Paris Concert - Salle Pleyel
June, 1954

 LINER NOTES

A tall thin man whose entire body formed an 'S' when he played, Gerry Mulligan had a profile that mirrored that of his instrument-the baritone saxophone. Mulligan is one of a handful of musicians who have mastered this large, cumbersome horn, and given it a unique, elegantly swinging jazz voice. Mulligan, who died in 1996, was also a composer, arranger, and bandleader whose versatile musicianship has had an enduring influence on modern jazz.

Gerald Joseph Mulligan was born on April 6, 1927, in Queens, New York. Musically inclined as a child, he played piano, clarinet and tenor sox, and wrote his First arrangement when he was 10. As a high school student in Philadelphia, he formed his own big hand, wrote all the arrangements for it, and soon entered the world of professional musicians. In 1946 he moved to New York and joined Gene Krupa, whose big band recording of Mulligan's Disc Jockey Jump in 1947 helped create a buzz for the young arranger. Within a year Mulligan left Krupa, and befriended the more established arranger Gil Evans. Evans, Mulligan and a few other musicians helped generate the ideas and sound for the short-lived but groundbreaking Miles Davis Nonet. Mulligan contributed as composer, arranger and player to the Nonet's Birth of the Cool recordings of the late- 1940's, whose complex yet subtle beauty echoed through the jazz world for decades to come. Mulligan moved to Los Angeles in 1951, and a year later accidentally formed the first of his 'pianoless' quartets with Chet Baker, when the piano player didn't show up for their first gig. This group fully launched the careers of both musicians, and the 'pianoless' format proved ideal for Mulligan's conversational improvisations with other horn players.

This disc was compiled from Mulligan's critically acclaimed performances with Bob Brookmeyer of the third Salon du Jazz in Paris in 1954, by which time Mulligan had become a steady poll-winner. Mulligan led various groups throughout the '50s, and formed his first celebrated Concert Jazz Band in 1960, which was re-formed at various times. Mulligan recorded extensively with a diverse array of jazz musicians, including Thelonious Monk, Ben Webster, Stan Getz, Johnny Hodges, Art Farmer and Paul Desmond. Late in his career, Mulligan remained a favorite on the international jazz scene, and continued to record with his own groups and as a featured guest. One of his last big projects was the Rebirth of the Cool, recorded in 1992, a vibrant 're-make' of the Miles Davis Nonet's recordings of 40 years earlier, attesting to Mulligan's ever-contemporary artistry.

"Paris, Pleyel 1954"

1927 Born in New York on April 6th.
One of four brothers, Gerry was the only one to embark on a musical career. His brothers all followed in their father's footsteps and became civil engineers.

1934 He began to study piano.

1938 He started to practise on a clarinet lent to him by a friend and immediately showed a flair for wind instruments.

1943 He completed his musical training in Philadelphia and started his professional career. He wrote some arrangements for the band of a local radio station. He played with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie For the moment his favourite instrument is the tenor sax.

1946 He left home and went to live in New York. He got a job with Gene Krupa's band in Los Angeles. During a performance in Hollywood he met Charlie Parker again and inevitably gave in to the temptation of drugs. He was arrested for smoking marijuana and was put on probation for a year.

1947 He stopped working for Gene Krupa and devoted himself to the study of the baritone saxophone, an instrument on which he has few rivals except Harry Carney in the Duke Ellington orchestra and Serge Chaloff with Woody Herman. He was a frequent visitor to Gil Evans' small flat in the centre of Manhattan, a favourite meeting-place for "avant garde" musicians. Together with Evans, he wrote arrangements for the Claude Thornhill orchestra.

1948 He worked for two weeks at the "Royal Roost", a Broadway club, as a soloist in a nine-man band led by Miles Davis.

1949-1950 He took part in the recording sessions known as "Birth of the Cool",one of the landmarks in history of jazz. The arrangements, which included the use of unusual instruments like the French horn and the tuba, were put together by Miles Davis, Gil Evans, John Carrisi, John Lewis and Mulligan himself (Jeru, Venus de Milo, Rocker, Godchild). Mulligan stayed with Thornhill only for a short while and then worked in Elliot Lawrence's band and also, for a short period. in a group that also included Kai Winding.
Apathy and depression, the inevitable consequences of his drug addiction, got the better of him and led him towards solitude and desperation. It took the love of a woman, Gale Madden, to bring him back to reality and give him hope for the future.

1951 Mulligan realizes that to get out of the rut he has to change his ways. He redeemed the saxophone that he had pawned in a moment of depression and left for California with Gale. They had no money, but their heads were full of ideas and new projects.
Their journey was exhausting and full of adventure, but finally they arrived. Getting back an their feet was a difficult job, Gerry managed to sell ten arrangements to Stan Kenton and finally found work at "The Haig",a jazz club where once a week, on Mondays, he played with Chet Baker, Bob Whitlock and Chico Hamilton.

1952 With the piano-less quartet that had been tried out so successfully at "The Haig", Mulligan recorded a series of numbers that are still among the finest expressions of his genius (Bernie's Tune, Line for Lyons, My Funny Valentine). Although his professional career was a success, his private life was a mess. He separated from Gale and went back on drugs. He married a 19-year-old girl, Jeffie Lee Boyd, but the marriage soon ended on the rocks.

1953 The recordings made by the quartet aroused great interest and were much in demand. Mulligan's relationship' with Chet Baker, so successful musically, was a disaster on a personal level. The continuous arguments finally led to a definitive break-up.
Despite his inability to deal with practical problems Mulligan continued to prosper professionally. After recording with his "tentette", he made the experiment of adding the sound of the sax of Lee Konitz to his quartet.
In September he was arrested for being in possession of drugs and was held in custody until Christmas.

1954 Chet Baker was sacked and replaced by Bob Brookmeyer, an exceptionally talented valve trombonist. His second wife Arlyne, whom he had met in NewYork, acted as his secretary and business manager. In June his new quartet (with Red Mitchell on bass and Frank Isola on drums) took part in the Paris Jazz Festival: the "Salle Pleyel" was packed and the performance was a huge success. In July, at the Newport Jazz Festival, he took part in a famous jam-session with Eddie Condon.

1955 He formed his famous sextet, with the now irreplaceable Bob Brookmeyer, Zoot Sims on tenor sax, and John Eardley or Don Ferrara on trumpet.

1956 He toured France and Italy with his sextet. winning fans everywhere.

1957 He led various small groups making recordings alongside top class musicians such as PaulDesmond, StanGetz. Harry Edison, Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, Thelonious Monk and Al Cohn. In May he once again formed a quarter with Bob Brookmeyer, making live recordings in Stockholm and taking part in the Newport Jazz Festival.

1958 He made further experiments with a quartet, this time with Art Farmer on trumpet. He collaborated in composing the sound track of the film "I Want to Live".

1959 He divorced Arlyne Brown and began a relationship with Judy Holliday, a famous actress who was also an active, educated woman who helped him to overcome his personal psychological problems and helped him find work in Hollywood composing sound tracks.
He recorded with Ben Webster and Jimmy Witherspoon.

1960 He made his debut with his own orchestra, the "Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band". His assistant as soloist and arranger, was his friend Bob Brookmeyer. With the band Mulligan occasionally played the clarinet.
He recorded with a quintet that included Johnny Hodges and Claude Williamson.

1961 The record "Holliday with Mulligan" was released.

1962 He continued to work with small groups, with famous musicians such as his old friend Bob Brookmeyer, Paul Desmond, Connie Kay and Tommy Flanagan.

1965 After the death of Judy Holliday, Mulligan married the actress Sandy Dennis.

1966 Together with Bill Holman, he composed "Music for Baritone Saxophone and Orchestra" for the Los Angeles Neophonic Orchestra led by Stan Kenton. in which he also played as a soloist.

1967 The film "Luv". with music by Mulligan, orchestrated by Holman. had its premiere. 1968-1969 With Dave Brubeck he toured Europe, Japan and Australia. Their appearances everywhere were a triumphant success.

1972 He made an LP, "The Age of Steam", with an impressive big band bearing his name. One of the soloists was the ever-present Brookmeyer.

1973 He performed with his band at the Newport Jazz Festival.

1974 He recorded with Astor Piazzolia. He look part in a concert at Carnegie Hall with Chet Baker. 975 He recorded the sound track of the film "Hot Rock", written by Quincy Jones.

1980 He won the "Grammy" prize for an album recorded with a big band (Walk on the Water).
During the whole of the 1970S and 1980s Mulligan divided his time between the USA and Europe. He was a frequent visitor to Italy where he took part in concerts, jazz festivals (Umbria Jazz) and recording sessions. As well as the baritone sax, he often played the piano and the soprano sax.

PARIS CONCERT - LP

Few bands have shot to the top and won the uananimous acclaim of jazz fans as quickly as has the Gerry Mulligan Quartet.

It was with some apprehension therefore, that we looked forward to their appearance at the Salle Pleyel on June 1, 1954, as part of the Third Paris Jazz Festival, for we had been disappointed more than once by famous soloists or big name bands from America.

Having heard only records, and knowing what marvelous results modern recording techniques can produce, weren't we going to be disappointed by a personal appearance? Would such a reduced combo be able to project beyond the footlights in as large and cold a ball as the Salle Pleyel? Wouldn't the balance of the Quartet suffer from having Chet Baker's trumpet replaced by the trombone of Bob Brookmeyer, who was completely unknown here? And last of all, how could this simple little quartet of white musicians compete with the memories left by the big bands of Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Count Basie, or by Louis Armstrong's dynamic Hot Five which we had previously heard in this same Salle Pleyel?

All these fears melted away as if by magic the moment the Gerry Mulligan Ouartet launched into the first bars of "Come Out Wherever You Are," with which they opened the first concert of the Jazz Festival that memorable evening of June 1, 1954.

Something very unusual happened - for a jazz concert: the audience was seized at once by a sort of rapt fervor, and a real communion was established between the public and the band. It was as if the audience had suddenly put aside its customary boisterousness to give compete attention to a really special musical treat.

Don't think for a moment that the public was indifferent. If you were present at the concert you certainly will remember unprecedented applause given Mulligan and his Quartet. You will remember toothe respect which their music aroused in the audience, who realized that something unusual was taking place that evening.

Unlike so many modern musicians who look desperately worried by their music, the members of the Mulligan Quartet frankly showed their pleasure in playing. Their behavior wasn't at all stiff or affected, but natural - and on that account was actually spectacular, for those four boys easily dominated the enormous stage of the Salle Pleyel, with no need of the cheap showmanship which often debases even the best jazz to the level of music hall or circus entertainment.

Their music, simple and tasteful, surprised us pleasantly by its freshness and its spontaneity, and also by the effective swing of the rhythm section.

This simplicity is probably the secret of their success. Subtle and full of nuances, the melodic lines of Gerry Mulligan and Bob Brookmeyer weave in and out, melt together, and oppose each other, but remain easy to follow. The average listener, who often gets lost in the intricacies of modern jazz arrangements, has no trouble following the melody and the variations worked out by the soloists.

Since we were already familiar through recordings with his instrumental style, Gerry Mulligan himself wasn't perhaps such a surprise, but this Third Jazz Festival introduced us to Bob Brookmeyer's rich improvisations. Red Mitchell's swinging bass was impressive, Frank Isola's drumming was easy and varied.

This record selects some of the most distinctive numbers the Mulligan Quartet played that night, some previously unrecorded such as "Come Out Wherever You Are" and "Laura." Some others recorded while Chet Baker was a member of the Quartet are "Five Brothers," "Love Me Or Leave Me," "Bernie's Tune," "Walkin' Shoes," "Moonlight In Vermont" and "The Lady Is A Tramp."

But what strikes us most in listening to this record is its exceptional technical quality, equaling the best American recording of public performances, for it recreates for us that rapt enthusiasm which greeted every concert of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet in the Salle Pleyel in June, 1954.

-CHARLES DELAUNAY, Noted French Jazz Critic

PLEYEL VOL. 1

Today, almost 40 years after the event, it is difficult for us to imagine the then challenging novelty of the pianoless Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Yet, despite the shock-waves it created, the Mulligan music held an immediate appeal, conquering Paris audiences from the very first concert, something the leader has never forgotten. "Agreeably surprised", was the way Charles Delaunay described the crowd's reaction, going on to say: "Contrary to so many modern musicians, whose attitude can seem to be one of utter boredom, the members of the Mulligan quartet showed their evident pleasure in what they were playing."

These young musicians - Mulligan was then 27, and Brookmeyer 25 - served up a modern jazz that by its colour and instrumentation offered up numerous surprises, but the roots of which were firmly planted in fairly traditional rhythmic and melodic values. This quiet revolution was far cry from the stirring, but profoundly disturbing, sounds of the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band in this same Salle Pleyel six years earlier. Moreover, the keener enthusiasts were already familiar with the Mulligan quartet's music from its first records, made with trumpeter Chet Baker in 1952. Indeed, many of them had been expecting Chet in the line-up in Paris.

But the new frontline voicing of baritone-sax and valve-trombone proved just as acceptable, all the more so since both soloists - each also an excellent composer and arranger - displayed such total ease and relaxation. Their breathtaking mastery of harmony and counterpoint soon made listeners forget the absence of a piano. Moreover, the rhythm section Mulligan had brought to Paris played a by no means negligible role in the considerable success the quartet enjoyed: the fluid yet driving brush work of drummer Frank Isola, and the firm beat and reliable harmonic ear of bassist Red Mitchell, all the more crucial in the absence of both piano and guitar. A real treat for all, and one admirably captured by a good-quality recording.

The man responsible for getting this Mulligan group across to France in the first place was pianist Henri Renaud. During the winter of 1953-54 he had visited the Blue Note in Philadelphia, where the quartet was appearing, to invite the leader to take part in Paris's third "Salon du Jazz"; programmed for the following 1st to 7th June.

The Gerry Mulligan Quartet duly performed five Salle Pleyel concerts during the course of this festival, sharing the bill with such other talents as Thelonious Monk. Martial Solal, Don Byas, Michel de Villers and Mary Lou Williams, plus the orchestras of Jack Dieval, Henri Renaud and Kurt Edelhagen. Four of the Mulligan concerts were recorded by Vogue, and they are now being issued in their entirety - and in programme - order for the first time.

The repertoire of this Volume 1, in which we hear all of the first concert - the concert of discovery! - and the first four numbers of the second, includes no fewer than seven Mulligan originals, plus and eigth (Utter Chaos) used as a closing theme. Five of these had already been committed to disc by the quartet with Chet baker in 1952-53: Bark For barksdale, Walkin' Shoes, Soft Shoe, Turnstile and Motel. Among the pieces from the pens of other composers are the famous Bernie's Tune which opens the first concert (and of which the baritone-saxophonist had recorded the definitive version at his first session with Chet), and My Funny Valentine. This latter piece, recorded at the second of the studio sessions with Chet, was destined to become a hit - and a major discographical success - both for the quartet as a whole and for the trumpeter.

The second of our two volumes will present an interesting range of other compositions, as well as subsequent versions of those already on offer here. These repeat performance, which bear tangible testimony to the considerable freedom the four musicians enjoyed, demonstrate the immense improvisational skills Mulligan had at his disposal, yet at the same time the admirable discipline of a quite exceptional group.

PLEYEL VOL. 2

At the beginning of this second of two volumes, we pick up the quartet in the middle of a half-hour set played on the evening of June 3rd 1954. Mulligan's men had followed immediately behind a Thelonious Monk given an impassioned reception from a divided audience, his fans on the one side, his detractors on the other.

Among the Gerry Mulligan originals on offer here, we once again find Five Brothers, Motel and Bark For Barksdale. Other Mulligan compositions. but played only once during this Paris festival engagement, are Limelight and Line For Lyons, both already recorded by the Mulligan-Chet Baker pairing. The latter piece must surely be one of the most engaging and most gracious compositions Mulligan has ever penned. The present version will no doubt come as a pleasant surprise to many collectors, since it has hitherto been issued on only a single occasion, and then as part of an American anthology.

Among the many standards the group played are two intriguingly different versions of Laura, the second pushed along at a livelier tempo. Equally fascinating is the Mulligan-Brookmeyer treatment of Moonlight In VermonT, the two hornmen "singing" this beautiful melody in most arresting fashion. And they even appropriate Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are, a song from "The Wizard of Oz" ...

Adapted from the French by Don Waterhouse

FABULOUS VOL. 1

During the 1920s and 1930s Paris was the headquarters of jazz in Europe, the place American-musicians always made for. So, after six years of war, it was not surprising that the fiirst European jazz festivals should have been staged in France. The Paris Jazz Fair of 1954 was typical of these events, with American stars appearing alongside local performers. There was a special concert, "Homage to Django Reinhardt" (the guitarist had died the previous year); Thelonious Monk and the trumpeter Jonah Jones established their different kinds of rapport with the audiences. But perhaps the most impact was made by what, in the parlance of the 1950s, was the "coolest" group of all: the Gerry Mulligan Quartet.

The fact that the quartet had no pianist was still something of a novelty. So was the understatement which seemed integral to the group's playing. And during the previous year the quartet's records had made the style and the sound familiar to jazz aficionados on both sides of the Atlantic. All of which helps to explain why the 3,000 people in the Salle Pleyel on the nights of June 1 and 4 found the music so absorbing; so much so that this Paris audience abandoned its traditional practice of approving only of black jazzmen, acknowledging that good jazz could be played by white musicians too - even if they did not happen to be French.

Gerry Mulligan had re-formed his quartet not long before arriving in France. The most vital change was that Chet Baker, whose reticent trumpet playing had given the early recordings so much of their character, was replaced by the valve-trombonist Bob Brookmeyer. As it happened, Brookmeyer was an ideal choice, the stance of his playing not far removed from Baker's slightly dead-pan style. Mulligan had run across him six or seven years earlier, when he was working in Kansas City, Brookmeyer's hometown. But until the spring of 1954 Brookmeyer - and the drummer, Frank Isola - had been playing with the Stan Getz Quartet. Red Mitchell, the bassist, was the only member of Mulligan's Quartet to have visited Europe before. He had, in fact, been over earlier that year, touring with Red Norvo's group in "Jazz Club U.S.A.", a concert presentation which also included Billie Holiday.

It was less than two years since Mulligan had turned into a leader. He had played with and written arrangements for Gene Krupa's orchestra, and a little later, for Miles Davis's influential recording band of 1949-50. For a time he was featured with Elliot Lawrence's orchestra, and after that wrote scores for Stan Kenton. But it was in California, during the autumn of 1952, that he got together his first quartet. Both the approach and the repertoire were basically the same as those heard in Paris at the Salle Pleyel, where the programme included a couple of Mulligan "originals", Gold Rush and Five Brothers, as well as relaxed, rather discursive explorations of some ballads - Laura, The Nearness Of You, Lullaby Of The LeaveS - and slightly more unconventional toying with Makin' Whoopee and I May Be Wrong.

CHARLES FOX

FABULOUS VOL. 2

Few jazz musicians can be more gregarious than Gerry Mulligan. Although he arrived at musical maturity at a moment when jazz had begun splitting into separate camps, Mulligan contrived to go on sitting-in with performers of every aesthetic complexion. That tall, lanky frame, seesawing gently as the arms raised and lowered the bulky saxophone, was just as likely to be observed consorting with a bunch of Dixielanders as - and it happened for the first time after hours one night at the Paris Jazz Fair in 1954 - confronting that most idiosyncratic of jazz modernists, Thelonious Monk. It is not merely a matter of liking to be with people. Mulligan is one of the great conversationalists of jazz, not content, like many performers, just to take a solo but determined to carry on a musical dialogue, eager to pick up and develop his colleagues' ideas and to offer his own in return. This to-and-fro method characterizes any group of which Gerry Mulligan happens to find himself the leader. It was certainly integral to the quartet that he formed in 1952, the first of a number of groups he was to lead during the next couple of decades.

Three-quarters Irish and a quarter German, Gerry Mulligan was born on Long Island in 1927. He could scarcely walk before he was picking out tunes on the piano. After that he moved on to the ocarina. In fact, Mulligan tried a number of wind instruments - trumpet, clarinet, tenor saxophone - before deciding, around the age of twenty, to specialize on the baritone saxophone. There was already one major performer - Harry Carney, of Duke Ellington's orchestra. Serge Chaloff, with Woody Herman's band, was another virtuoso, and others were to emerge later, including, most recently, the British musician, John Surman. But at the end of the 1940s it was Gerry Mulligan's expressive and agile use of the baritone saxophone that made him a key-figure in the development of the instrument.

Mulligan had worked with Gene Krupa's orchestra (playing tenor sax and writing scores), been part of the Miles Davis 1949-50 band, and worked as an arranger for Stan Kenton. But it was in the autumn of 1952, at a small Los Angeles night club called The Haig, that he got together his first quartet, consisting of the trumpeter Chet Baker, bassist Bob Whitlock and drummer Chico Hamilton as well as himself. At that time the lack of a pianist seemed a daring break with tradition.

Bernie's Tune, the first number the Quartet put on record, was also one of the pieces that drew an especially ecstatic response from the French audience which saw the Mulligan Quartet performing at the Salle Pleyel as part of the 1954 Paris Jazz Fair. By then the personnel had changed: Bob Brookmeyer and Frank Isola had left Stan Getz's Quartet earlier that year to join Mulligan, while Red Mitchell had only just finished a concert tour of Europe with Red Norvo. Yet they had already taken on a group identity, united by Gerry Mulligan's infectious enthusiasm and his determination to turn every club or concert appearance into a kind of musical conversazione.

CHARLES FOX

JAZZ LEGACY

Gerry Mulligan formed the first of his famed pianoless quartets in 1952, about a year after moving to California from New York. Already regarded, although commercially unsuccessful, as a composer and especially arranger for his work for Elliot Lawrence, Claude Thornhill and most notabley the Miles Davis Nonet "Birth of the Cool" sessions of 1949 and 1950, he now quickly climbed to prominence as a soloist. His quartet received immediate praise from Ralph J. Gleason in down beat (Oct. 22, 1952) and was even written up in Time (Feb. 2, 1953). In 1953, Mulligan also won a new star award in the down beat critics poll and in the following years he was to place first on baritone in the down beat and Metronome reader polls.

That first quartet included trumpeter Chet Baker, bassist Bob Whitlock, and drummer Chico Hamilton, who was replaced by Frank Isola during 1953. Then in early 1954 Mulligan formed a new quartet with bassist Red Mitchell and valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, both of whom, like Mulligan, had won new star awards in that 1953 down beat critics poll. Isola returned as drummer. Brookmeyer, who was to remain for three years, had played some of Mulligan's charts with Thornhill's band, where he played piano as well as trombone. (Like Mulligan, he had studied piano.)

There was something special about Brookmeyer, his style, sound and ideas went so well with Mulligan's musical conceptions. This is reflected in the confidence of both musicians' playing, such as on the contrapuntal opening of "l May Be Wrong" or the swinging "Limelight" where they ignite each other with exuberance. And Mulligan and Brookmeyer continue their personal and professional relationship to this day.

"We're lifelong friends," Mulligan explained following an April 1980 Chicago performance by his band that included a chart the trombonist wrote for him. "We always manage to keep in touch, and we always feel in touch when we don't see each other."

As for their years together in the quartet, Mulligan remembers those times with nothing but "fond memories."

The solid success of this particular quartet was a personal as well as professional triumph for Mulligan who had just won a five-year battle against heroin addiction. He had tried unsuccessfully to kick the habit on his owna nd then in the spring of 1953 he and Baker were busted at the Los Angeles apartment they shared. Baker was released; Mulligan was convicted, sent to jail in September, and released on parole on Christmas Eve.. He intended to reform his original quartet but, following a financial squabble with Baker, discarded that idea.

"By this time," he recalled some five years later, "I wanted to have as little as possible to do with California and Californians, so I got on the phone to New York and recruited some musicians."

Mulligan had found artistic pleasure but not financial success, in New York. Now he was re-establishing his New York ties. and about to expand his growing American popularity into international success when he was invited to Europe for the first time to perform at the third Paris Jazz Festival.

lnitially everything seemed to point toward disaster. French jazz critic Charles Delaunay. who was promoting the June 1, 1954 appearance at the Salle Pleyel in Paris was apprehensive because French jazz audiences at the time preferred Dixieland and other older forms of jazz, and were generally hostile to any white musicians, no matter what school of jazz they represented. And although Mulligan was known at least by name, Brookmeyer was totally unknown at the time.

Physically. Mulligan was a wreck when he and his three cohorts arrived in Europe, as he recalls today. Their plane had dropped suddenly from a high altitude over the airport, leaving the baritonist stretched out, writhing in agony. The doctor who treated him in Switzerland, where the quartet played that first night, spoke only German while those in the entourage spoke only English and French.

"They had to carry me off the plane on a stretcher." Mulligan vividly remembers. "The doctor shot me full of something and I was shaking like crazy for days. After I started to play, I got drenched with sweat."

But the Paris concert was a triumph. As shown on these tunes - most of them never before released in the U.S. - the audience was exuberant, but only after a tune. Spellbound by the solos, they seldom applauded during the tunes.

"I have never seen such a communion in Paris between a white band and an audience, almost never between a modern band and a French audience, and hardly ever between any band and any audience," Delaunay was to comment later.

And today, Mulligan declares: "It was an electrifying experience for us."

These performances - Mulligan's always successful blend of fresh sounding standards and fine originals - are filled with delightful flowing interplay, wry humor, warm lyricism, charming swing and graceful drive. There's the boiling exuberance of "Limelight, " the sly laziness of "Makin' Whoopee, " the witty melodic reworking of "Love Me or Leave Me," the smooth merging of solos and group playing on "Lullaby of the Leaves," the caressing warmth of "The Nearness of You" ... and catch that appreciatory yell at the start of this ballad.

And serving as a thread that supports the two fine horns is the supple bass playing of Red Mitchell, who continually supplies a steady line and also takes solos that both pulsate anal dance on "I May Be Wrong," "Gold Rush" and "Love Me or Leave Me. "

Finally drummer Isola, although he could be less stiff and more freely flowing, can snappily keep the horn breaks moving along when they all trade fours on "Gold Rush," "Soft Shoes" and "Limelight."

This concert still is "an electrifying experience."

Jerry de Muth