Gerry Mulligan at Salle Pleyel

What have the next musicians in common? Fred van Eps, Ted Lewis, Putney Dandridge, Gerry Mulligan, Thelonious Monk or Miles Davis. Well they old recorded at 1 June.

When Jørgen asked me for my birthday I told him about a very famous live performance at Salle Pleyel in Paris of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. At that date, 1 June 1954 I celebrated my third birthday in my pyamas in our garden with my little brother in the baby-carriage. I was ignorant about what happend at that day in Paris - I'd never heard about Gerry Mulligan or his music.

This concert was part of the Paris Jazz Festival and the Salle Pleyel was packed. The Gerry Mulligan Quartet played without Chet Baker who was replaced by Bob Brookmeyer, the valve tronbone player I told about you some days ago. The rhythm section is Red Michell on bass and Frank Isola on drums. Gerry himself played, of course, his huge bariton saxophone.

This live recording was one of my first LPs I bought as a teenager. It was a Vogue double LP I remember and when I hear this music, the snorring baritone and Ísola's brushes it revives this period.
It has been one of my favorites concerts - there must have been a time I had this concert on LP, taped on reel to reel, on cassette and on CD. I sold the double LP at a moment that I thought LPs were no longer hip - in a moment of weakness !

Listen to a part of Makin' Whoopee

After all these years I still wonder who is yelling at the first measures of The Nearness Of You. I'd love to come in contact with that man.

This are the other recordings made on the first of June as refered to in the start:

Raggin' the Scale 17673 - Fred van Eps (1916)
Where'd You Get Those Eyes - 42272 Ted Lewis Band (1926)
All My Life - 19353- Putney Dandridge Orchestra (1936)
Played Twice - Thelonious Monk Quintet (1959)
On the Corner - Miles Davis Ensemble (1972)

Keep swinging

Hans Koert

keepswinging@live.nl