Gerry Mulligan is one of the most widely recognized
jazz musicians of our time and certainly the best known on his
instrument, the baritone saxophone. He is probably most associated with
the style of music he helped create, West Coast
jazz, but ironically, except for a brief period in
Los Angeles in the early 1950s, Mulligan always lived and worked in
New York City.
Born in 1927, Mulligan grew up in several cities before his family settled in
Philadelphia, where he studied
piano and
clarinet before moving on to the
saxophone. From an early age he knew what he wanted to do with his
life; as he later told an interviewer, "it was conditioned in me from
childhood to have a
band, to play with bands, to write for bands." The young Mulligan
showed a talent for writing and arranging music, and in the mid-1940s,
while still in high school, he began writing charts for the WCAU-CBS
radio orchestra led by Johnny Warrington. Arranging for Warrington and
touring with other jazz orchestras led Mulligan to New York City, where
he landed the prestigious job of staff arranger for the drummer
Gene Krupa's band in 1946. It was during this time that Mulligan
refined his saxophone playing, focusing on the baritone, an instrument
on which he faced less competition from other players in New York's
blooming jazz scene.
Mulligan's development as a musician, writer, and arranger became evident in his work with the trumpeter
Miles Davis's nine-piece group, which is captured on the seminal album Birth of the Cool
(1950). The project is considered to be the starting point for what
became known as "cool," or West Coast, jazz despite the fact that the
album was recorded in New York City. The nonet featured the unusual
instrumentation of
trombone, two saxophones,
tuba, and
French horn, in addition to Davis's
trumpet and the rhythm section of piano,
bass, and
drums. The influential album, which combined the exciting
improvisational style of bebop with the more formal, laid-back
arrangements of big band jazz, featured Mulligan's baritone work as well
as three of his compositions, Jeru, Venus de Milo, and Rocker. He also arranged the songs Godchild and Darn that Dream.
Despite his success, the ultracompetitive New York
scene made it difficult for Mulligan to earn a decent living, so in 1951
he headed west to California, where he did some arrangement work for
Stan Kenton's band. While at a jam session, he met the trumpeter Chet
Baker, with whom he went on to found what became known as the "pianoless
quartet." Heretofore unheard of in jazz, the group featured the horns
of Baker and Mulligan along with bass and drums, allowing the soloists
the extra freedom of not having to work with the chords of the standard
piano-based rhythm section. Although they only worked together for a
year before Mulligan was sent to prison on drug charges, the
Baker-Mulligan group became hugely influential, launching the West Coast
jazz craze that he had helped start with Birth of the Cool.
After his release from prison in 1954, Mulligan continued to tour and
record for the remainder of the 1950s with different versions of the
pianoless quartet, which at times included Bob Brookmeyer (valve
trombone), Zoot Sims (tenor saxophone), and Art Farmer (trumpet).
In 1960 Mulligan combined the concepts of the nonet
and the pianoless quartet into the Concert Jazz Band, featuring five
reed and six brass instruments along with the pianoless rhythm section.
Ever expanding his horizons, Mulligan occasionally played piano with
the group, which toured Europe and North America and recorded several
classic albums for the Verve label.
Mulligan kept touring and recording after the
breakup of the Concert Jazz Band in the late 1960s, occasionally
re-forming his classic groups and always developing his writing,
playing, and arranging. Continuing to work until his death from cancer,
Mulligan died on Jan. 20, 1996. The piano player and fellow West Coast
legend
Dave Brubeck, with whom Mulligan often played in the late 1960s and
early 1970s, summed up Mulligan's talent and influence by saying, "when
you listen to Gerry Mulligan, you hear the past, the present, and the
future."
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