Profile of Gerry Mulligan on Famous Like Me

Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan (April 6, 1927 – January 20, 1996) was an American jazz musician, composer and arranger best known for his baritone saxophone playing, although he also played piano and clarinet. Early in his career however, his reputation was built as an arranger and composer.

Mulligan was born in Queens, New York and raised in Marion, Ohio where his father worked for the Erie Railroad.

In the late 1940s, Mulligan worked with the Claude Thornhill band. There he met fellow arranger Gil Evans. Later Mulligan joined with Miles Davis on the ground-breaking album Birth of the Cool. He played baritone sax, wrote "Jeru", "Venus De Milo", and "Rocker", and arranged "Godchild" and "Darn That Dream".

In 1952, Mulligan went to California and formed a piano-less quartet with trumpeter Chet Baker. While the group lasted only a year, it was a musical phenomenon. Mulligan and Baker established one of the most recognizable sounds of what has since been labelled "West Coast Cool" or "West Coast Sound" with their counterpuntal exchanges and embrace of crisp, brief, melodic improvisation. Mulligan stayed in the mainstream of the West Coast sound, but continued to record and/or tour with a wide range of musicians, including Ben Webster, Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, and others.

In the 1980's, the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band completed a five week long world tour, as well as a two week jazz cruise.

Mulligan is still regarded as one of the modern masters of the baritone saxophone.

He died from complications of knee surgery at age 68.

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External link

• The Gerry Mulligan Collection at the Library of Congress

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