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Release date: 24-09-2010 (originally released in 1957)
2010 EU limited edtion High-definition premium 180gm vinyl-What Is There to Say?, was one of the best albums made by Gerry Mulligan with his piano-less quartet featuring Art Farmer. Mulligan had developed the piano-less, small-group sound in a variety of settings with, among others, trumpeter Chet Baker, trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, and saxophonists Paul Desmond and Zoot Sims. -stickered & sealed.
Tracks: A1. WHAT IS THERE TO SAY (Harburg-Duke) 4:08 A2. JUST IN TIME (Comden-Green-Styne) 4:14 A3. NEWS FROM BLUEPORT (Bill Crow) 5:07 A4. FESTIVE MINOR (Gerry Mulligan) 6:17 B1. AS CATCH CAN (Gerry Mulligan) 3:58 B2. MY FUNNY VALENTINE (Rodgers-Hart) 4:10 B3. BLUEPORT (Art Farmer) 8:51 B4. UTTER CHAOS (Gerry Mulligan) 4:24 B5. WHAT IS THERE TO SAY [live] (Harburg-Duke) 4:52*
The repertoire includes some familiar tunes, like "My Funny Valentine", a
standard normally associated with Chet Baker. "What Is There to Say"
and "Just In Time", the other standards given the Mulligan overhaul
here, are balanced by Mulligan's "As Catch Can", "Festive Minor", and
"Utter Chaos", as well as Farmer's "Blueport" and Crow's "News From
Blueport". In his 1991 biography of Gerry Mulligan, Listen! Gerry
Mulligan, An Aural Narrative In Jazz, Jerome Klinkowitz sang the praises
of this album as the "flawlessly executed album that caught the high
point of [Mulligan's] improvisatory lyricism." Mulligan's career was
almost 14 years along at this point and this was his first work as a
leader for major-label Columbia. Mulligan was just coming into his prime
as a player, writer and arranger, with What Is There To Say? providing
what Klinkowitz described as a slice of "pure Mulligan ... exquisite
proof of Mulligan's gift as a writer and arranger ... as clear an
insight into the man and his music as four decades of listening might
provide." As a bonus, we have added a rare live version of the title
song by the same quartet performed in Sweden shortly after the studio
version was made
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