Gerry Mulligan Quartet-Featuring Chet Baker
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ORIGINAL 10″ LP ON PACIFIC JAZZ PLJP-1, 1953
The Gerry Mulligan Quartet was not only a groundbreaking pianoless group, featuring baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and trumpeter Chet Baker with a bassist and drummer, but the band also helped to launch Dick Bock’s Pacific Jazz label. Their unique approach to music came to be labeled as “cool” or West Coast jazz, relying on intricate improvisations, with Mulligan’s inventive, lyrical baritone being well complemented by Baker, an unschooled player who possessed a gift for playing by ear. Bassists Bobby Whitlock and Carson Smith, along with drummers Chico Hamilton or Larry Bunker, round out the group. There are numerous highlights within this volume, though Mulligan’s loping “Walking Shoes” (which he returned to throughout the remaining four-plus decades of his career), along with the group’s peppy rendition of “Bernie’s Tune,” are particularly noteworthy.
