Gerry Mulligan
Gerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulliganwas an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also a notable arranger, working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, and others. Mulligan's pianoless quartet of the early 1950s with trumpeter Chet Baker is still regarded as one of the more important...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSaxophonist
Date of Birth6 April 1927
CountryUnited States of America
In fact, I heard Bird first, and had got well into listening to him. You know, it's the kind of accidental thing that awareness of a player is: what's available, what somebody happens to play for you.
And the other thing we do: we periodically have softball games with the band, because they're all baseball nuts that helps to keep the spirit alive.
But it's been kind of a sequence of events you know those sorts of things: you meet people and things happen, without thinking about it.
When [Billy] Strayhorn came on the scene, he just blew us away.
The Russian composers, especially, tricked the symphony orchestra into the kind of dynamic, rhythmic thing
Now, the instrumentation in the jazz band and the jazz dance band has gone through many evolutions. For instance, in the 'twenties the tradition was two or three saxophones
New York is still where I live most of the time.
Miles Davis is one who writes songs when he plays.
If you've only got one horn playing, I still want the sense of ensemble.
I've appeared on some other people's albums.
I'm fascinated with the electronic devices that we can mess around with.
I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.
Actually, it is a fact that I've been doing more writing than playing in recent years.
Eliminating the piano means that I've always worked closer with the bass than most players.