Search - Gerry Mulligan :: Meets Monk

A fantastic meeting.

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 10/11/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"An album that could easily be mistaken for another one of those X meets Y recordings that proove that in jazz, being a great soloist often isn't enough to turn out a great performance, "Mulligan Meets Monk" is a fine example that sometimes being a great is enough to carry your weight. Who dreamed up this pairing is quite uncertain, but over two days in August of 1957, baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, one of the most adventerous musicians of his era and the standard by which the baritone sax is measured, recorded an album with the rhythm section of Thelonious Monk's working quartet-- Monk on piano, Wilbur Ware on bass, and Shadow Wilson on drums. The shoes that Mulligan had to fill were that of one of the few musicians who was more adventerous than he-- John Coltrane.



Muligan performs admirably-- the music is by and large Monk's-- four of the six pieces are Monk originals ("'Round Midnight", "Rhythm-a-ning", "Straight, No Chaser", and the underperformed "I Mean You"), with one Mulligan piece ("Decidingly") and a standard largely associated with Monk ("Sweet and Lovely"). For his part, Mulligan proves unnervingly flexible-- digging deep into the Monk idiom while maintaining his own ideal, ranging from velvety and lush (in what may be my favorite performance of "'Round Midnight") to stunningly agile ("Rhythm-a-ning") and just hard swinging and brilliant ("Straight, No Chaser"). Monk is his usual self-- a combination of laying out to let the horn wail and his usual dialog with the soloist, and with a rhythm section who by this point had developed a tight rapport with Monk, the pianist really cuts loose.



Like the rest of the recent Riverside reissues (the 20-bit remasters in the slip cases), the sound on this is unnervingly well cleaned up and is well worth the investment for anyone who has the original issue. The recording is additionally augmented by four alternate takes, with the total package stretching over an hour and the original liner notes reprinted.



Well worth listening to, "Mulligan Meets Monk" is a superb album, more in Monk's vein then Mulligan's, but I can't imagine anyone would not find a lot to love here. Recommended."

So Much More than I Expected!

Pharoah S. Wail | Inner Space | 02/15/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is the type of album I'd call a minor masterpiece. "Minor" in that it's not the #1 most essential Monk album you need to own, but a "masterpiece" in that it's absolutely great on its own terms! Mulligan completely gets the Monk vibe and this album is full of interesting new arrangements of Monk classics.



Much of it is rather mellow. I mean, it's not the Monk album with the most energy and bounce out there, but it is so calm and collected and so throroughly swinging that I can't help but love it. Besides that, just look at that tracklist! Three versions of I Mean You?? Thank you! Track #9 being my favorite I Mean You of the disc... but as much as I enjoy all 3 of them, I wouldn't put any of them in the same league as the one on the Monk In Paris: Live At Olympia 2-disc set.



The sound of this remaster is excellent. Everything is balanced and up-front. Nice full analog tone. It's not one of those albums where the horn is blasting your ears but you can't even hear the bass. Speaking of which, the personnel for this album is Monk on piano, Mulligan on baritone sax, Wilbur Ware on bass, and Shadow Wilson on drums.



This is one of those albums that you don't seem to hear very much about, for reasons completely unexplainable by the music contained herein. Monk is obviously having alot of fun playing off of Mulligan's solos, and when it's Monk's turn to solo... particulary on that #9 I Mean You... watch out. If you thought you had all the Monk you needed, but you don't have this one, think again. This is a classic.



Actually, looking back on some recent reviews, this album makes me realize I blew it on the number of stars on some past reviews. This is a great 4-star album, but things like Monk's Complete Live at the It Club, and Sonny Clark's Cool Struttin' are full-on 5-star albums. Sam Rivers' Contours should have gotten 3 stars because the good stuff is good, but there isn't enough of it to put it at the level of this.

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