Wednesday, March 30, 2005

My big purchase

I got the Mosaic reissue of “The Complete Verve Gerry Mulligan Concert Band Sessions” recently. It’s not cheap ($78 with shipping for four CDs), but I don’t recall ever being happier with a music purchase right now.

I love this band, in which trombonist Bob Brookmeyer played as big a role as Mulligan, and the sound, liner notes and packaging are super.

The third disk with the live Village Vanguard concert from December 1960 and featuring Clark Terry’s beautiful trumpet is particularly good and you can get it as a reissued single CD from Verve. “Blueport” from this set is just an all-time classic.

On the Mosaic disk you also get a Webster Hall, New York, performance from July 1961, which may be even better than the Vanguard concert. Doc Severinsen fills in for Terry and it makes me regret that he’s known more for being Johnny Carson’s foil than as a fine jazz trumpeter.

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