Back in the early 1950s, music fans were looking for something besides the torrid speed and oblique harmonies of bebop, originated and perpetuated by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. As anti-thesis to their thesis, the Hegelian team of trumpeter Chet Baker and baritone saxist Gerry Mulligan came across a softer, lighter and more melodic style, eventually labeled “West Coast Cool”. This two disc set captures the revolutionary sounds of the revolutionary piano-less quartet in both studio and concert settings, a style and attitude which the wake is still felt to this very day.
Ironically, the first session from 1952 includes a pianist (Jimmy Rowles), but sans drummer for the light and spry “She Didn’t Say Yes, She Didn’t Say No”. After that, you get the lithe horns blending in for “Bernie’s Tune” and “Line For Lyons” while Baker’s delicate horn on “My Funny Valentine” set the standard for decades. The combination of Mulligan’s foggy bottom with Baker’s fragile horn, either open or muted, created a tone and attitude of driving along PCH in a convertible with the top down. The team has a soft swing on pieces like “Walkin’ Shoes” and drummer Chico Hamilton sashays like Fred Astaire on pieces like “Soft Shoe,” “God Child” while bassist Carson Smith gently propels the music forward.
Larry Bunker replaces Hamilton halfway through, and is sleek on “Love Me Or Leave Me” and “Half Nelson. On the concert session at the tiny LA Club The Haig the quartet bounces on” Five Brothers” and is gorgeously pleading on “My Funny Valentine”. Songs that set a standard.