GERRY MULLIGAN AND CHET BAKER

Although the Claude Thornhill Orchestra, the Miles Davis Nonet, and Lennie Tristano all developed their music on the East Coast, the first superstars of West Coast jazz were Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker. Mulligan was actually born in New York and spent relatively little time on the West Coast. He started on piano and clarinet before switching to saxophones, not settling permanently on baritone until he was twenty-one in 1948. In his early days, Mulligan was better known as an arranger than as a soloist, contributing music to a variety of big bands, most notably those of Claude Thornhill and Gene Krupa, starting in 1946. In 1948 he became part of the Miles Davis Nonet, providing some of the charts and playing baritone with the group.

Mulligan was still relatively unknown when he hitchhiked his way to Los Angeles in the fall of 1951. At first he wrote some arrangements for Stan Kenton and worked at the Lighthouse. He began a more important regular Monday night engagement at the Haig. Because his group was playing opposite that of Red Norvo whose vibes took up a large part of the stage, Mulligan decided to experiment by leading a group without a piano. The baritonist enjoyed the

freedom from the piano’s constant chord statements, and he soon realized that, musically at least, he and trumpeter Chet Baker often thought alike.

Chet Baker, who was from Oklahoma, moved to California by 1940. In 1952 he started his career at the top by impressing Charlie Parker at an audition and working with him in Los Angeles. Baker emphasized his middle register and had a thoughtful and relaxed style that Mulligan discovered meshed perfectly with his approach.

To everyone’s surprise, the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, with Bob Whitlock or Carson Smith on bass and Chico Hamilton or Larry Bunker on drums, became a national sensation. Dick Bock started the Pacific Jazz label originally to record Mulligan’s group. Among the classic recordings by the group were “Bernie’s Tune,” “Nights at the Turntable,” “Walkin’ Shoes,” “Line for Lyons,” “Bark for Barksdale,” and “My Funny Valentine,” a song that would always be associated with Baker.

The band lasted until the summer of 1953 when Mulligan was arrested for possession of heroin. By the time the baritonist was released in the spring of 1954, Baker had built upon his success with his own quartet and the Mulligan-Baker collaboration was in the past. They only had two brief reunions in future years.

Gerry Mulligan continued as a major name and an influential force throughout his long career. His sound on baritone was much lighter than that of Harry Carney, almost sounding like a tenor at times, and his solos were full of his sly humor. Mulligan led one impressive group after another, including a pianoless quartet with valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, a 1959 quartet with trumpeter Art Farmer, his Concert Jazz Band from 1960 to 1964, and a pianoless sextet with Brookmeyer, trumpeter Jon Eardley, and tenor-saxophonist Zoot Sims. The latter was a big band featuring arrangements by Mulligan and Brookmeyer. He also shared albums with some of his favorite players including altoists Paul Desmond and Johnny Hodges, pianist Thelonious Monk, and tenors Stan Getz and Ben Webster. Mulligan toured with the Dave Brubeck Quartet from 1968 to 1972, led a new big band called The Age of Steam, toured with a quartet that did include piano, and led a Rebirth of the Cool band that revived the music of the Miles Davis Nonet. Gerry Mulligan stayed quite active until his death at age sixty-eight in 1996.

Chet Baker had a roller-coaster life and career. After Mulligan was jailed, Baker formed a quartet that featured pianist Russ Freeman. His popularity really rose in 1955 when he started singing in a limited and vulnerable high-pitched voice that appealed to a large female audience. Soon he was winning popularity polls, even though his trumpet playing could not compare to that of Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown. With his good looks, Baker could have become a movie star, and Hollywood was showing some interest. But after a European tour in late 1955 and early 1956, Baker became a heroin addict, having not learned from the examples of Mulligan and the recently deceased Charlie Parker.

Baker played well during the mid- to late 1950s, but his lifestyle as an unapologetic drug addict began to seriously affect his career, with occasional busts damaging his reputation. In 1959 he moved to Europe where he worked steadily for a few months before getting arrested for drugs and spent time in an Italian jail. After his release, he was temporarily clean and played quite well, but was soon on heroin again. He returned to the United States, made a few fine records in the mid-1960s, scuffled a bit, and then hit a low point in 1968 when his teeth were knocked out during a botched drug deal. Miraculously, particularly for a trumpeter, Baker made a gradual comeback and by 1974 was recording and gigging again, soon moving permanently to Europe. By 1976 Baker’s vocalizing and general appearance had seriously declined, but amazingly his trumpet playing was often quite strong during this final period. Chet Baker lived as a nomad, without a home or even a checking account during his last decade, never trying to kick drugs or organize his chaotic life. He died in 1988 at the age of fifty-eight, after either falling or pushed out of a window in Amsterdam.