 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Wookie001
Date: 2022-02-04 07:35
https://open.spotify.com/track/3kaqke7JPH3noG3BFjx6W5?si=bGau7799R36-aPxSDJeb0w
Does somebody know which clarinet model or generally which setup is being played here?
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2022-02-04 08:04
Gerry Mulligan had one of the warmest and most soulful sounds I have heard on clarinet. He played the instrument with dignity and respect and the greatest attention to the quality of the music. If you find out what clarinet he played, please let us know. There is a Gerry Mulligan and Franca Foundation that might have some leads. https://www.gerrymulligan.com/contact-us.
Someone should collect all the little gems Mulligan did on clarinet and make an album of them. There is a YouTube of him playing a Bossa Nova tune on clarinet along with the composer. Like Phil Woods, he had an original and honest voice on the instrument, as distinct as the older voices of Bechet, Irving Fazola, and Barney Bigard.
Gerry in his apartment, learning a tune with Antonio Carlos Jobin: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Gerry+Mulligan+Carlos+Jobin+Full+Video+2
In that video he was playing a glass mouthpiece.
Here's the 1965 Night Lights with clarinet melody: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Gerry+Mulligan+Night+Lights+1965+Version
The Library of Congress has some photos of Mulligan playing clarinet. For much of his career, he played a "Chu" model 12M baritone sax made by Conn. Could he have played a Conn big bore or a Selmer big bore clarinet? Try searching museum sites; it might turn up in one.
Here's one photo: https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.100010865/.
Post Edited (2022-02-04 23:26)
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Author: Wookie001
Date: 2022-02-04 10:24
Yeah he really knew how to let it sound warm and dreamy. Mulligan is my idol concerning sound
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Author: Jack Nelson
Date: 2022-02-04 19:10
Does anyone hear a parallel between Gerry Mulligan's sound on clarinet and Paul Desmond's sound on alto sax? To me, they both have that understated/breathiness that is so mesmerizing and unique.
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Author: JEG ★2017
Date: 2022-02-04 20:58
It's nice to see Gerry Mulligan's name mentioned in these pages. I've been a fan of his since my teenage years in the 1960s, when my major instrument before I got serious about clarinet was baritone saxophone. I never was able to get a sound like his.
I first heard his clarinet sound on the album "Gerry Mulligan '63" where he played clarinet on a couple of tracks. And the cut of "Night Lights" is on my CD version of the previously-released LP called "Night Lights." In my opinion there is a consistency between his tone on baritone and clarinet. They both had a unique expressiveness about them.
I was surprised to read in an above comment that he had a Selmer baritone. I always believed that he played on old Conns. Bill Crow's book "Jazz Anecdotes Second Time Around" has an account of the time one of Mulligan's baritones was stolen. It is described as, "an especially responsive old Conn that the factory had modified". I'm not ruling out the possibility that he played a Selmer baritone, but I've never seen evidence of it.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2022-02-04 23:22
Jess,
You're right. Mulligan did play the Conn 12M baritone sax model. He had a long career and acquired other saxophones as well. I've amended my original statement about the Selmer sax. Sax historians, please weigh in with more detail. I recall that later in his career he acquired a rare bari sax, but I can't document what it was.
For details google search "Gerry Mulligan's Bari Sax Set-up from Reeds to Wired in Mike by Ed Enright." Ed Enright also did an article in the December 1992 issue of Downbeat magazine on the same subject. According to Enright, Mulligan played a gold-plated Conn bari sax, serial number M1989588 made in 1926 that had extended tone holes with rolled lips. This instrument had great projection in live performances. But he also had a Conn made in 1929, serial number 226986 that had a darker tone for recordings.
Does Ed Enright know what clarinet equipment Mulligan played? He can be contacted here:
https://www.skiptowne.com/the-band
Post Edited (2022-02-05 00:07)
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Author: DougR
Date: 2022-02-07 17:33
Some of the confusion about what Gerry played on bari might come from an ad that Selmer did in the 60s, after Desmond, Zoot and Gerry won the Down Beat readers' polls on their respective instruments. Selmer gave them brand-new Mk VI's in return for their endorsement (some money might have changed hands too, who knows), and photographed them playing their shiny new axes. I believe Zoot & Phil Woods "had" to play their VI's on the Benny Goodman Russia tour in 1961, due to contractual agreement with Selmer, but Zoot went back to his old Super as soon as he could. I'm assuming Gerry sold his VI, its sound was so far off his tonal conception it would never have worked for him.
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The Clarinet Pages
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