Gerry Mulligan Centennial: Mulligan and Me
About This Event
Gerry Mulligan Centennial: Mulligan and Me at Jazz at Lincoln Center presents a program framed around the work of Gerald "Jeru" Mulligan. Mulligan emerged as a leading baritone saxophonist in the cool-jazz era, worked as an arranger for Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis and Stan Kenton, and led a piano-less quartet with Chet Baker widely associated with that period; his compositions "Walkin' Shoes" and "Five Brothers" have entered the standard repertoire.
About Mulligan and Me
At Jazz at Lincoln Center, **Gerry Mulligan Centennial: Mulligan and Me** traces the music and working methods of baritone saxophonist and arranger Gerry Mulligan, a key figure in cool jazz and the postwar New York scene. The program moves between his roles as bandleader and behind-the-scenes architect, touching on his arrangements for Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis, and Stan Kenton. In a city that helped shape his sound, the set reads like a compact oral history in charts and tone. The clearest critical point is how deliberately it treats restraint as an aesthetic choice, not a limitation.
About the Artist
Gerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph Mulligan, also known as Jeru, was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, pianist, composer and arranger. Though primarily known as one of the leading jazz baritone saxophonists—playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz—Mulligan was also a significant arranger working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, and others.