Gerry Mulligan

Genres:	Comedy • Easy Listening • Jazz • Music Videos & Concerts
Descriptive "tags":	jazz • saxophone • cool jazz • bebop
Decades Active:	1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s

Biography

Gerald Joseph Mulligan, 6 April 1927, New York City, New York, USA, d. 19 January 1996, Darien, Connecticut, USA. Raised in Philadelphia, Mulligan started out on piano before concentrating on arranging. He also took up the saxophone, first the alto and a few years later the baritone. Among the name bands that used his arrangements were those led by Gene Krupa and Claude Thornhill and he occasionally played in their reed sections. While writing for Thornhill he met and began a musical association with fellow arranger Gil Evans. In New York in 1948 Mulligan joined Evans and Miles Davis, for whom he wrote and played, by now almost exclusively on baritone. It is important to point out that Mulligan wrote seven tracks on the pivotal Birth Of The Cool recordings. In the early 50s Mulligan led his own groups but continued to arrange on a freelance basis. In this capacity his work was performed by Stan Kenton (these charts also being performed in the UK by Vic...

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