Gerry Mulligan & Thelonious Monk - Mulligan Meets Monk (1957)

Artist: Gerry Mulligan & Thelonious Monk
Album: Mulligan Meets Monk
Recording Date: Dec 14, 1961-Aug 6, 1964
Label: Impulse!
Genre: Jazz Style: West Coast Jazz, Cool, Post-Bop, Bop
Format: mp3, bitrate: mp3, 320 Kbps
Time: 59:01
Size: 75 + 61 Мб

В конце 50-х - начале 60-х годов Gerry Mulligan провел несколько "meetings" (по современному, забивал стрелки) с известными музыкантами (Дж. Ходжесом, Ст. Гетцем и др.).

Tracks:
1. 'Round Midnight
2. Rhythm-A-Ning
3. Sweet And Lovely
4. Decidedly [Take 4]
5. Decidedly [Take 5]
6. Straight, No Chaser [Take 3]
7. Straight, No Chaser [Take 1]
8. I Mean You [Take 4]
9. I Mean You [Take 2]

Personel: Thelonious Monk (piano); Gerry Mulligan (baritone saxophone); Wilbur Ware (bass); Shadow Wilson (drums).
Продолжение текста / More text
Review:
In the late 1950's/early 1960's, baritonist Gerry Mulligan participated in several recorded "meetings" with jazz musicians who he admired. For this set (reissued on CD in the OJC series), Mulligan teams up with pianist Thelonious Monk (who shares co-leadership), bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer Shadow Wilson on a surprisingly successful date. Monk and Mulligan blend together quite well on what was essentially Thelonious' repertoire of the era including "'Round Midnight," "Rhythm-A-Ning," "Sweet And Lovely" and "I Mean You"; the CD reissue also includes three alternate takes and has plenty of joyful spirit.
Scott Yanow, AMG

Review 2:
Critics thought the pairing of Gerry Mulligan and Thelonious Monk a strange one when this 1957 session was originally released, Mulligan's light baritone saxophone strongly identified with the cool school and Monk's percussive piano, fractured rhythms, and dissonant tunes the last word in bop. It's an interesting combination, though, with Mulligan's melodic focus actually working fairly well with Monk and his regular band, drummer Shadow Wilson and bassist Wilbur Ware. Common roots in swing are apparent on Mulligan's "Decidedly," a variant of "Undecided," while the baritonist acquits himself well on some of Monk's best-known tunes. Monk was at his peak as a player in 1957 -- working steadily for the first time in years in a long tenure at the Five Spot -- and it shows everywhere here, including the splashing chords and asymmetrical runs of "Sweet and Lovely." Ware, one of the most significant bassists in jazz history, is a perfect accompanist and as commanding a soloist as Mulligan or Monk, using subtle rhythmic shifts and double stops in an almost minimalist way. The alternate takes of several tunes are genuinely different approaches to the material, revealing just how spontaneous the meeting was. --Stuart Broomer

Amazon.com reviewer:
This disc combines Monk & his rhythm-section of the time -- Wilbur Ware & Shadow Wilson -- with the baritonist Gerry Mulligan, a stylistically unusual pairing that works out very well. Monk's skeletal chording & frequent preference to have his sidemen "stroll" (play without piano accompaniment) make a natural common ground with Mulligan, who had developed the pianoless quartet in his 1950s groups with Baker & Brookmeyer. Though this session was an informal blowing session, & thus doesn't feature any of Mulligan's sophisticated arrangements, he nonetheless frequently plays quiet counterlines to Monk like he did with Chet -- it's an interesting sound, & I've never heard anyone else do this with Monk.
The album is a bit uneven, but what pushes it into the first rank is the version of "Round Midnight", which is probably the single best group reading of the tune I've heard by Monk. Certainly it's the best version he did for Riverside except for the solo version on _Thelonious by Himself_. As usual with Monk in this period, his flow of compositions was slowing down, & there's only one new tune on the disc, "Rhythm-a-Ning" (first recorded by Monk for Atlantic a few months before on his collaboration with Art Blakey). The version here is very different from Monk's later recordings of the tune: it has a double-length bridge which seems to give Mulligan a little trouble (he goofs up a little at the end of the bridge on his first chorus); the performance isn't quite together, but nonetheless has lots of meat in the solos & a good vibe, which is I presume why they didn't do retakes. I'm not sure why "I Mean You" needed 3 complete takes, as they all sound pretty good to me -- but I certainly won't complain about getting the bonus tracks. "Decidedly" is Mulligan's variant on Shavers' "Undecided", and features a stoptime solo by Mulligan & some of Ware's most intriguing playing -- check out his very offbeat solo on the master take, in particular. "Sweet and Lovely" is a favourite tune of mine, & despite Monk's covering it in other places I would again name this as the best group reading Monk gave it.
A fine disc. Originally it was intended that the album be split between quartet tracks & a big band arranged by Mulligan, but because the 1st recording session went so well the producer & the band decided to go back into the studio the next day to complete the album with just the quartet. I think that was the right decision. This remains one of the high points of Monk's Riverside tenure.
Amazon.com


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