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Perfection: Gerry Mulligan - Night Lights (1963)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
If all Gerry Mulligan had composed and recorded was the song Night Lights, he'd be extraordinary. The impossibly beautiful and hypnotic ballad appeared on his 1963 album of the same name. To make the track even more compelling, Mulligan plays piano, not baritone saxophone, and he was accompanied by Art Farmer (flhrn), Bob Brookmeyer (v-tb), Jim Hall (g), Bill Crow (b) and Dave Bailey (d). Here's Gerry Mulligan's Nigh Lights; do yourself a favor and set the clip to loop, ...
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Perfection: Gerry Mulligan - Westwood Walk (1953)
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Every celebrity I've interviewed who lives in the Westwood section of Los Angeles has said the reason they live there is you don't have to take a car to get around the village. You can walk. I'm not sure if that was the meaning behind Gerry Mulligan's song title, but it would certainly make sense. Or he originally entitled the song Westward Walk, in tribute to his trip made by hitchhiking from New York to Los Angeles in 1951. Mulligan ...
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Gerry Mulligan: 'Spring in Stockholm,' 1959
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In early 1958, baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan formed a new pianoless quartet, featuring Art Farmer on trumpet, Henry Grimes on bass and Dave Bailey on drums. By July, Bill Crow had replaced Grimes on bass. The post-war, no-piano format was first pioneered by Mulligan in 1952, with Chet Baker on trumpet, Bob Whitlock on bass and Chico Hamilton on drums. The absence of a piano to fill space compelled the quartet to be more contrapuntal in its execution. But the ...
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Backgrounder: Gerry Mulligan - Jeru
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
"Jeru" is a nickname Miles Davis came up with for baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan in the late 1940s when they were rehearsing the Miles Davis Nonet. The recordings they made between 1949 and 1950 would eventually wind up on a Capitol compilation album entitled Birth of the Cool. Jeru is also the title of an album that Mulligan recorded for Columbia in June 1962. Here's the personnel: Gerry Mulligan (bar), Tommy Flanagan (p), Ben Tucker (b), Dave Bailey (d) and ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Gerry Mulligan
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Gerry Mulligan's birthday today!
Gerry Mulligan grew up in Philadelphia and first learned piano, which he played occasionally. While in his teens, he wrote arrangements for Johnny Warrington's radio band (1944) and played reed instruments professionally. After moving to New York in 1946, he joined Gene Krupa's big band as staff arranger, attracting attention with his Disc Jockey Jump (1947). He then became involved with the nascent cool-jazz movement in New York, taking part in ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Gerry Mulligan
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Gerry Mulligan's birthday today!
Gerry Mulligan grew up in Philadelphia and first learned piano, which he played occasionally. While in his teens, he wrote arrangements for Johnny Warrington's radio band (1944) and played reed instruments professionally. After moving to New York in 1946, he joined Gene Krupa's big band as staff arranger, attracting attention with his Disc Jockey Jump (1947). He then became involved with the nascent cool-jazz movement in New York, taking part in ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Gerry Mulligan
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Gerry Mulligan's birthday today!
Gerry Mulligan grew up in Philadelphia and first learned piano, which he played occasionally. While in his teens, he wrote arrangements for Johnny Warrington's radio band (1944) and played reed instruments professionally. After moving to New York in 1946, he joined Gene Krupa's big band as staff arranger, attracting attention with his Disc Jockey Jump (1947). He then became involved with the nascent cool-jazz movement in New York, taking part in ...
read more
Five Videos: Gerry Mulligan
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan was a potent artist whose reach extended into many different areas of jazz across six decades. As a dominant arranger and player in the 1940s, he influenced big bands led by Gene Krupa, Elliot Lawrence and Claude Thornhill, fusing bop and swing. In 1949 and '50, he was a member of Miles Davis's so-called Birth of the Cool band as a player, arranger and composer. In the early 1950s, he formed a contrapuntal pianoless quartet on ...
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Gerry Muligan: Four Videos
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Yesterday, I had an afternoon visit with Gerry Mulligan. I began listening to his piano-less quartet in 1952, then his tentet in '53 followed by his groups with Bob Brookmeyer starting in 1954. The stuff still enchants with a fresh, clean, swinging sound. Which, of course, led me to YouTube. Here are four Mulligan clips, three of which went up recently: Here's Gerry Mulligan profiled on CBS Sunday Morning by pianist Billy Taylor in 1982... Here's a Mulligan masterclass in ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Gerry Mulligan
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Gerry Mulligan's birthday today!
Gerry Mulligan grew up in Philadelphia and first learned piano, which he played occasionally. While in his teens, he wrote arrangements for Johnny Warrington's radio band (1944) and played reed instruments professionally. After moving to New York in 1946, he joined Gene Krupa's big band as staff arranger, attracting attention with his Disc Jockey Jump (1947). He then became involved with the nascent cool-jazz movement in New York, taking part in ...
read more
