Gerry Mulligan
Gerry Mulligan was known for his outstanding writing skills along with his talentas a baritone saxophonist. Mulligan's skills were developed at an early age, whenhe was seventeen he wrote for Jonny Warrington's radio band. Even beforesettling on the baritone sax, he played the piano and other various reed instruments. He also wrote arrangements for influential musicians such as ClaudeThornhill and Stan Kenton (Down Beat 1). Mulligan became known for his work as an arranger, writer, and soloist onthe Miles Davis Album The Birth of Cool. Some of Mulligan's Compositionsincluded on this album are Godchild and Jeru (Klinkowitz 233). His influentialinvolvement with this album helped to launch his career. After his success he then moved to Los Angeles where Mulligan, alongwith trumpeter Chet Baker, formed the first piano-less quartet (Down Beat1) Thiswas unheard of at the time, and was definitely a shock to the jazz community(Williams 29). The event that attributed to this unusual quartet happened at a gigone night when the piano player, Jimmy Rawles didn't show up. Due to the factthat the group was forced to play without him, Mulligan came to the realizationthat he could carry the band without the
Through repeating thebeginning, the entire piece is efficiently and smoothly unified. This in turn would increase thenumbers of the audience, and therefore increase the profit. Another quality I like about cool jazzis that the instruments don't get loud or screeching like they did in earlier forms ofjazz. The drums also played in a softer tone by use of brushes rather than sticks. Amoving base line is used to smoothly move the piece along. After the harmonizing sequence the trumpet andsax go back to a call and response pattern. My favorite period in jazz history to listen to is cool jazz. Continuing on, the sax plays in thebackground which adds flow to the piece. The song Walkin' Shoes is not a very dense piece. This led to the start of the popularity of the piano-lessquartet (klinkowitz 65). Afterwards the drums return to there regular pace. Another piece performed by Mulligan's Quartet was Makin' Whoppee. This technique provides a gentle, softsound rather than the hard back beat associated with other forms of jazz. Although a bit unusual the pieceends with falling dissonance.
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