Gerry Mulligan & Chet Baker: Bernie's Tune

In Los Angeles during the summer of 1952, transplanted New Yorker Gerry Mulligan inaugurated a new era of West Coast jazz. The bright, upbeat music of his pianoless quartet with 22-year-old trumpet phenom Chet Baker was noticed even by Time magazine. Coming in the wake of what Time called "the frantic extremes of bop," Mulligan & Baker's melodicism, focused solos and thoughtful counterpoint, jostled along by Chico Hamiltons nimbly brushed snare and firmly booted bass drum, made jazz listenable again. Their signature "Bernie's Tune," a brilliant conceptual breakthrough, has long outlived the movement for which it served as a template.