(b New York, 6 April 1927; d Darien, CT, 20 Jan 1996). American jazz baritone saxophonist and arranger. He first learnt the piano. After moving to New York in 1946 he joined Gene Krupa’s big band as staff arranger, and attracted attention with his Disc Jockey Jump (1947, Col.). He then became involved with the nascent cool-jazz movement, contributing scores to the big bands of Elliot Lawrence and Claude Thornhill and taking part in the performances (1948) and recording sessions (1949–50) of Miles Davis’s nonet. By this time he was specializing on the baritone saxophone and playing in groups with Kai Winding and others. He also wrote scores for Stan Kenton’s band and recorded with his own ‘tentet’ (1951), which was modelled on Davis’s ensemble.
In 1952 Mulligan, then based in Los Angeles, formed his first ‘pianoless’ quartet, with Chet Baker on the trumpet. The group was instantaneously successful, and brought Baker and Mulligan international acclaim; among their recordings were Line for Lyons and Bark for Barksdale (both 1952, Fan.). Baker was replaced in 1953 by Bob Brookmeyer on the valve trombone, and the following year the group made a sensational appearance at the Salle Pleyel, Paris (Paris Concert, 1954, Vogue). Mulligan began dominating jazz opinion polls for his instrument. In 1960 he organized his own 13-piece concert jazz band and recorded the album Concert Jazz Band (Verve); the band toured Europe that year and Japan in 1964. After it disbanded Mulligan became an active sideman, working often with Dave Brubeck (1968–72) and as a freelance arranger. He formed new big bands and a sextet, and appeared regularly in New York and Italy; he also began playing the soprano saxophone. In 1986 he led a quintet.
Although he was slow to develop as an instrumentalist, Mulligan has long been recognized as the most important baritone saxophonist in jazz since Harry Carney. Apart from the cool idiom which he helped to create, he was equally at home in a big-band, bop or even dixieland context (playing the clarinet in the last), and his excellent recordings with musicians as varied as Johnny Hodges and Thelonious Monk show an unusual musical adaptability. Initially, however, Mulligan made his reputation as an arranger of band scores with intricate inner parts, careful balancing of timbres, low dynamics and light swing, all of which features are present in his settings of Jeru, Godchild and Venus de Milo (all 1949, Cap.) for Davis’s nonet. Later he abstracted these qualities in his pianoless groups, where the low volume and absence of chordal underpinnings freed the wind players to improvise in delicate two-part counterpoint. Some of Mulligan’s best playing may be heard in his recordings with Chet Baker, Bob Brookmeyer and most notably Paul Desmond, with whom he shared an unusual talent for improvised countermelody.
GroveJ (J.B. Robinson)
L. Feather: ‘Gerry Mulligan’, Down Beat, xxvii (1960), no.11, p.22; no.12, p.20
M. James: ‘Gerry Mulligan’, Ten Modern Jazzmen: an Appraisal of the Recorded Work of Ten Modern Jazzmen (London, 1960), 93–109
G. Lees: ‘Gerry Mulligan: a Writer's Credo’, Down Beat, xxx/2 (1963), 19–21
L. Tomkins: ‘The Gerry Mulligan Story’, Crescendo International, vii (1969), no.8, pp.6–7; no.9, pp.17–18; no.10, pp.13–14
P. Willard: ‘Mulligan Full Steam Ahead’, Down Beat, xii/17 (1974), 18
A. Smith: ‘Jeru's Views’, Down Beat, xliii/13 (1976), 13
I. Kendall: ‘Mulligan's Due’, JJI, xxxi/1–2 (1978), 30–32
R. Brown: ‘Gerry Mulligan: Cool Charts, Bearish Tone’, Down Beat, xlvi/11 (1979), 12
A. Astrup: The Gerry Mulligan Discography (Soeberg, 1989)
J. Klinkowitz: Listen: Gerry Mulligan: an Aural Narrative in Jazz (New York, 1991)
J. BRADFORD ROBINSON