, Gerry wrote and arranged for several bands, including the Miles Davis Nonet, Charlie Parker's strings and Claude Thornhill's orchestra. He also went to California where, in 1952, he gained worldwide recognition with his revolutionary piano-less Quartet. Later, in 1955, he put up his Sextet.

Big bands are scarce nowadays and a lot of people the whole world over certainly wish there were more of them on the jazz scene. Not only those who are old enough to have enjoyed on the hoof, so to speak, the music of the 40's and the 50's, but also the younger set, the people in their twenties and thirties who are now discovering it. Both age-groups should be happy with this album, which aptly illustrates one of the most authentic and specific aspects of a purely American musical world: the Big Band, with its seven brass, its five reeds and its rhythm section. One may well wonder how such a rigid formula can allow any latitude to original creativity. Because Gerry Mulligan is not only a brilliant soloist but also a superbly gifted composer and arranger, he has long known the answer to that question. This album makes it obvious. *Henri Renaud (from The Arranger's liner notes)*

Gerry Mulligan

Mullenium

In 1977, a long-lost Gerry Mulligan big-band session from 1957 was released for the first time. The four selections featured the baritonist's arrangements for a 15-piece group that included such notables as altoist Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims, and Charlie Rouse on tenors, and valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer. To fill out the LP, two of Mulligan's vintage arrangements for the Gene Krupa Orchestra ("How High the Moon" and the hit "Disc Jockey Jump") from 1946-1947, and a pair of charts for Elliot Lawrence's big band ("Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" and "Elevation") were reissued. On those titles, Mulligan only plays one solo; he is not even on the Krupa recordings, since he was much better-known as an arranger than as a player at the time. In 1998, all of the music from the album (which was titled The Arranger) was reissued on this CD, along with two alternates from the 1957 set and a newly discovered alternate take of "Disc Jockey Jump." The music overall (even the early titles) definitely has the good humor and swinging flavor of usually found in Mulligan's music, and even if it is not quite as essential as his most significant work, this CD is easily recommended to the baritonist's fans. *Scott Yanow*

Here is a well-drawn portrait of a multitalented artist —first as a young man, then as a figure of international stature. We encounter Gerry Mulligan —arranger/composer/pianist/clarinetist/prime mover of the "West Coast Jazz" of the early 1950's (and, of course, the definitive modern baritone saxophonist) as an ambitious 19-year old whose arrangements caught the ear of Swing drumming demigod Gene Krupa.

Krupa's exciting swing-to-bop band is heard playing a pair of Mulligan's charts, "How High The Moon" (whose chords were the basis of Charlie Parker's bebop 

anthem, "Ornithology", and to whose line Mulligan’s pulsating arrangement alludes) and two takes of the "Four Brothers"-like "Disc Jockey Jump", a tune credited to Mulligan (1927-1996) and the leader. If you’ve ever seen Scorcese's wonderfully evocative but commercially-failed movie "New York, New York", these two cuts exemplify the kind of music favored by Robert DeNiro's selfabsorbed, tenor saxophone-playing main character.

Mullligan and bandleader-pianist Elliot Lawrence went back to their hometown days in Philadelphia. Like Krupa, Lawrence was impressed by Mulligan's ideas, but was more in tune with their modernist viewpoint. Significantly, it was during the period the two Lawrence selections ("Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea" and "Elevation") were recorded that Mulligan achieved his greatest successes up to that point. As a member of Miles Davis' nonet of young direction-setters, he wrote and arranged "Jeru", "Rocker", and "Venus De Milo" and arranged two other titles for the group’s watershed album, Birth Of The Cool.

Finally, we move forward to 1957, by which time Mulligan was almost a household name, thanks mostly to his pianoless early '50s quartet, featuring trumpeter Chet Baker. There are six performances by a 15-piece Mulligan-led orchestra, comprising a host of New York's first-call jazz and studio musicians. The corps of superb soloists includes tenor saxophonists Zoot Sims and Charlie Rouse, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, the under-appreciated, lyrical trumpeters Don Joseph and Jerry Lloyd, plus the leader on baritone saxophone and piano.

Mulligan's masterly voicings and contrapuntal writing are evident throughout, with "Motel" issued for the first time in complete form and all of the material, save for "Thruway", released for the first time in stereo.

This newly remixed and remastered edition of Mullenium includes previously unpublished photographs from the sessions, as well as new liner notes by respected arranger (and Mulligan authority). *Bill Kirchner*

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" for drummer Krupa's big band in 1946, he was barely 19 years old. That chart is here with two takes of "Disc Jockey Jump", written and arranged by Mulligan for the Krupa orchestra; his own "Elevation" and the standard "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea", performed by Lawrence's ensemble; and six selections by Mulligan's orchestra from 1957 (not released until 1977) including three of Gerry's compositions, "Mullenium" and two takes each of "Thruway" and "Motel", alongside Jerome Kern's memorable standard, "All the Things You Are". The disc moves backward in time with the Mulligan ensemble first, followed by Lawrence (from 1949) and Krupa. Mulligan's orchestra, also for the most part pianoless (except for Gerry's occasional comping), was a platform for future superstars with names like Sims, Brookmeyer, Konitz, Rouse, McKusick and Rehak, all of whom are given solo space, with the irrepressible Zoot, at the top of his hard–swinging game, an exceptionally dynamic presence throughout (his shouting solo on track 6 is pure gold) while Konitz dances gracefully around Gerry's gruff baritone on "All the Things You Are" and Brookmeyer weighs in with several enterprising choruses. Drummer Bailey and bassist Benjamin aren't flashy but they get the job done. Sound quality on the Lawrence and Krupa tracks — none of which runs longer than 3:19 — is vastly inferior, with many a snap, crackle and pop, but there's more than enough wonderful music to counterbalance that shortcoming. I can still remember the impression "Disc Jockey Jump" made on me when I first heard it as a pre-teen (how's that for dating oneself?) and it's every bit as good as I remembered it to be. Mulligan was beyond question one of the finest big-band composer/arrangers of the modern era (bop and beyond), and this album definitely belongs in everyone's big-band library. *Jack Bowers*

1 - Thruway (take 6)

(Gerry Mulligan)

2 - Motel (take 5 )

(Gerry Mulligan)

3 - All The Things You Are

(O. Hammerstein II, J. Kern)

4 - Mullenium

(Gerry Mulligan)

5 - Thruway (take 7)

(Gerry Mulligan)

6 - Motel (take 4)

(Gerry Mulligan)

7 - Elevation

(Gerry Mulligan, Elliot Lawrence)

8 - Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

(H. Arlen, T. Koehler)

9 - Disc Jockey Jump

(Gerry Mulligan)

10 - How High The Moon

(M. Lewis, N. Hamilton)

11 - Disc Jockey Jump (alternate take 1)

(Gerry Mulligan)

#1 to #6:  Gerry Mulligan and His Orchestra

Gerry Mulligan (piano, baritone sax); Hal McKusic, Lee Konitz (alto saxophones); Zoot Sims, Charlie Rouse (tenor saxophones); Gene Allen (baritone sax); Phil Sumkel, Jerry Lloyd, Don Joseph, Don Ferrara (trumpets); Bob Brookmeyer (valve trombone); Frank rehak, Jim Dahl (trombones); Joe Benjamin (bass); Dave Bailey (drums).

Recorded at Colombia 30th Street Studio, New York, April 19 (#1, #4, #5) and April 20 (#2, #3, #6), 1957.

[Note: Mullenium's version here has an intro by Gerry on piano that is not featured on the LP "The Arranger"]

#7: Elliot Lawrence and His Orchestra

John Dee, Joe Techner, Jimmy Padget, Bill Danzizen (trumpets); Vince Forrest, Sy Berger, Chuck Harris (trombones); Joe Soldo, Louis Giamo (alto saxophones); Phil Urso, Bruno Rondinelli (tenor saxophones); Merle Bredwell (baritone sax); Bob Karsh (piano); Tom O'Neil (bass); Howie Mann (drums).

Recorded in New York, April 13, 1949.

#8: Elliot Lawrence and His Orchestra

John Dee, Joe Techner, Jimmy Padget, Bill Danzizen (trumpets); Frank Hunter, Gene Hessler, Sy Berger (trombones); Gerry Mulligan (alto and baritone sax); Joe Soldo (alto sax); Phil Urso, Bruno Rondinelli (tenor saxophones); Merle Bredwell (baritone sax); Elliot Lawrence (piano); Tom O'Neil (bass); Howie Mann (drums).

Recorded in New York, October 10, 1949.

#9 and #11: Gene Krupa and His Orchestra

Ray Triscari, Al Porcino, Ed Badgley, Don Fagerquist (trumpets); Clay Hervey, Dick Taylor, Emil Mazanec, Jack Zimmerman (trombones); Harry Terrill, Charlie Kennedy (alto saxophones); Buddy Wise, Mitch Melnick (tenor saxophones); Jack Schwartz (baritone sax), Buddy Neal (piano); Bob Lesher (guitar); Bob Strahl (bass); Gene Krupa (drums).

Recorded in New York, January 22, 1947.

#10: Gene Krupa and His Orchestra

Ray Triscari, Joe Triscari, Tony Anelli, Red Rodney (trumpets); Warren Covington, Carl Ziggy Elmer, Dick Taylor, Ben Seaman (trombones); Harry Terrill, Charlie Kennedy (alto saxophones); Charlie Ventura, Buddy Wise (tenor saxophones); Jack Schwartz (baritone sax), Teddy Napoleon (piano); Mike Triscari (guitar); Bob Munoz (bass); Gene Krupa (drums).

Recorded in New York, May 27, 1946.