Jazz Musician Gerry Mulligan Dies At Age 68

Baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, a versatile jazz musician who worked with Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis and Duke Ellington, died Saturday morning. He was 68.

Mulligan died at his home in Darien, Conn., from complications from a knee infection, said his wife, Franca Mulligan.

He helped create the cool jazz movement but was also at home in big band, bebop and Dixieland. Mulligan, also a bandleader and composer, recorded with a variety of well-known musicians in different styles.

Mulligan was born April 6, 1927, in New York and grew up in Philadelphia. He wrote arrangements for Johnny Warrington’s radio band as a teenager and wrote for Gene Krupa’s band after moving back to New York in 1946.

He became part of the cool jazz movement and took part in Davis’ recordings in 1949 and 1950.

Mulligan won acclaim in 1952 after forming his first pianoless quartet in Los Angeles with Chet Baker on trumpet. He played and recorded with Ellington at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958.

In 1960, Mulligan formed a 13-piece concert jazz band and toured Europe and Japan. Also that year, he played a clergyman in the movie “The Subterraneans.”

While touring with Brubeck’s groups from 1968 to 1972, Mulligan and saxophonist Paul Desmond displayed their talents for improvised countermelody.