1959 · Album
Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges
Recorded 1959 · Verve Records · Produced by Norman Granz
Two Voices, One Conversation
Mulligan and Hodges find an easy rapport, trading ideas like old friends who don't need to explain themselves.
This meeting between Gerry Mulligan and Johnny Hodges works because neither player tries to dominate. Hodges, the Duke Ellington veteran with that warm, burnished saxophone tone, moves through these standards like he's got all the time in the world. Mulligan, meanwhile, keeps things lean and conversational on baritone sax, letting space breathe between the phrases. You get the sense they're genuinely listening to each other rather than taking turns showing off.
The album sits comfortably in Mulligan's discography as a straightforward blowing session — not a landmark moment like his pianoless quartet work, but solid and unpretentious. These are mostly familiar tunes, standards that both men knew inside out, which is exactly the point. The interest lies in how two very different saxophone voices approach the same material. Hodges favors legato lines and ornamental phrasing; Mulligan is more direct, more architecturally minded. Neither approach cancels the other out. Instead, they complement.
If you're new to Mulligan, this isn't where you start — begin with his quartet recordings or the West Coast cool jazz stuff for a better sense of what made him distinctive. But if you already know his work and you're curious about how he sounds in dialogue with someone from the Ellington world, this delivers exactly what it promises. It's not going to blow your mind, but it's the kind of album that rewards a relaxed listen, the kind of thing that works perfectly as evening company.
Who's playing
Buddy Clarkbass
Claude Williamsonpiano
Johnny Hodgesalto saxophone
Gerry Mulliganbaritone saxophone
Mel Lewisdrums
Where next?
More by Gerry Mulligan
All 14 albums →
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
