I was not the first and not the last time that Mulligan met Webster, but it was definitely the most quality recording, that recorded music in which the borders are drawn only by Gerry Mulligan and Ben Webster, without any interruptions.
You stand on the bridge, your hair against the wind and it’s time that the river below decides whose ally it is. I can’t stop thinking which music I should grant to your departure. You are the one departing, aren’t you? And you will never come back?
I turn a record in my hands. I swallow the details. Last year’s reprint of the 1960 original. I would not treat the original any better. Six pieces on two sides, recorded in Los Angeles. At the very end of 1959. This record is granted to your disappearance. Let it be its monument.
Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster – Chelsea Bridge (Alternative Take)