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Mulligan Meets Monk

I happen to like Gerry Mulligan's gruff and bouncy playing. Maybe Mulligan meets Monk might have seemed like a gimmick at the time--see what happens when you combine the white west coast cool school with Monk's particular brand of bop. But it actually works surprisingly well, with a very nice version of Monk's classic tune "Round Midnight." There's own standard, "Sweet and Lovely," which was a Monk favorite, and one song by Mulligan, "Decidedly." For years I had only heard one track from this, a take of "I Mean You," so it's nice to hear the whole shebang.