Artist: Gerry Mulligan
Album: Night Lights
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Cool/West Coast
Brand/Label: Mercury
Item Number: 818 271-2
Recorded: 1963/1965
Release Date: 1984
Tracklist:
1. Night Lights (1963 Version)
2. Morning Of The Carnival From ‘Black Orpheus’
3. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
4. Prelude In E Minor
5. Festival Minor
6. Tell Me When
7. Night Lights (1965 Version)
Gerry Mulligan Sextet (Tracks 1-6, recorded September 1963 at Nola Penthouse Studios, N.Y.C.)
Gerry Mulligan Quintet (Track 7, recorded 1965)
Musicians:
Gerry Mulligan (Clarinet, Baritone Saxophone, Piano)
Art Farmer (1-6) (Trumpet, Flugelhorn)
Bob Brookmeyer (1-6) (Trombone)
Jim Hall (1-6) (Guitar)
Bill Crow (1-6) (Bass)
Dave Bailey (1-6) (Drums)
Pete Jolly (7) (Piano)
Jond Gray (7) (Guitar)
Jimmy Bond (7) (Bass)
Hal Blaine (7) (Drums)
Review by Willis Conover
Jazz people look for beauty and offer love. Listen to the Cinderella songs they prefer. My Funny Valentine, for example: hidden for years and barely nourished by the gentility, this perfect maid, this dream of a cook, was first rescued and introduced around by Gerry Mulligan. We knew she was pretty, but Gerry saw her soul.The early Mulligan Quartet’s Valentine is mother of the six performances here. Morning of the Carnival, from Brazil; Prelude in E Minor, from Poland, in Brazilian dress. In the Wee Small Hours, from the solitary side of the swinging Sinatra; Tell Me When, from the honey pocket of the salty Ben Webster. And Gerry’s own two originals: Festive Minor, the last set at the club; and Night Lights (Gerry playing piano), back home. Each from a different seed; all related. Whatever they were, now they are songs of love.Musicians know of rooms around the world where lights are low, and tables too. They find them when the gig is through, to talk and drink and smile. The sandy :ounds of dancing feet are loudest in the room. You know the scene.Remember, once, a room so dark the street outside the window glared by contrast? Doors were locked, the air was sweet, the cigarette was shared. And maybe there was Thornhill’s Snowfall, Dusk, by lington, Our Waltz, by David Rose, or Moonlight Serenade.The bands are not the same. The songs are new. But nothing’s really changed.
Review by Scott Yanow
This is a rather relaxed recording featuring baritonist Gerry Mulligan and some of his top alumni (trumpeter Art Farmer, trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Bill Crow, and drummer Dave Bailey) exploring three of his own songs (including “Festive Minor”), Chopin’s Prelude in E minor, “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” and “Morning of the Carnival” (from Black Orpheus). The emphasis is on ballads and nothing too innovative occurs, but the results are pleasing and laid-back.