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Mulligan Concert Jazz Band at Olympia


Shrdlu

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At this time of excitement about the new Mosaic set of the Verve recordings by the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band, here's a great companion set, which just qualifies as a "box set": it has 2 CDs and comes in a small box. It is quite a handsome box, and is put out by an outfit called "Laserlight". The box also says Delta Music and gives a website: www.deltamusic.de.

It contains what seems to be everything performed at a concert in Paris, France on November 19, 1960. Selling at about $10.00 at your local De Soto dealer, it is a real bargain!

The personnel is almost the same as at the Vanguard session (December 11), the main difference being that Zoot is present and Conte Candoli is there instead of Clark Terry. All but one of the charts from the Vanguard are included, and it's very interesting to hear these other versions, which, not surprisingly, are quite different. ("Let My People Be" appears under the title "Spring Is Sprung"; these are basically the same piece, as a skeletal structure, though so much was left until the performances that they are not identical.)

The 15 pieces performed are all familiar items from the band's repertoire. There is one error in the listings: "Moten Swing" turns out to be "Broadway". (I was a little disappointed by that, as I was keen to hear how they would play that swing classic.)

The sound is very good, I think - a clear mono. Mono is quite reasonable, as the sound would be virtually mono if you were sitting in the audience several rows back from the front. The balance is very clear and you can hear each instrument perfectly.

Definitely recommended!

This is the only published non-Verve set that I have seen. It may be one of the sessions referred to by Michael Cuscuna in the latest Mosaic catalog - he says that Norman Granz made several live recordings of the band, and that these might appear in a future Mosaic set. I don't know whether this 2 CD set is a bootleg, by the way.

(The liner notes stink, and the package would be better without them. They are by some pompous armchair critic, whose criticisms are the height of impertinance. But these can be ignored.)

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I have this set too and highly recommend it. It is one of the best of the Laserlight/Delta music box sets of "Europe 1" concerts, together with the Miles/Trane concert.

The Mulligan set has now also been released on a hybrid SACD, which is very surprising for a budget label. I would not bet on a noticeable sound quality improvement though. Amazon Germany sells the SACD for 17 Euro (the 2CD set is 10 Euro). Other SACD titles include Armstrong, Ellington, Adderley and Peterson concerts from the series: http://www.deltamusic.de/sacd.php

For a complete listing of the "Europe 1" series, download the Jazz flyer from Delta Music: http://www.deltamusic.de/neuh.php

Edited by Claude
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I have this same concert on an RTE/Europe 1 2 disc cd set. On it Utter Chaos is just identified as "Concert End". Also as on the Delta release Broadway is mistaken for Moten Swing. Cost more than $10 though. Is that a joke about the "Desota dealership"? I don'tg get it.

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Meddy, the De Soto remark is a quote from the old Groucho Marx TV show. He ended each show by saying "When you go down to your De Soto dealer, don't forget to tell 'em Groucho sent you." There is a website somewhere with a few video clips of Groucho, including that sign-off.

I found two more albums of live performances: "Concert In The Rain" (from California) and "Swiss Jazz Days", from Zurich (11/17/60, only two days before the Paris performance). The Verve live performances (in Berlin and Milano) are from the same tour. I now suspect that all these concerts (Berlin, Milano, Zurich, Paris and maybe others) were recorded for Norman Granz, and that he and Gerry picked what they considered to be the best performances for the original LP ("On Tour"). That would make the four issued CDs bootlegs awaiting the ministrations of Mosaic.

Finally: "a" again! (And thanks to Mike Weil for showing me how to delete a thread. The "Help" feature gave no clue as to how to do this.)

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The Paris Concert Jazz Band 2CD that was issued is not a bootleg. The album was issued as part of a series albums of concerts organised by the Europe 1 radio station. Those concerts were produced - with Norman Granz' full cooperation - by Frank Tenot and Daniel Filipacchi who were mcing a very popular radio show at the time. They were recorded by Europe 1 technicians and were broadcast right after each of the concerts.

Filipacchi went on to build the Filipacchi publishing empire in Europe and the USA while Tenot became publisher of Paris-Match magazine.

Granz was a partner in most of these concerts but he obviously did not give publishing rights to all of them. No record of the Paris Ella Fitzgerald concerts produced by Tenot, Filipacchi and Granz has surfaced to my knowledge.

Other albums in the Europe 1 series included concerts by Miles Davis (the famous 1960 Olympia concert with John Coltrane), Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cannonball Adderley, Oscar Peterson, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Lionel Hampton, Sidney Bechet, Jimmy Smith among others. These were initially released on the Europe 1 label. They have been reissued about three years ago in France by the Trema label which added several albums from the concerts including a third CD of the Blakey Messengers with Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter and a Jimmy Giuffre concert CD.

And CDs from these concerts keep being issued by various labels (including those that show on the Delta site that Claude posted) all the time, it seems.

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I now suspect that all these concerts (Berlin, Milano, Zurich, Paris and maybe others) were recorded for Norman Granz, and that he and Gerry picked what they considered to be the best performances for the original LP ("On Tour").

The Paris Concert album is taken from the archives of a French radio, named Europe1, which had a leading program - "Pour ceux qui aiment le jazz" - run by the same people who owned Jazz Magazine. The Olympia concert was taped and broadcasted by the radio, much later issued on CD by Trema, among a bunch of other concerts, now licensed to the German Delta Music/Laserlight. Granz may have gotten some copies after negotiating the recording rights but he was not, as far as I know, responsible for the recording itself. This had happened two years earlier when the Jazz Messengers played the Club Saint-Germain : they were recorded by the same radio and the sound turned so good that RCA could make three LPs out of the tapes.

PS: I see my compatriot 'Brownie' posted qui the same story about the same time I was writting mine (he was there a the time B) ). Time difference runs our posts I believe.

Edited by Vincent, Paris
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The Zurich concert is highly recommended (and I did so here at least once - or maybe it was over on AAJ - in some Jeru-threads). It's a TCB release. TCB's a small and still young swiss label with quite a good catalogue. They should be distributed statesides, as far as I know. Also some of their productions are done in NYC (Buster Williams, Steve Nelson and Louis Hayes are among those recorded for TCB in the US).

TCB Homepage

One of the best features of TCB is their "Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series" (I have recommended these earlier, too): Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series

They have 13 CDs out now, by Mulligan (CJB & Quartet), Blakey (the Morgan-Shorter Messengers, two separate volumes), Cannonball, Dexter/Ben Webster (each alone for two tracks, then two they did together), Louis Hayes/Woody Shaw, Jones-Lewis BB, Buck Clayton all stars, Quincy Jones, Don Redman Orchestra (1946, very cool disc!), Clark Terry-Chris Woods, and Coleman Hawkins.

Here you find some more information about the Mulligan CJB release. The personnel is the same as on the Paris discs (which I do not have), and I like this concert very much, indeed!

(Other favorites from the series are the Jones-Lewis, Redman, and Hayes/Shaw discs, by the way)

These recordings are neither Granz nor bootleg things. They were produced by Swiss Radio (and thus probably -partly- broadcasted sometimes). TCB has acquired them from Swiss Radio, and this seems to be a perfectly legal deal.

ubu

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Thanks a lot for the information, Claude, Brownie, Vincent and King. This is all very interesting! It's also good to know that these releases are not bootlegs.

From the sound of it, it does not seem likely that Mosaic will be releasing these performances.

I am planning to order the Zurich and California (not sure of the city) CDs, as soon as I can afford them. They are listed on the Amazon.com website, but are much more expensive than the Paris set, which was amazingly cheap.

It is well worth having alternate versions of this band's performances, as they left a lot of room for spontaneity in their arrangements, and one is not hearing just a pile of alternate takes.

You mention the sound quality, Claude. The Paris set has very good sound, and I don't think that it needs an upgrade. Also, the mono is very "full" and rich, and you don't get that narrow sound that is on some mono recordings. The original engineers at Olympia were obviously very good.

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Yes, it is, Bob. Amazon, for one, lists it. Depending upon the postage charge, it might be cheaper to order it from the U.K. or Europe, though. But if memory serves, the Amazon U.S. price is about $18, and the set is well worth that amount. Not only is the music very good, but the playing time is very generous. You could rightly call this a "poor man's Mosaic set", meaning that if you are short of funds right now, here is a fairly cheap way to get in on the fun. You get a sizeable chunk of the band's repertoire, and it is from the same period, of course, as the first few sessions for Verve. If you also grab the Vanguard mini-LP CD, you have yourself a nice little package.

By the way, that mini-LP CD disappears by May 95, and I sense that it may vanish before then. A couple of days ago, I saw a whole slew of these (at least 8 copies, all stuffed into a bin together) in Borders at a slashed price. It was rather sad to see this excellent release obviously on its way out, and I also felt strangely sad that I already had it - I felt like grabbing it again! They also had several others of the first batch of these mini-LPs, apparently on a closeout sale. You have been warned.

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After several listenings, this set has really become a favorite! The band was never better. I hope you can all hear this sometime.

On "Broadway" (mislabeled "Moten Swing"), Buddy Clark and Mel Lewis really LOCK that tempo and groove, and they go for nearly 13 minutes. Wow! There is a fantastic trombone solo by Willie Dennis, where the track peaks. It is one of those performances where something really special happens that could not be planned in advance. If I had been playing on that track, I would not have been able to shift the chord changes out of my head for awhile! (I have a similar performance on video tape, by a Lionel Hampton big band. They get into one of those R&B grooves on "Air Mail Special", I think, and they can hardly end the piece; they try to stop it and it just re-starts, like a car engine that runs on after you cut the ignition.)

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this , really is astonishingly good value, good sound and some beefy performances made me wonder why I bothered with the Mosaic set !!

Only jesting, but this is an excellent companion even if it doesn't shed really much extra light on the CJB. Some very strong alto solos presumably by Mr Quill.

Edited by Clunky
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Concert in the Rain ..JazzBand EBCD 2129-2

is a recording made at the Newport Jazz Festival July 1 1960

I believe it represents the first recording by rhe CJB. There are basically 8 tunes played, with a bit of Utter Chaos as an introduction and closing theme.

Broadway

I Want to Live

You're Clear out of This World

Manoir de mes Reves

Walkin Shoes

Sweet and Slow

Gonna Go Fishin'

Blueport.

The Anthill recorded by the Sextet is also included with a German radio introduction.

The concert was recorded by the US Information service..

As to current availability.. I guess you can search all the usual internet sites.It might just be listed as the Mulligan CJB and Sextet.

Edited by P.D.
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  • 4 weeks later...

I just got the Paris one from amazon Germany.

It's a one CD SACD thing, from Delta Music.

Personnel is Ferrara, Candoli, Travis, Brookmeyer, Dennis, Ralph, Quill, Donoval, Allen, Mulligan, Clark, Lewis.

Is that correct? The liners mention Zoot Sims being there, too!

The tracks are:

YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF ME 4.24

BLACK NIGHTGOWN 3.56

BODY & SOUL 5:36

BWEEBIDA BOBBIDA 9:13

BARBARA'S THEME 5.41

APPLE CORE 4:59

COME RAIN OR COME SHINE 4:56

I'M GONNA GO FISHIN' 7:18

MOTEN SWING 13.07

OUT OF THIS WORLD 4:09

Is this only half of the music?

Can someone who has the 2CD edition please compare?

thanks,

ubu

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Shit! I knew it! :rmad:

Thanks, Claude!

I'm quite sure that when I ordered it, it said 2CDs. Now it says nothing anymore on the amazon.de site. Hell! And they took sooooo long to send me that crap! And of course I already opened it :angry:

Guess I gotta take it now...

And what about Sims? Is he there or not? I had no time to listen yet.

ubu

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King, Zoot Sims is definitely heard at the Paris concert. Jim Reider is also present, as section tenor, but he takes some solos which sound similar to Zoot. One way to distinguish them is that Zoot has a soulful vibrato but Jim does not.

(By the way, the trombonist's name is spelled Raph, and the altoist's name is Donovan.)

The titles not on your CD are "Spring Is Sprung", "My Funny Valentine", "Go Home", "Blueport" and "Utter Chaos". (Also, the track labeled "Moten Swing" is "Broadway".) "Spring Is Sprung" is very similar to "Let My People Go", from the Village Vanguard set; it has solos by all three trumpeters, and this section goes on for far too long, I think.

The failure to include all the tracks on your one CD has nothing to do with it being an SACD. The playing time is over 80 minutes, and so no-one could release it all on one CD.

I do not have time to play it all again to check for Zoot's solos, but, from memory, I think he is only heard on "Apple Core", "Come Rain ..." and, of course, "Go Home". He also plays on those on the Verve "On Tour" album.

Why not order the 2 CD set from hmv.co.uk, which sells it for only 5.99 pounds plus postage? Any ONE of the two CDs is worth more than that.

I hope this helps. Sorry to hear about your disappointment.

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  • 1 month later...

Just received the Newport "Concert In The Rain" CD. (Jazz Band Compact Classics EBCD 2129-2, not to be confused with DCC Compact Classics). It turns out that this was issued in England in 1996 by an outfit called Flyright Records, which is a little surprising, as it was recorded in the U.S.

This is well worth having, as, even with the Mosaic set and the other three CDs of this band's output, one could still say that there is a relative paucity of available material, considering the quality and importance of the band.

The details are:

Gerry Mulligan (leader, bars, piano), with

Don Ferrara, Phil Sunkel, Conte Candoli (tp), Bob Brookmeyer (vtb), Wayne André (tb), Alan Raph (btb), Gene Quill (cl, as), Dick Meldonian (as), Jim Reider (ts), Gene Allen (b-cl, bars), Buddy Clark (bass), Mel Lewis (d). July 1, 1960.

1. Introduction by Willis Conover and Mulligan; Utter Chaos (theme)

2. Broadway

3. Theme From "I Want to Live"

4. Out of This World

5. Manoir de mes Rêves

6. Eighteen Carrots

7. Walkin' Shoes

8. Sweet and Slow

9. I'm Gonna Go Fishin'

10. Blueport

11. Utter Chaos (theme)

There's plenty to enjoy here. It is great to have alternate versions of several pieces, and this set includes the only extant recorded version of "Eighteen Carrots" and a version of "Walkin' Shoes" (not on any of the surviving Verve tapes, though it is on the CD of the Zurich concert). The sound is not perfect - the stage acoustics probably being the main culprit here - but it is still good and the music comes through very well. Although the band is not quite as fluent and tight as it later became, and there was still just a little fine tuning to be done (mainly unwritten, I think), the performance is still at a very high level, as one would expect from these musicians. (Possibly the only thing that was not the best was the acoustics, which I've already mentioned.)

A highlight is "Manoir de mes Rêves". This is a lovely chart, of course, and they do a fine job with it. Also, "I'm Gonna Go Fishin'", the only item for which they already had an approved take in the (Verve) can, is very successful here - it would be hard to decide which is the better version. I get the impression that the noisy crowd may have led Mulligan to shorten some of the performances (remember that the charts always left room for extra solo choruses etc.), though they were probably watching the clock, too, to fit into the Newport schedule.

There is a little piano: there doesn't seem to have been a dedicated mike for it, so it's hard to pick up, but I can hear some on "Broadway" and "Eighteen Carrots". It's comping only, though, no solos. (Despite the notes, there is also some piano on the Zurich date, too.)

I decided to make a CDr excluding the announcements, and I prefer it significantly; I found that it helped me to concentrate on the music better.

So, recommended!

It is listed on the Amazon site, and my copy came from "Mperich", who gave quick and friendly service.

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