Album review: the Gerry Mulligan Quartet - Spring in Stockholm, Live at Konserthuset, 1959 (New Land Records)

Gerry Mulligan (baritone sax, piano); Art Farmer (trumpet); Bill Crow (bass); Dave Bailey (drums) + Gene Krupa (spoken introduction)

The third great Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Following on from the groups where Chet Baker or trombonist Bob Brookmeyer shared the frontline with the leader, Art Farmer proves himself to be an equal to his illustrious predecessors.

Most jazz fans will, I guess, use the original recordings with Chet Baker on trumpet as the yardstick for anything that followed. This is understandable. At the time they were new, fresh and original. Still this concert, recorded in Sweden as part of a JATP package touring Europe in 1959, loses nothing by comparision.

After a spoken introduction by Krupa, whose own trio was part of the package, the quartet launch into Mulligan's As Catch Can. It's fast and the horns take the angular lines in their stride. One thing is clear, Farmer is a superior technician to what Baker was albeit perhaps not quite as lyrical, perhaps ... it's close.

Mulligan switches to piano for I Can't Get Started and Farmer puts his own lyricism on the line as just about every trumpet player since Bunny Berigan has done and indeed are still doing. Mulligan would have been the first to admit that as a pianist he wasn't Peterson but, nevertheless, he's effective and with Crow's bass and Bailey's unobtrusive drumming, helps Farmer make it a contender in a crowded field.

Just in Time moves along spritely with both horns soaring through the changes then trading eights and fours. Crow joins the party before they go out in a fugue-like manner.

Back to the piano for a Mulligan original - Spring is Sprung. Piano, trumpet and bass are all featured along with some tasty brushwork by Bailey in cahoots with the leader's piano. 

Art Farmer composed the 12 bar Blueport and, not surprisingly, he's at the top of his game after Mulligan's baritone solo has set the bar pretty high. It soon erupts into a battle royal with Mulligan and Farmer frequently paraphrasing each other. It's like a bare-knuckle brawl with no holds barred. Bailey and Crow remain cool underpinning the musical fisticuffs.

With only a pause to acknowledge the audience's appreciation they go into Utter Chaos which is the same tune as A Smooth One, the old Benny Goodman number that Mulligan frequently signed off with. Chet Baker? Nice singer. Lance