Verve Jazz Masters 36

Verve Jazz Masters (Series), Gerry Mulligan | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 8, 1994)
• Original Release Date: November 8, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B0000046VQ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,752 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential listening, July 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Verve Jazz Masters 36 (Audio CD)

Gerry Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band was one of the great bands of the early 1960s--of all time, really. Mulligan, whose big band (and small big band) experience went back to Gene Krupa and the Miles Davis Birth of the Cool recordings, expanded and enlarged on the sound of his quartet, sextet, and tentets in the Concert Jazz Band. This album contains a dozen cuts from the four albums the band made for Verve between 1960 and late 1962. (There are several other excellent CDs currently available, from the band's European tour in late 1960 and from an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival earlier that year.)

Highlights of this collection include Al Cohn's wonderful sax section writing on "Lady Chatterley's Mother," the interplay between Mulligan and Clark Terry on the definitive "Blueport," and George Russell's arrangement of "All About Rosie." In addition to Mulligan (who plays piano on "Chuggin'"--he's a wonderful piano player--and clarinet on "Big City Blues") and Terry, soloists include Bob Brookmeyer (valve trombone and piano), Don Ferrara on trumpet, and Jim Reider on tenor. Mel Lewis is the drummer who makes it all happen, on all but the final recording date. That one, released as "Gerry Mulligan 1963" (although recorded in December 1962), presents a band with a somewhat different, perhaps more arranged, sound, but it includes Jim Hall on guitar.

If you can find a copy of the now-discontinued Verve Compact Jazz CD of the Concert Jazz Band, you'll have a pretty complete representation of the band's official recordings. The older collection includes three cuts that are sadly missing from this one: Zoot Sims' great solos on "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "Apple Core," and Mulligan's delightful piano outing on "Let My People Be."

This is a great band. Savor what's available.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Swingin' Modern Big Band!, December 8, 2005

By 

Lory D. Molesky (Boston, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Verve Jazz Masters 36 (Audio CD)

Brilliant arrangements performed by master musicians!
Exciting yet restrained, with tight counterpoint between
the soloists and the instrumental chorus. Plenty of
Gerry on sax, but lots of other instruments are featured
on solos. I hear something new every time I listen!