The complete master takes by Gerry Mulligan s original 1952-53 mostly piano-less quartet with Chet Baker. These recordings would prove enormously infl uential and set the groundwork for many other groups. In Chet Baker s short memoirs, published posthumously under the title As Though I Had Wings, the trumpeter remembered the beginnings of the formation that made jazz history: When I heard that Gerry had hitchhiked to L.A. from New York, and that he was interested in putting together a group, I was curious to fi nd out about this guy. A couple of weeks later I was called for a rehearsal with Mulligan. Chico Hamilton, Bob Whitlock, Gerry and myself were present. The group clicked immediately under Gerry s direction, and a couple of weeks later we began what turned out to be an eleven-month run at a little club across from the Ambassador Hotel called the Haig. One of the factors that made the quartet special was the absence of the piano from the rhythm section, which usually consisted of piano, bass and drums. The lack of the piano gave the bass more liberties with the harmony, and also presented the horns with more space to improvise. All of their recordings together from that period are on this 2-CD set, with the sole exception of fi ve alternate takes that didn t fi t due to time limitations.