1. Line for Lyons (LP 1)
2. For an Unfinished Woman (LP 1)
3. My Funny Valentine (LP 1)
4. Song For Strayhorn (LP 1)
5. It's Sandy at the Beach (LP 2)
6. Bernie's Tune (LP 2)
7. K-4 Pacific (LP 2)
8. There Will Never be Another You (LP 2)

November 24, 1974

 LINER NOTES (AND 2 NEWSPAPER ARTICLES)

Carnegie Hall, New York City, November 24, 1974.

Producer Don Friedman (not the pianist) had tried for months, even years, to reunite several giants of the West Coast jazz of the 1950s. Some of them had been reluctant to the point of intractability. Others had been less reluctant, and they included Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan. Why all this greater and lesser reluctance, you may ask. Because creative musicians tend to think about what they're doing and what they're going to do rather than what they've done, and the idea of assembling to play their golden oldies usually elicits the enthusiasm you might have had from Picasso if you'd suggested he re-enter his blue period.

On the other hand, Mulligan and Baker hadn't played together in ten years, and it was intriguing to wonder whether the old magic still works. Besides, the money was okay and there seemed to be an audience. So why not? It is conceivable that Picasso would have been willing to paint some blue period updates, as opposed to copies. No one really expected to hear Gerry and Chet do their classic recorded solos note for note. Well, someone out there probably did, but the capacity audience was wide open to the updating of every tune, and to the new pieces.

"It's like recording with strings. You can't help feeling all that weight. I'd just as soon be playing at Stryker's Pub."

The discomfort wasn't audible.

Chet stood behind the curtain, hands in pockets, locked into Mulligan's solo on "For An Unfinished Woman" as if he were trying to absorb what Gerry had been up to for a decade.

This is the first recording of Mulligan's "A Song For Strayhorn" One of Gerry's loveliest ballads, it's a remembrance of the man who was Duke Ellington's inseparable musical companion until Billy's death in 1967. Congratulated by the backstage coterie on the beauty of the composition and the performance, Mulligan was asked why he had been keeping "Strayhorn under wraps." "I always like to save a few surprises," he said.

Mulligan thrives and capitalizes on surprise. At half time, he and Bob James reviewed missed cues:

"We came to the A-flat 7th and I said 'Whaaaaaaaat? but it worked out beautifully," Mulligan laughed. "Why worry? We'll always recover."

"In 'Unfinished Woman,'" James said, "I just kept at that little figure and, whaddaya know, we had four-part harmony going."

"it was lovely," Gerry assured him.

"Of course, little goofs can be edited out later. They can be isolated," James offered.

"Well, I suppose so, but it really came out very nicely."

At the bar, a moderately shabby man offered to buy Mulligan a drink. Someone else paid for it. The would-be host, who had been praising Gerry as the paragon of baritone players, rose to a crescendo of indignation and obscenity, loudly denouncing Mulligan as a woeful musician who wasn't fit to trim Harry Carney's reeds.

"Boy, that's the last time I won't let him buy me a drink"" said Mulligan, retreating.

For Gerry's set, the basic rhythm section of Carter, James and Mason was expanded to include vibraharpist and percussionist Dave Samuels and John Scofield, a young guitarist with romantic leanings and an inclination toward relaxed, understated swing in his melodic lines. He's one of the few younger guitarists who seems to be exploring the style of Jim Hall, possibly because he's one of the few temperamentally and technically equipped to do so.

The amended rhythm team stayed on for the Baker-Mulligan set and added new colors to the basic sound of the Mulligan Quartet that featured Baker and became a sensation in 1952. "Line For Lyons" and "My Funny Valentine" were staples of the original quartet. For the nostalgic, there is abundant evocativeness in "Valentine," a piece Chet owns in all but copyright. As for Mulligan, he has simply never played better than in the past three or four years, and his unfailingly energizing presence is beautifully represented here.

The music Gerry, Chet and friends played in this auspicious reunion takes care of that intriguing question:

Indeed, the old magic still works.

DOUG RAMSEY

A Carnegie Hallful of fans spent a pleasant nostalgic Sunday in the company of three of the men who played a major role in the shaping and forming of the most tasteful and expressive magical sounds of the 1950s    The Musicians were Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan and Chet baker, and they were onstage and play-ing together Sunday for the first time in umpty-ump years in aconcert put together by DonFriedman and the local jazz sta- tion, WRVR-FM. The producersdeserve a lot of thanks. It was adynamite idea, and it turned out finger-lickin' good.   Getz and Mulligan have beenevident on the music scene pretty regularly, but having their tenorand baritone saxophones com-bined with thesharp, clear, stac- cato phrasings of Baker's trum-pet, made for an extra-specialevening for anyone who grew up listening to that music.

      Baker Begins Concert    Baker, who opened the proceed-ings, had a drug problemfor yearsleading to headlined busts in al-most every country he worked in. It wasn't till just a few yearago that he started turning hislife around and getting up thecourage to face an audience again.He looks like a scarecrow withhis gaunt cheeks and sunkeneyes, but when he puffs out thosecheeks and blows into the mouth-piece, you can hear again thetone, fire and ideas that madehis playing exceptional two, threedecades ago.

   Mulligan followed, playing hisown compositions, some from his railroad album. Another, "Songfor Strayhorn" was a lovely andlyrical tune, and then there wasa new piece, "For an UnfinishedWoman."   Baker and Mulligan returnedto play together after intermis-sion, knitting patterns of soundthrough "Line for Lyons" doinga new tune, "Sandy at the Beach,"and finally "Bernie's Tune," thenumber they played and recordedtogether when they were barelyout of their teensand members of the now-famous pianoless quartet.   Getz, in his turn, was his usualsuperb self - cool, unflappable. Nomatter how often one listens toor sees him perform, he's alwayscapable of coming up with thesurprise phrase; he brings something new to a nember each timearound, even on an old familiar like "Desfinado."   Naturally, they finished out theevening together, with each man-aging a wicked solo. It was anight to remember.   Baker was backed by BobJones, Ron Carter, Harvey Masonand Ed Byrne on piano, bass,drums and trombone; Mulliganadded Dave Samuels on vibes and John Scofield on guitar to thegroup; Getz played with his owngroup which was joined by BuddyRich, who came out to do onenumber backing up a four-girl

MULLIGAN, BAKERIN A JAZZ REUNION

Saxophonist and TrumpeterRecreate Music of 1950's

By JOHN S. WILSON
   The wave of jazz nostalgiais coming closer and closer to the present. For many year it focused primarily on the swing era. More recently, it began to tred on bebop. Andon Sunday evening, the cool jazz of the nineteen-fifties joined the nostalgia paradewhen the baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and the trumpetplayer Chet Baker, half of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet that established the West Coast cool sound 20 years ago, held a reunion at Carnegie Hall.   The two musicians have traveled very different paths in the last two decades. Mr.Mulligan leading various small groups and a big band and as a co-star with Dave Brubeck.has grown steadily and is firmly established as a jazz virtuoso of the very first rank.Mr. Baker, on the other hand, has had to fight his way out of an involvement in drugs and is only now beginning to realize the potential of the career that started with Mr. Mulligan's quartet.
   Backed by an impeccablerhythm section - Bob James,pianist, Ron Carter, bassist,and most notably, Harvey Mann, a crisp, enlivening and sensitive drummer - Mr. Mulligan and Mr. Baker brought back their familiar treatments of "Line for Lyons," "My Funny Valentine" and "Bernie'sTune" with a freshness that brought cheers from an audience that obviously had ears for the period.
   On his own, Mr. Mulligan played a set that was full of the mixture of the lyricism and the deep, swinging power that have become his hallmarks. Mr.Baker, in his set, showed tha the has developed more range and assertiveness within the wistfully ruminative style with which he has always been associated.
   The program also includeda typically polished and calculatedly dramatic performance by Stan Getz and his quartet.