Gerry Mulligan

★★★★ Night Lights NEW LAND. LP

Nocturnal-themed jazz classic sees daylight again.

Though he was born in New York, baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan became a leading light of the cool jazz scene that flourished on America’s West Coast in the 1950s. Lighter and less intense than the East Coast’s fiery hard bop aesthetic, California’s cool sound was defined by an unhurried, languorous vibe that is epitomised by Night

Lights, a Mulligan LP first issued on the Philips label in 1963. The saxophonist, whose horn is both breathy and resonant, leads a finely-tuned sextet that features the talents of trumpeter Art Farmer, guitarist Jim Hall and trombonist, Bob Blumenthal, who blend beautifully on a mixture of somnolent, crepuscular ballads and lulling bossa nova grooves. Sonically, the album sounds better than ever thanks to engineer Kevin Gray, whose mastering of the original tapes brings out every expressive nuance in the sextet’s performances. Charles Waring