Gerry Mulligan - "A Writer's Credo"

Steven A. Cerra

“Mulligan has been closely involved in the entire history of modern jazz orchestration, and younger fans, who know him primarily as a baritone saxophonist, are unaware of it. Yet it was as a writer that he gained his broadest early acceptance, and some of the arrangements he wrote for Gene Krupa— and an original for Stan Kenton called Young Blood —  are well-remembered classics.” - Gene Lees, Jazz author, critic and producer of the JazzLetter

"Chet was one of the best intuitive musicians I've ever seen. We used to get some remarkable things going. I remember one night at the Haig in Los Angeles, nobody called a tune all evening. As a tune ended, someone would noodle with another melody, and we would all go into the same thing. We'd play for an hour and a half that way, take a break, and go on and do it again. It never let up. It was one of the most exciting evenings of playing I can remember." - Gerry Mulligan, baritone saxophonist, composer-arranger, bandleader

 "Then, too, to be honest, I find writing very frustrating. I'm a slow writer, because I'm trying always to think what it will feel like to play it in various situations. There's too much in jazz writing that doesn't move well. They haven't learned from the simplifying that we did with that nine-piece band with Miles, when we got it down to the fewest necessary elements.” - Gerry Mulligan, baritone saxophonist, composer-arranger, bandleader

 "What I came back to is that jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.” - Gerry Mulligan, baritone saxophonist, composer-arranger, bandleader

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