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
Actually, when I was very young, first starting to play, I think I probably listened more to clarinet players than to saxophones.
You start way down on a low B flat on the tuba and you have a chromatic scale; you can match the colours all the way up, till you get to the top of the trumpet.
Only the French, I guess, really use tenor and alto to any great extent in the orchestra
The recording industry has changed; they're enjoying such incredible success in the pop field
When we've finished the current tour I'm going to go back to Italy and see if I can do some more writing.
A very talented player and all around excellent musician. I love hearing his records on radio!
When I began listening to saxophones, I was first attracted to Coleman Hawkins
People are approaching electronic levels in music; although not all of it happens to tickle my fancy
Then, of course, I played alto and tenor, wherever there were jobs.
The other saxophones, except as solo instruments, really don't have much point in the orchestra
You can make a saxophone into an electric organ; you can do everything with it
The baritone can serve functions that the alto and tenor cannot, in orchestral voicing
Life on the road is murder. It's as though life begins and ends when you have your horn in your mouth.
This life of being a transient human being has gotten to a point when it's very hard to bear