The Mullikin Archive

By Jim Schenkel '68

Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, it was a rare Nassoon performance that didn’t include a song arranged by Kent Mullikin ’64. His Land of the Sea and Sun and Nightherder’s Song are still performed today at reunions of alumni from that era. Two of his three quartet charts, Liza and Mam’selle, are still sung by the Nassoon alumni quartet known as Coast to Coast. And the third, I Wish You Love, has become almost the theme song of the Nassoons.

His undergraduate output—a relative handful of songs—was just a start. What is not so well known is that, after an early post-Princeton pause, Kent renewed his musical efforts again in the 1990s, and has since turned out dozens of new quartet arrangements of music from the Great American Songbook. A few have been performed and recorded by Coast to Coast including Little Girl Blue, I Thought About You, Nobody’s Heart Belongs to Me, and Here’s That Rainy Day.

But there’s much more. Kent’s broad familiarity with the music of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s has led him to pick out some of the best songs of that prolific period, such as Duke Ellington’s I Got it Bad (and that Ain’t Good), and I Like the Sunrise. Along with Harold Arlen’s When the Sun Comes Out is his acidic Down With Love, with E.Y. Harburg’s sly and sardonic lyrics. There are also rare gems like Invitation and Cry Me a River. But the piece de resistance may be Kent’s chart of Autumn Leaves (one of the many songs in this collection with lyrics by Johnny Mercer)—perhaps Kent’s best ever arrangement, complete with an original verse.

These delights have languished in the piano bench for far too long. It’s time for new Nassoon alumni quartets and other groups to work up some of these songs and get them into the light of day. All of them, and a great deal more, are online at www.quojure.com/nassoons/whitebook.html. Take a look and a listen.

Next time: The later works of Richard Peterson ’60.

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(We Nassoons owe a debt of gratitude and a big time “Root!” to Jim Schenkel ‘68 for his tireless efforts over a long period of time to digitize the Black Book, an endeavor that has now extended to the sizable post-graduation output of Kent Mullikin ‘64 and Richard Peterson ‘60. Jim began this journey 20 years ago using a now antiquated software called MusicTime, only to start all over again about 10 years later when he discovered a much better mouse trap, Finale. Thank you so much, Jim! ‘Soons, check out Jim’s website. There is a lot of great music there to be enjoyed and, hopefully, sung. Ed.)