Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster

Chelsea Bridge (mono)

Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster

Cover: Gene Grant

Art Direction: Merle Shore

Verve Records MG V-8343
1960

Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster

Cover Photo: Bill Claxton

Verve STEREO MF VS-68343

Personnel:

Gerry Mulligan - Bariton Saxophone

Ben Webster - Tenor Saxophone

Jimmy Rowles - Piano

Mel Lewis - Drums

Leroy Vinnegar - Bass

From the back cover: "In listening to Gerry Mulligan," Dave Brubeck once said, "you feel as if you're listening to the past, present, and future jazz, all in one tune, and yet it's done with such taste and respect that you're not even award of a change in idiom." Composer George Russell has called Gerry "Mr. Mainstream," and Mulligan himself has always made it clear that his tastes in jazz are far from limited to the modernists. "A musician," has has pointed out in Down Beat, "has to know not only why he's blowing but the history of the language he's using."

For some years Mulligan has expressed deep interest in recording with older players, and this meeting with Ben Webster is one of a series of such encounters planned by Norman Granz that also includes Mulligan sessions with "mainstream" modernist Stan Getz. I remember a pervious occasion in December, 1957 on which Gerry and Ben were in the same group – the CBS-TV hour of "The Sound Of Jazz." Gerry was the only younger player in a reed section that consisted of Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Earl Warren, part of a big band assembled for that program and led by Count Basie. Gerry was selected for that company because by musical temperament and adaptability, he fitted in naturally.

The rhythm section for this date is uncommonly right for the Webster-Mulligan meeting. Rowles, Lewis and Vinneagar all base their playing on a knowledge of "the history of the language" they're using, and all three have secure, relaxed time. Furthermore, all three get solid, rounded sounds from their instruments. Rowles, a particular favorite of Webster, is one of the more unheralded full-bodied swingers in jazz. His playing in ingratiatingly personal, and is marked by remarkably unerring taste in choice of notes and avoidance of superfluity. Vinegar has one of the biggest tones of any jazz bassist and is strongly dependable foundation. Lewis is as in context with a big band as he is with a small combo.

One of Ben Webster's more definitive solos while Duke Ellington as in Billy Strayhorn's Chelsea Bridge. He begins this version in much the same tenderly retrospective mood with Mulligan providing a wave-like background. I doubt if any contemporary tenor saxophonist of any jazz "style" can match the largeness of Ben's tone and feeling on ballads. Mulligan's baritone solo sustains the original mood as Gerry makes that unusually rough-voiced horn sing with a mellowness of tone and a flowing phrasing that are impressively moving. His conception as a whole is as clear and fully formed as that of the better of the older "mainstreamers," Ben ends the Bridge with another beautifully constructed and swelling sensitive set of variations of past passion passionately remembered. – Nat Hentoff

From Billboard - March 14, 1960 (VERVE MGVS 6104 STEREO): The great baritone sax artist and the great tenor sax man team forces for a six-track set that get better with each new band, ending with a fine outing on "Sunday," the oldie. Set is especially effective in stereo. Both the artists blow up a storm, and buffs should flock to the set. Accompanying are Jimmy Rowles, piano; Mel Lewis, drums and Leroy Vinnegar on bass.

Chelsea Bridge

The Cat Walk

Sunday

Who's Got Rhythm

Tell Me When

Go Home