ABSTRACT
Gerald Joseph Mulligan, born in New York City, was a baritone saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He began his career as an arranger, first for Gene Krupa and then with the experimental band of Claude Thornhill, in which he briefly played alto sax. Mulligan combined a very original style of composition and arranging with his playing, but it was in the Miles Davis Birth of the Cool (Capitol #762) seminal album of 1949-1950, with fellow arranger Gil Evans, that the two sides of Mulligan’s work first found a suitable balance. As an arranger, Mulligan was among the first to attempt to adapt the language of bop for big band. He achieved a measure of success with both Krupa (who found Mulligan “a kind of temperamental guy who wanted to expound a lot of his ideas”) and Thornhill, but for all the variety of his later work, as writer and as performer, Mulligan retains the colors and effects of his 1950s quartets in which he explored the possibilities of scoring and improvising jazz in a low-key, seemingly subdued manner with complex lines that always retained a rich, melodic approach. Mulligan fronted his own 10-piece band on disc in the early 1950s, then began a musical association with Chet Baker in 1952 (documented on Best of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker [Pacific Jazz #95481, 1991]). When Baker quit (1953), Mulligan formed other quartets, notably with trombonist Bob Brookmeyer in the mid-1950s, and became a proponent of the California “cool jazz” movement. Although the quartet format dominated Mulligan’s work during this part of his career, he occasionally formed larger groups, sometimes working with veteran saxophonist Ben Webster on recordings and in concert. Early in the 1960s, Mulligan formed his Concert Jazz Band, which was periodically revived. He interspersed this with directing groups of various sizes, working and recording with other leaders, including a long stint in Dave Brubeck’s quartet, 1968-1972, and in frequently rewarding partnerships with musicians such as Paul Desmond, Stan Getz, Johnny Hodges, Zoot Sims, and Thelonious Monk. In the early 1970s, Mulligan led big bands, a series of jazz ensembles with Mulligan playing saxophones and piano, and small groups for worldwide concert tours, recording sessions, and radio and television appearances. The 1980s and early 1990s saw him following a similar pattern, sometimes expanding the size of the big band, sometimes content to work in the intimate setting of a quartet or a quintet. A highlight of this period was his performance at All Star White House Tribute to Duke Ellington (Blue Note #35249, 1969). In 1981, his album Walk on the Water (DRG #5194), a big-band recording, was awarded a Grammy for Best Jazz Large Ensemble Recording. After his death, several Mulligan discs were released, mostly containing reissues of previously recorded material. One that contained material from his last years is Art of Gerry Mulligan: The Final Recordings (Telarc Jazz #83517, 2000), consisting of previously released material recorded between 1993 and 1995. Mulligan was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1991 and into the Down Beat Hall of Fame the next year. He died in Darien, Connecticut.
