Gerry Mulligan: Festive Minor

Received wisdom has long held that Gerry Mulligan's 1958-1959 quartet with Art Farmer was superior to his original pianoless quartet with Chet Baker because Farmer was a better trumpeter than Baker. Certainly Art's assurance on 1959's "Festive Minor" puts to shame Chet's fumbling on Gerry's 1957 "Festive Minor." What this overlooks, however, is Mulligan's maturation as a baritonist. Never a threat to musclemen such as Harry Carney and Pepper Adams, by the late '50s this lanky redhead was no longer a 98-pound weakling who got sand kicked in his face at the beach. Now Gerry did his own quiet kicking.